Sleeping in a pirate ship in Skopje, North Macedonia

our hotel in Skopje

Yes, we are spending our nights in Skopje on a pirate ship on the Vardar River! This is the Senigallia Hotel, an 18-room hotel and restaurant built, not sailed, on the river in the middle of Skopje. Our room is the size of a cruise cabin, but with much better finishing - heavy wood paneling instead of covered metal walls.

the two windows have wooden shutters on the outside

The room is comfortable, but the air conditioning system isn't the best so in the afternoon, the room is warm. The high temperature today and yesterday was 94 degrees. As the sun goes down, the A/C system can keep it cool. 

Skopje, although the capital of the country, is small enough that we walk to see places of interest on both sides of the Vardar River. As we walked, we noticed dogs, mature, well-fed, but with no owner in sight, all ear-tagged. 

hot day, dogs resting on the cool tile in the shade

The sight we came to Skopje for is just a few blocks from our hotel, the Memorial House of Mother Teresa.

exterior of Memorial House

 

inside the memorial house

Mother Teresa as a child with her sister in Skopje

Skopje is known for its many, many statues. However, they aren't ancient statues but were installed during a government project starting in 2013. 

Phillip has the bull by the horns

The gold statue started out as a nude, but protests caused
the artist to return and put shorts on him as he is facing
the Parliament building right across the street

our hotel "rigging" can be seen on the right side of the photo

the largest statue in town

The above "Warrior on a Horse" is in the central square of the newer side of the river. It was constructed to represent Alexander the Great, but the Greeks made an official protest about Macedonia co-opting Greek things, so the name was changed to Warrior on a Horse.  

even the new bridges have statues

One bridge in Skopje, the Stone Bridge, is authentically 15th century construction. No statues on it, but they did crowd the ends with statues. 

the Stone Bridge

Today, we took a walking tour. Our guide gave context to and stories of several of the places we had already visited. The very best part of the tour was our canine escorts. 

Our two escorts, Linda (the darker dog) and her
friend whose name I didn't catch

Our tour guide said the tagged dogs we see belong to no individual. The City did microchip, ear tag and neuter or spay them. They are fed by the tourists and restaurants and are all well-behaved. We certainly found this the case with the two who tagged along the entire tour. When we went inside an old church, the two dogs laid down outside and waited for us as they knew they were not allowed inside. Our group of eight would stop and the dogs would stand or sit next us and of course get head scratches or shoulder rubs. 

The church that the dogs did not go in was halfway up the hill to the city's fortress. The guide said the fortress was just ruins and only served as a viewpoint to see the city. The tour didn't go on to the fortress and Phillip and I did not go visit it after the tour as it was hot and we've been to several better fortresses on this trip.

the city fortress ruins on the hill in the distance

The tour did take us into the bazaar, with its cobblestone streets and vendors. This had been one of the stops on the Silk Road. We did come back here after the tour and have lunch.

Our final stop of the tour was the actual site of Mother Teresa's house in Skopje. The guide had no clue why the Memorial was constructed three blocks away with a memorial marker on the real house location.

stone marker on the actual Mother Teresa house location

Tomorrow, we leave North Macedonia and go to Kosovo. We will change buses enroute and only spend a few days in Kosovo before making our way to Montenegro. 

Sofia, Bulgaria: changing of the guard, public art and communist locations tour

Sofia, Bulgaria, is much more modern and pleasant than I expected. My knowledge of Bulgaria came from college history and political science classes in the mid-1970s. At that time, Bulgaria was part of the Warsaw Pact, separate from the Soviet Union but closely aligned and receiving direction from it. The dissolution of the Soviet Union led Bulgaria to adopt democratic and free market policies beginning in 1991. By 2004, Bulgaria joined NATO and became a member of the European Union in 2007. 

Long before its Soviet ties, Bulgaria was part of the Roman Empire, like almost all of Europe and North Africa were 1800 years ago. When recent city leaders expanded one of their subway stations, they came across extensive Roman ruins.

Roman ruins in downtown Sofia

They built the subway station around the ruins and created displays in the subway station itself.

Phillip looking at ruins, subway turnstile on the left

Bulgaria was also part of the Ottoman Empire for a few hundred years, so colorful or patterned tiles are frequently used on buildings and parks.

During its history, Bulgaria has also been ruled by a monarchy, although not for about a hundred years. The President's abode, though, is still called a palace and has a changing of the guard ceremony that we watched. 

Only the ceremonial guards wear a colorful uniform. 

