North Macedonia I. - General Information And Impressions
Also North Macedonia has one of the picturesque Orthodox churches, Muslim mosques and mainly sculptures - many sculptures everywhere is just a little handy stand. Yellow-orange colour, which is the colour of the Macedonian flag, appears to tourist and road signs. And what resulted in me particularly excited, people were - smiling, trusting, helpful and cheerful Macedonians, who really knows how to drink from a cup full of life!
However, not everything here is so ideal. Since 1991, that is, since the breakup of Yugoslavia and the creation of the independent state of the Republic of Macedonia, there has been a dispute between this country and Greece, which usurped the claims to the name Macedonia. It referred to it as FYROM (Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia). Fortunately, on June 17, 2018, an agreement was signed that the state will use the new name North Macedonian Republic or North Macedonia.
In North Macedonia, which has according to the census in 2021, just over 1,8 million inhabitants, speaks Macedonian, a Slavic language and words similar of Czech language. When you want, you can speak with local peoples without the use of another language. That does not mean, that Macedonians can´t speak other languages. I have met with excellent English and the basics of German. Germans are most numerous tourists is likely, at least in the resort town of Ohrid. Another language that is used in Macedonia the Albanian, which is the large proportion of the Albanian ethnic group (cca 25%) in this country.
The local currency is denars, 100 denars costs approx. €1.62 (at least at this price I bought dinars at the reception).
The possibility of transport to the capital Skopje, which occupies about half a million inhabitants (census 2021) from the Czech Republic is both terrestrial as well as air, that I used myself.
Tickets are not quite the cheapest, but when looking for, so they can find. I met with no action fare that occasionally occur with the airlines, but that does not mean that it is possible to encounter them. I flew, as I mentioned, on a business trip, so I needed a ticket for that term. Flight times were not ideal - both on the way there and on the way back I had to sleep at the airport.
During his stay in North Macedonia week I visited the capital city of Skopje, Ohrid resort, lying at the same tectonic lakes - the so-called Balkan Pearls, several times I went on a trip to the mountains Galicica, visited the monastery of St. Naum at the Albanian border, on occasion I visited for short time the Podgradec, the Albanian cities. It is on these sites will tell the next parts of this travelogue.
GPS: 42°00'06.8"N 21°26'08.7"E (Skopje)
Text and photo: Kristýna Bartůňková
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