Skopje

We were in Skopje a couple of weeks ago.  Orthodox Easter was on Sunday, May 5, and it was nice to see Easter decorations in stores since we never see this type of decoration in Kosovo.

More Easter decorations

Frank calls Skopje "Vegas on the Vardar" because there are opulent statues everywhere kind of like you'd see at Caesar's Palace or other locales in Las Vegas.  Frank posted some views of statues after our first trip to Skopje, but the government just keeps adding more and more statues.  After driving in southern Macedonia and other areas, we think the money could be better spent on improving transportation around the country, but those areas aren't where the majority of the population lives.  Above you can see Frank checking out a pedestrian bridge that was being constructed late last year but is now open with 25 statues.

A statue of a swimmer in the Vardar.  Some of the statues are whimsical and fun to look at.  Others just seem too grandiose and overdone.  

This trip we were only in  Skopje about 24 hours, but we saw at least 6 new statues being installed in that short period of time.  They are all in the center of the city.  Above, some workers are unloading a new statue.

I liked these modern statues of shoppers on the main square.

A cowboy-looking statue not far from our hotel.

Here's another statue being installed across the river from the main square and near the concert hall and government buildings.

We decided that being a sculptor in Skopje right now would probably be a busy job.

After all of that statue viewing, we needed a macchiato on the big Alexander the Great Square.

This trip we finally walked over to the old Turkish bazaar part of Skopje which is across the river from Alexander the Great Square and most of the statues.  The area is interesting to explore, but the shopping mostly consists of imports from China which I try to avoid.

This was an interesting shop filled with furs - something we don't ever see at least in the Western U.S.  PETA people would be protesting!

Another view of the old bazaar.  Today this area of Skopje is considered to be the Albanian/ Muslim area.

Near the entrance to the old bazaar area, I found our bra man's counterpart - a woman selling ladies' underwear.

A recent photo of the bra man's wares in Prizren.  For those of you who missed the earlier post, this is the entrance to our apartment.  On warm days, in the morning, a guy around 50 sits on a chair and tries to sell the bras.  Frank has even seen him make a couple of sales!  In the afternoons, a guy in his 30s (who seems very shy and may be the original bra man's son) sits inside the building on the first landing as you walk up to our 3rd floor apartment.  His name is Agon, and it seems that he avoids trying to sell the bras.

Back to Skopje.  Here is Frank demonstrating the "disappearing sidewalk" which is found throughout the Balkans.  As you can see, cars park at random on the sidewalk, and pedestrians are forced to enter the busy lanes of traffic on the street to get around the parked cars.

I'm leaving you  with a couple of tease photos of our trip to Budva, Montenegro last weekend.  Frank will handle the full report. Here is our first beer and mineral water on the beach.  Frank sampled the local Montenegro brew, Nikisicko; I was still on antiobiotics following my oral surgery, so I couldn't have any alcohol until Sunday.  In the background center, you can see the old walled town of Budva with its church steeple.  We went to Sunday Mass at the church which dates from around the 12th century.

A photo of my toes and the Adriatic from our hotel beach.