One of the sights in Sofia is the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the largest cathedral in the Balkans. Like other Orthodox churches, no stained glass, but with gold-plated domes.

On the other side of the church from my photo, the City was having a community fair. It reminded me of Fort Worth's community policing events. The police and fire departments had booths and activities for children. The police officers were letting kids sit in their SWAT-looking vehicle. The fire department had a cute activity, a pump-up sprayer that the kids could use to spray water and knock down plastic bowling pins, "putting out the fire."

the mother helping reset the pins for the next junior "firefighter" 

Like other European cities, Bulgaria has lots of public art and statues of historical figures.

military leader, in the middle of a traffic circle

not a historic figure, just a muscular man

some almost abstract statues

some statues in fountains

and some quirky and fun ones

One thing that we found the authorities are serious about is parking. We walked up on a car being removed from a no parking spot. The sign was clear; we understood it even though it was written in Bulgarian Cyrillic lettering. 

The "tow" truck parked next to the illegally parked vehicle. A worker put metal clamping arms on each of the four tires. 

An arm with adjustable spreader bars came from the truck and attached canvas-covered chains to the tire clamps.

The car was lifted up from its space and put on the truck. The workers guided the dangling car so that it never touched the vehicles in front and behind it.

The workers didn't lash the offending vehicle down as the arm and tire clamps kept it secure on the truck. 

And off they go.... The entire removal of the illegally parked car took three minutes and twenty seconds. The action that took the longest time was when the workers checked each tire clamp and adjusted the canvas chain cover so the chain wouldn't touch the car. 

We walked into one of the largest parks in town, a very nice green space in a city that has a lot of one-square block parks. 

Some parts of the park had very few people

We did this walk on Saturday, so vendors were set up around the edge of the park. Grilled corn for me. Phillip couldn't resist the ice cream vendor. 

one large scoop in a waffle cone cost about $2.50

About three blocks from our hotel, a wide, pedestrian-only street continues for about eight blocks. Restaurants extend their serving area out into this street, sometimes with covers, sometimes not. We ate dinner twice at restaurants on this street. 

During our last day in Sofia, we took a tour of communist sights in Sofia. I found it fascinating, Phillip enjoyed it. Our tour guide, Dino, had a loud voice, so Phillip had no problem hearing the stories. We used the statue in the following picture as a landmark when we came up from the subway near our hotel. We called it "the lady on a stick." During the tour, we learned that she represented liberty and replaced a statue of Lenin (on a stick) when communism ended in Bulgaria. She overlooked the former Lenin Square, a broad expanse of pavement surrounded by government buildings. 

The lady on a stick faces the square and at the other end of the square is the former communist party headquarters, now their congressional building. We learned that nobody wanted to tear the building down, but they did remove communist symbols from them. The hammer and sickle had been in the center adornment but was ground out. We could see the faint outline of where it had been in the center of the decorative leaves. 

We saw numerous other locations that had been important to the communist regime. When we visited the former secret police headquarters, Dino told us that his mother, while in college, was approached to inform on fellow students to the secret police. She didn't and told her father, a diplomat and person of prestige. The secret police did not follow up with her after that. 

Tomorrow, we leave Sofia and travel by bus to Skopje, North Macedonia. Skopje is the capital of North Macedonia and the birthplace of Mother Teresa. 

Belgrade

Phillip and I found Belgrade, Serbia, to be a safe city, full of pleasant people. Everyone we encountered was quite friendly. From the two young people who immediately gave up their seats to us on the bus from the airport to the owner of the last restaurant in which we ate, everyone treated us well. Even the harried convenience store clerks chuckled at my obviously non-native "hvala" (thank you in Serbian).

On Sunday, our first full day, we went on a 3-hour walking tour of central Belgrade. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable of Serbian politics and history, so he provided a wealth of information. We went past many government buildings, some modern construction and other remnants from Serbia's past as a monarchy, a republic, and as Yugoslavia, a socialist country under Tito.  

built as a palace, now houses elected leaders

We could not get any closer to the above building because of the barricades. The current leaders are in hot water with the citizens over corruption. These are the barricades in the neighboring park.

the tan material on the top rail of the barricade is grease

The President has barricaded himself off because Serbia has a history of turning on its corrupt leaders, with the military and police joining citizen protestors to remove the President. (example: Milosovic in 2001). The political situation hasn't reached that stage yet, but we saw protests by university students. 

