SKOPJE, MACEDONIA

2016-02-15, 16:13, JASON

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We only have one day to spend in Skopje because our flight flew out of Skopje airport at 6 in the morning the next day. As a result, we would get to Alexander the Great Airport and promptly sleep through the night.

So glad we did.

The city center of Skopje is an unparalleled vision into a developing city, and by developing I mean developing attractions, not developed economically. Imagine someone opened up a theme park and put up all of these great statues and fountains, but still had a lot more to go in terms of sites to build. Now, also imagine a theme park that has been built but has not been maintained well, but still is open to the general public and functions well. Merge the two together, and this is Skopje. It's the political and capital city of Macednia and so most of the politics run through here, but in terms of tourism, it's.. unique. Keep in mind, this dialogues the central city and not the outskirts, so I'm sure there's a lot more to see than just 'the center.'

The city has a river running through it: Vardar. A lot of the bridges that cross this small river are sights to see, as well as some of the areas surrounding it. When we first got to the bus station and walked towards the city center, we came across some of these bridges. On these bridges -- namely, the stone bridge -- there were many statues occupying the ledges of the bridge. Upon reading the signs and descriptions, they would be "An Artist", "An Author" and various other Joe Schmoe names in Macedonian art and culture. The funny part was, there was no further explanation to their careers, so they became, really, just figureheads. Figures. 

Continuing our walk, thousands of large statues and fountains are erected with no real direction or order. It's as if someone wanted a huge statue in one place, and set it up. There are examples of this everywhere, and you want to approach each statue for the sole purpose of seeing what exactly it is. Sometimes, it's someone important, sometimes, it's just a man on a horse. It's sculpture grab-bag, which to me is far more interesting than having any detailed description sometimes (not being sarcastic!), since the art and images speak for themselves. Art doesn't always need a description, just a presence, and Skopje nailed that concept. Oh, and come on, what is a European city without a castle ruin? There's that too! 

The next best part was that the town was still developing its attractions. I'm in Singapore now, writing this article, 2 years after the trip took place. What Singapore has done to put the National University of Singapore on the map is to poach professors of high caliber, pay them money, and have them publish under the University umbrella. As such, Singapore has risen in the ranks for academic achievement. But, as it is with true scientific thought, I don't believe it can be brought about overnight. Not to say these poachings don't enhance scientific research at the school, but NUS should focus on breeding an academic environment from within , utilizing these other professors as a resource.. It's hard to import something of quality from somewhere else, hoping it spawns production in the imported site. The same happens in music and popular dance, not just within the academic sphere. Skopje is the same way. There was a Skopje tourist/sightseeing board around town, with some sites of interest around the city. Thorin and I decided to check it out, but, upon going there, we found the sites under construction! Some of the big bell towers, churches, weren't even built yet. Now, some of this has to do with historical reasons and geology (I believe there was an earthquake there some historical buildings), but, I think that hard-force of constructing 'culture' as we know it in Europe -- churches, castles, etc -- so fast makes it just another empty building. It makes it just another European city. However, in that reach to make it *something*, it has, in fact, turned itself into something so unique that I'd say it's actually a cool something. 

Come to think of it, walking around the place from the early morning to the afternoon, I'd say the place most resembled Vegas: the artificiality in development, the naff lights, the OTT design. The only thing different was the spirit of Macedonia. 

As an aside: young Macedonian people love to make out next to the river. PDA discretion is not a thing here. Love on!

Needless to say, we were glad we didn't spend a night in Skopje, but were happy to have seen it. That night, we took a shuttle to Alexander the Great airport. It was dead late, like 11 or 12 p.m. When we got to the airport, we found these steely seats and just fell down for a nap. For the majority, it was sleepable, except from the occasional outbursts of announcements at the main departures area. We took WizzAir back which was a budget flight to London. Funnily enough, the flight I'd say was 60% kids with English accents, whose parents were chatting away in Macedonia. Probably grown up in London, them. Not a sound was made on the flight back, surprisingly. A quiet end to our first true Eastern European experience.

They really went all out with their statues. Covered every bit of the city.