Sunday August the 8th
Total distance driven: 5.939 Km
Today’s distance: 235 Km in 4:06h
Walked distance: 9.2 Km

Today I’m going to leave Bulgaria and enter the Republic of North Macedonia but first I want to complete my collection of abandoned petrol stations 🤣

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It’s Sunday! How do I know? There is a queue at the frontier 😅

The landscape is obviously very similar to the last part of Bulgaria with many mountains and green.

I’m headed to Skopje, the capital. A small lunch break in Kratovo allows me to taste a Pastrmajlija, one of the national dishes and a local beer.

Nearby Kratovo there is a small village called Kuklica with natural formations called stone dolls. They remind those we saw in the stone forrest in Bulgaria. While visiting it, I imagined these formations being old reef with fishes and marine life swimming around them.

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In the early afternoon I arrived in Skopje. It is composed by an old town and a newer part separated by the Vardar river and connected over a beautiful stone bridge. The old town is a suk of of Turkish origins with small alleyways and irregular forms. Perfect to get lost and be immersed in the new culture.

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The modern part of the city is rich of statues. There are literally hundreds of them and all have been built around 2010-2014. Most of these statues, like the one resembling Alexander the Great are there to reinforce the identity of North Macedonia.

I used the word “resembling” because Greece didn’t allow the Republic of North Macedonia to use the name of Alexander the Great. There were even discussion about the term “Macedonia”, until they agreed on North Macedonia.

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Overall a nice city with peculiar characteristics and atmosphere. I enjoyed both the new and the old town and their stories.