At 11:52 am, for 16 minutes, students block major intersections

The catalyst for the protests was the collapse of a shoddily built concrete train station canopy on November 1, 2024 at 11:52 am. Sixteen people were killed. Students, and most of the rest of the country, believe that graft and corruption are rife in government construction projects. The then-President has already resigned under the pressure; however, nothing else has changed. The student request is for new elections, something that could happen if government leaders called for them. 

Another day, another intersection blocked for 16 minutes

The protestors' traffic stoppages are very orderly, with the lead protestors wearing safety vests and the police keeping cars away as the protestors stand for their 16 minutes. Then, protestors move to the sidewalks and disperse. Every day, throughout the city, traffic is really gummed up just before lunch. 

Our tour guide also took us to Belgrade's most famous historical location, the Belgrade Fortress. Phillip and I returned on Monday to spend more time there. 

One of the fortress gates

After our tour, we wandered around the city area outside the fortress. Unlike many American cities, the shops and malls were 100% full of retail stores. Very, very few vacant storefronts and none on the main pedestrian thoroughfare.

The pedestrian walkway, about 10 blocks long, from fortress 

A few whimsical pictures... not all statues were of dead military heroes:

Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia, a country that produced what was called the worst car in history, the Yugo. Because they were so badly constructed, I never expected to see one, 20 years after they went out of production, but we did:

Yugo: the worst car ever made

Phillip and I returned to the Belgrade Fortress on Monday and walked around more. Some type of protective fortification has been in that location since the Celtic settlement in the 3rd century BC. 

The Fortress is at a valuable location, on a cliff at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers.

view from the fortress of the Sava and Danube Rivers

The fortress contains a military museum, but we could only visit the outside exhibits because, like almost all museums in Europe, it was closed on Monday. 

WWII military items

Since we were in a modern city, we were able to find a self-service laundromat about a twenty-minute walk away from our hotel. It was the most modern laundromat we've found since one in Switzerland several years ago. 

Instructions in Serbian and English, new LG machines

We took care of other non-travel items, like a haircut for Phillip. No specific pictures because he walked the four blocks to the barber by himself. He made it there and back without needing to call me for directions. Several days during our stay in Belgrade, we walked or took the bus from our hotel to the central area. About those buses... Since January 1, 2025, all buses, trams and trolleys are free to ride. We could just hop on a bus and not have to walk the two miles. Unfortunately, it wasn't so easy as the buses never kept to their schedules. Road construction caused detours in the routes. We heard that the bus drivers were unhappy with free travel because their salaries may be impacted when only taxes pay for the transit system. 

Our hotel staff, really friendly and helpful people, suggested we visit New Belgrade, the portion of the city across the Sava River from the fortress. We took a bus to Gardoš Tower, built in 1896 over the ruins of a medieval fortress. The tower was unimpressive, as it had never been a working guard tower, but the view was pretty good:

Danube River in the distance

I used Google maps to take us from the tower to the malecon, the boardwalk next to the Danube. From the tower's rear exit, we found a cemetery. This was not a war cemetery, but a place for families. As we walked thru, I noticed the different customs for burial. Here, the concrete grave vault was not six feet underground, but frequently partially above ground. Sometimes, flowers were planted directly over the grave. And most interestingly, entire families were in the same vault. 

Serbian cemetery

Google maps directed me down a small street to a set of steps that took us to the northern end of this section of the malecon. It was not a route that many tourists took!

The steps we took to get to the Danube

Once we passed about 100 yards of local small boats, we made it to the actual malecon. 

walking along the Danube River

This walkway extended for miles toward Old Belgrade. After a bit, we stopped at a riverfront cafe for lunch. As we sat down at a table overlooking the water, we heard an American voice greet us from the next table. We introduced ourselves and had a delightful conversation with a fellow Texan, Xavier from the Austin area, who had come to Serbia for work, met a lady from Serbia whom he married, and settled down here. They shared locations in the Balkans that we need to visit while we are here. After lunch, we continued our walk along the river, seeing a flock of swans.

swans along the Danube

Sometimes, our path veered inland thru parks:

tile walking surface in this area

About three miles after we started the malecon walk, we had a view of the Fortress from the New Belgrade side of the Sava River. 

Belgrade Fortress from across the river

We walked a bit further to one of the bridges over the river and caught a bus back to our hotel. It had been a nice walk, no streets to cross, no traffic to dodge. 

We enjoyed our time in Belgrade, even with the occasional bus wait frustration. The people were friendly, the food was delicious (even the horse meat sausage), and our hotel was wonderful.