Macedonia

Four of the 100 statues lining the city streets in Skopje, Macedonia

Country Information:

In the Republic of Macedonia there are approximately 2 million Macedonians living here. The official languages of the country are Macedonian and Albanian. The majority of the population practices Macedonian Orthodox Christianity.

Jim’s Perspectives:

Skopje, Macedonia is one of the more bizarre places that you’ll ever visit. Why? Because it just tries SOOO hard … TOOO hard.  This place boasts 100+ statues, and they’re everywhere. Awkwardly so. This was part of a government initiative to spiff up the city and make it desirable for tourists to visit. This whole thing went down, but not without controversy because the politicians in charge of this have taken a lot of heat because the city is now regarded as the tackiest place in Europe!  

Tacky as it is, however Skopje is still a hub of food and culture. There you’ll will enjoy the Kale fortress, the restaurants of the Old Bazaar, and even the Millennium Cross located in the capital atop the Vodno Mountain. The Millennium Cross is the biggest cross in the world! Stayed overnight in Kumanovo, Macedonia which is less than an hour away.

One fun fact is that Greeks often call Macedonians, “Skopjeans”, as many Greeks feel the name “Macedonia” historically belongs to Greece.

 

Learning to play the accordion on the tourist strip in Skopje
Mother Teresa museum in Skopje was a cool place to visit

Tajikistan

  To get from Turkmenistan to Tajikistan in '16 I had to fly to Dubai, endure an 6 hour layover and then fly 3 hours to Dushanbe. Tajikistan is the smallest of the “Stans” in terms of population and definitely the poorest. This country has recovered little since...

Sudan

With my buddies in Sudan Country Information: The capital of Sudan is Khartoum and the official languages are English and Arabic. About 43 million people live here, and the main religion is Sunni Islam, with almost all of the population being Muslim. Divers will...

Kosovo

Beautiful mountain vistas in Kosovo Downtown Prizren in Kosovo In 2015, we drove through much of Kosovo and overnighted in Prizren, a quaint and attractive historic city located on the banks of the Bistrica river, and on the slopes of the Šar Mountains in the southern...