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Wonderful old town Skopje with Bill Smale Adventures.

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Wonderful old town Skopje of North Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia and after they broke up with the other parts of the republic they named their country Macedonia which raised the anger of the Greeks sense Macedonia was the kingdom of Alexander the great who was physically occupying an area south of Macedonia which is now in Greece so the Greeks forced them to change the name to North Macedonia. That’s an interesting turn on the litigations against names which extended to “champagne”, “Parmesan cheese” and “, “camembert”, oh and not to forget “Budweiser”. Skopje is the capital and is famous for its old town and large buildings proclaiming it’s history and culture.

the dogs are very friendly, seemed to be homeless but are very clean, well fed and they have a tag in their ear for identification.
Flying from Belgrade you can see the mountainous Kosovo
The sea of clouds
I don’t often put negative things in my Phlogs but this was one of the worst meals I’ve ever had. The beef was bad and it was almost all bones, fat and grizzle. I was told it was a very good place for grilled food but I was way overcharged for things I didn’t order and for things they didn’t say they were going to charge for so it was a good experience in a tourist trap which I really don’t need but I guess you can’t avoid all of them.
Another buddy who I met every day
Not a name you would give a hotel in the US
This local restaurant provided some language difficulties but they were very nice people and the food was for local inhabitants and was really nice and very good quality. Kebapcilnica Rio 1990

https://maps.app.goo.gl/La3LaCE7Xhzexq9h7?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy

Of course they have an easier to read menu
A nice place to just duck into and have an aperitif
Coffee and cherry cheesecake is wonderful
The military also goes shopping
An antique store with some heritage clothing
The old shopping area
In case you need a new phone
There is a lot of outside seating for restaurants and coffee shops but it was very cold
Gold and jewelry shops and ladies beautiful dresses are on display all over this old town. I counted more than 50 jewelry shops
There is even a wedding dress store
Just a typical small shop
This is at the end of old town and is where the local people go shopping in their bazaar. You can find a lot of of name brand but very cheap products. I even found a shop that was selling secondhand fake Rolexes
The indoor part of the local bazaar
The fruit section
There is a very large population of Albanians which I was told were kicked out of Kosovo by the Serbian and now live in North Macedonia.
More beautiful dresses
I wasn’t really interested enough to check who this was
If the street has no parking you just park on the sidewalk which creates some difficulties for pedestrians
Artwork on a large building
This used to be a working restaurant or coffee shop I guess
The main river in scoop J
This is the bridge with statues of fairly recent famous people
This is a restaurant but was not open at the time. You can see the Macedonian flag
Read the plaque below which explains the figures
Another view of the river
This of course is a replica and I didn’t ask which Alexander this was for. I was under the impression the remains Alexander the greatare still in some unknown place but maybe I am confused with something else.
Rebuilding an ancient mosaic
I just thought this was really beautiful
This salt mine competes in ancient history with the Celtic salt mines in Salzburg Austria
As you know salt was very important to preserve food and to provide minerals for the body
Another bridge
Of course Alexander the great Hase to show up
Alexander’s father Philip
The fountain memorializing Alexander’s mother
A wonderful cappuccino with a toffee layer cake
I was back at my favorite local restaurant I showed you above and I got a whole assortment which was really delicious but a little bit too much food. But I just had to try the variety and get an idea of some north Macedonian food.
And while I was eating this woman was doing some cooking on TV
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