Spring 2024 Europe Trip (Part 11): Visiting Europe's Strangest And Most Underrated Capital, Skopje

On 29 May, I took a Flixbus partnered bus (Fudeks) all the way from Belgrade to Skopje, and let me tell you guys: it is a very strange capital city (some sources actually compare it to another strange ex-communist capital city, Ashgabat Turkmenistan, of which Turkmenistan is amongst the most authoritarian countries and is essentially a Central Asian North Korea). Now similar to my time in Belgrade, I did reserve a whole 1 bedroom apartment at an unnamed Booking.com accommodation for two nights, and due to the fact there are barely any laundromats and that this accommodation does have a laundry, therefore, I learnt the practise of hanging my clothing out to let it dry.
Well the whole reason why Skopje is a very 'strange' city is due to its eclectic architecture in the centre, several, sometimes even massive monuments and statues, as well as having a Turkish/Ottoman old bazaar and of course, Yugoslav block apartments outside the centre. Well here's a story: due to the earthquake of 1963, 80% of Skopje was decimated and therefore, due to this, much of the city has to be rebuilt from scratch and therefore, you do find a lot of these 'strange' decisions, such as the sheer number of statues and stuff, showing even Philip II and Alexander III of Macedon, who are both famous Ancient Greek emperors.
Now, rehashing to 30 May. After hanging my clothing out to dry, I immediately walked to Makedonia Telekom (T-Mobile) to buy a SIM card for my time there and then, I immediately walked towards the Macedonia Square, where immediately, not only would you see the Stone Bridge in the vicinity, but also the Alexander the Great Monument as well as the Triumph Arch, which immediately is a mini-version of Arc de Triomphe. Now after a while, I did take a 3 minute walk to the Mother Teresa Memorial House (she was actually born in Skopje by the way), and afterwards, I crossed the Stone Bridge over to the Macedonian Struggle for Independence Museum, of which the museum doesn't allow videos. But close to the museum is the Old Bazaar which includes a lot of food (I ate Turkish cuisine over there), and close to the Old Bazaar is the Mustafa Pasha Mosque. The Skopje Fortress is also close by and it is free as well, and even though you might not get the best views of Skopje, you could still see some bit if you walk all the way to one of the view points. However, as eclectic as this city is, amenities are still very affordable. In fact, I only paid for one museum (Macedonian Struggle for Independence Museum) and it only costed me 300 MKD. Also, the Archeological Museum, Holocaust Museum, and National Art Museum of Skopje does charge money, but I didn't visit, and therefore, I don't know the price of the latter two as the prices are not shown online.
Well after one more night, I checked out of the hotel, ate lunch at Olympic near the Skopje City Museum, and immediately went to the city museum, which is 100% free, which is striking for a museum. Now this city museum does cover information about the 1963 earthquake as well as other aspects of Skopje all the way from prehistory into the 21st century, but the fact it is free makes it worthy of a visit. After my visit at the museum, I immediately walked to the bus station where I took a van all the way to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, EU's poorest country.
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