I havn't written a post in quite a while because I've been busy moping around and feeling sorry for myself. I've decided to write this post because this is supposed to be a 'lifestyle' blog but I tend to not write any posts about what I'm up to or anything else personal. I'm incredibly nosey and I love a post with a personal touch, so I hope you find this interesting.
As you may or may not know, I am currently in a tiny village in Kosovo. It's not the greatest place on earth but I don't want to complain too much because I have a roof over my head and spaghetti to eat. I'm staying with my in-laws (&husband obvs) whilst we try and organise our move to Paris. It's proving to be a lot more complicated and time consuming than we originally thought and the French Embassy in Skopje, Macedonia is a pretty major player in our troubles.
I don't want to get all political so I won't go on a legal rant, suffice it to say that my husband needs a visa for France (I don't) and the Authorities are not being as accommodating as they are legally required to be. By now I was expecting to be settled into a proper flat in Paris and starting a new job *sob* alas I have to make use of this extended "holiday" and put a bit more effort into blogging.
I have to say that I never realised how boring being unemployed was, most of the time at work i'd be thinking how nice it would be to loll around at home, wrapped in a duvet, watching films with no purpose or pressure. I would kill for something constructive to do with my time at this point, but as I don't speak the local language, finding a job is pretty much hopeless- add to the fact that unemployment is nearly 50% here!
Anyway, I'll get to the point: We went to Skopje for the day a couple of weeks ago but did zero sightseeing and I felt like death so I paid no attention to my surroundings. We went back on wednesday and spent a couple of hours traipsing through the city centre. It cost us €5 each one way on the coach, which included a fee of €2 to cross the Kosovo-Macedonia border. Its fairly expensive by local standards but still a bargain in my opinion.
The buses in Skopje looked kind of like London buses but more electronic-modern looking. I wish I'd taken a photo! The town centre is really pretty, and you can see that the government is trying really hard to make the city appealing to tourists. The area has a really rich history that I know really little about. Until very recently the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia was just one of those funny sounding countries on Eurovision! I know that Alexander the Great did something there/for them and that its where Mother Theresa is from...
I think i'm going to have a hard time adjusting to food prices in Western Europe when we eventually get to France. I'm not used to spending more than €15 for a 2 course meal for 2...
The thing that struck me most about Skopje was the sheer number of fountains, it's actually ridiculous. They even have fountains in the middle of a river. They are really pretty though, and there's nothing comparable in Kosovo. Theres also a bazillion statues, some of which are really cool (like the lions).
I wouldn't say that Skopje is particularly geared towards tourists and there wasn't really anything 'to do' per se. There was a scary looking Holocaust memorial centre & museum but I wanted something a bit more light-hearted and shallow. I just frolicked about, camera in hand, which seemed to annoy the locals a bit as I heard some old ladies commenting. Do they not realise that tourist is pretty much the same in every european language? haha! I think the group of twenty elderly Western European tourists with a tour guide would have annoyed them more...
If your'e planning a trip to the Balkans, I would definitely recommend stopping off for a bit in Skopje, almost everyone spoke English really well and it's super pretty. They even have dominos pizza, but not Mcdonalds because the franchise lost its license a few months ago (boo). It's also really, really cheap- even to fly there from London.
Where's your favourite city destination in Europe?
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