Travel with Angela Lansbury: What to see in Skopje, capital of The Republic of Macedonia: Mother Teresa, Alexander The Great and more

The country is divided by a river, the Vardar.
Serbia and breakaway Kosovo are to the north near the capital, Skopje. If you are a positive person, or going with a group of friends of mixed nationalities and religious, you will enjoy the mixture of religions and ethnic groups, all clamouring for attention and offering interesting sights and tastes of food.

What to see in Skopje

You can find a map of a self-guided walking tour. Look for:

1 The stone bridge links the old town and Centar (centre)
2 Old town (Stara Carsija)
3 Main triple museum -
4 Mother Teresa House museum
5 Holocaust Museum and Museum Of The Macedonian Struggle
6 Alexander the Great memorial
7 Giant Cross on Mount Vodno
8 Fortress wall
9 Monasteries and Mosques
10 Wineries

1 The Bridge - 6 Alexander - 7 Fortress wall last picture

Hotel Stone Bridge has a view of the bridge from some of the rooms. If you want a room with a view, send one person to check the view before accepting the booking.

Photos by 'Extratall' from Wikitravel. I assumed that Extratall was a nickname. On the other hand, common names in use today were originally nicknames, such as Paul which means small.

4 Mother Teresa House

Mother Teresa House
Mother Teresa (1910-1997, died aged 87) was born in Skopje, worked in India and was awarded the Nobel peace prize.
The extraordinary building, built to commemorate her, started in 2008. Bits go in and bits go out. Oblongs, arches, v-shapes, stepped shapes, circles. Colours are also a mixture: green, white, orange and stone.

This bizarre building is also surrounded by incongruous ugly modern blocks of flats, of a contrasting, completely simple and regular design, all straight lines and huge slabs and no more than three colours.
Many pictures on Tripadvisor.

See her statue.

Go inside. Another statue shows her as a child with a pigeon.

Mother Teresa said:
The biggest disease today is ... the feeling of being unwanted.
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
Spread love everywhere you go. Let no-one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.
We feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if the drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of the missing drop.
Don't look for big things. Just do small things with great love.
On the wall of her Children's Home in Calcutta was a quotation from student leader Kent M Keith, guiding other student leaders: "People are illogical, unreasonable, self-centred. Love them anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway."

Mother Teresa and Alexander the Great were two very different characters. Both went to India. Mother Teresa went to help the poor. A pacifist.

Alexander went to conquer. A fighter.

6 Statue of Alexander The Great
See the statue by day and go back to admire it illuminated at night.

(NB Heed the Wikitravel and Wikivoyage warnings about safe areas at night, the empty bazaar, deserted areas, stray dogs and if you are bitten the high cost of anti-rabies vaccine, five hundred something or others. Now you know why the UK used to have quarantine and makes dogs need passports showing they've been vaccinated.)

What you should know about Alexander

Alexander was the son of fighter Philip. As a boy, Alexander was left at home to be tutored by Greek philosopher, Aristotle, who gave Alexander a love of reading.

Father Philip was away winning battles. Alexander was very determined, equally keen to win battles and never lost a battle. Aged only 12 or 13, he took a horse, which he called Bucephalus (meaning ox-head), which nobody else could tame, and made it his steed. Bucephalus has been called the most famous horse in history, and the reason why Alexander won his battles.

So, now, looking at the statue of Alexander on horseback, the horse is not a distraction, but a vital part of the picture of the man,

Did Alexander kill his father Philip? A bodyguard killed Philip, but for the benefit of whom?

Many courts of law today would find Alexander responsible. So, the quicker Alexander could find the bodyguard guilty of murder and kill the bodyguard, the better.

Don't bother with a trial. Get a second bodyguard to kill the first. Forgive the second bodyguard for justified defence or anger.

(Some people say this is what happened when Ruby assassinated the assassinator of President Kennedy.) If witnesses and historians come forward to argue about who was responsible, generations later, not your problem, the deed is done.

It looks as though Alexander organized the assassination of his own father. In mitigation, Alexander, firstborn son, was faced with being usurped by father Philip's second wife's as yet unborn son. It gets very complicated, with two bodyguards having the same name, Alexander is the third, Philip in teh second, and if you marry an uncle , or your brother in law is also ...

Alexander did not just fear he was being usurped. Philip announced to everybody that the unborn baby would be given an ancestor's name, which was as good as making the child his successor. Both an insult and a threat. Was the king of Persia trying to prevent Philip's plans to invade Persia?

Eventually Alexander set off on his travels. Away from the scene of his father's death. Away from scandal and accusations. Angry and determined. He wanted justice. His first major mission was to conquer Persia, which had enslaved the Greeks earlier.

En route through Turkey, south west of present day Ankara, he climbed to the top of the hill of Gordoum to the place where a chariot was tied up with the tight Gordoum knot. Legend said that whoever could unfasten the knot would conquer Asia. Legend says that Alexander, not a person who messed about, simply slashed the knot apart with his sword. He marched on.

(Roman Julius Caesar, a few centuries later, had the PR business right when he succintly summed up his arrival in Britain with the three words, veni, vidi, vici. This is translated from Latin into English as: 'I came, I saw, I conquered'.)

Alexander III considered he was stronger than the Persian leader, Darius III. Alexander considered that the Persians were leading a life of luxury. A saying attributed to Alexander is, "I would be more afraid of sheep led by a lion than I am of lions led by a sheep". This was said by somebody who lived before Alexander. Possibly Alexander was quoting a saying which had already become popular, but it fitted the situation and inspired him to fight fearlessly.

On another occasion, faced with what seemed like an impossible situation, he declared, "Nothing is impossible to him who has the determination to succeed".

I don't have to quote the English translation exactly, because it is translated from the Greek, and my variation or yours, whether or not exactly word for word, is a perfect translation if it conveys the meaning perfectly.

Another amusing quotation from Alexander: When Alexander conquered Persia, Darius, leader of the Persians, offered to make an alliance and offered his daughter as a wife to Alexander.

Alexander's adviser said, "If I were you, I would accept."

Alexander replied, "If I were you, I would accept. But I am me."

What a character!

From the point of view of non-Greeks, and pacifists, one could argue that Alexander was a war-monger, caused a lot of deaths, and invaded other countries, and promoted his own culture. On the other hand, the same seems to still be happening today. His vision was to unite the world.

He lived a long time ago. He was before the Romans. Before Jesus. Before Mohammed. Before WWI and WWII. What difference did he make to generations afterwards? The Greek language was spoken by pockets of people in many countries. The Greek language continued to influence and is still used in many of our words today. He founded several cities named after himself. Alexandria in Egypt still bears his name on our maps of the world.

Now you know why he is an inspiration and a hero. He was the most powerful man for miles around.

However, he died at 33. The cause is disputed. He was sick from poisoning, or poisoned food, or medicine taken to help cure the effects of a stomach upset.

Remember what happened to Alexander's father Philip. He was at his own wedding, attacked by his own family. Watch your back.

Remember what happened to Alexander on his travels. He died of food poisoning, one way or another. The moral is, watch your diet and watch your health.

Alexander died aged 33 in Babylon, now Iraq.

Skopje has a hotel named after Aleksander.

Hotel Aleksander, Skopje
Modern five-star hotel. Disappointing modern from a distance, on the outside (well, 75% of the city was destroyed in an earthquake). However, up close and inside, you find the atrium wall has pictures of the old bridge and other landmarks. The arched semi-circular windows form a restful, pleasing frame when you are inside looking out. (See traveller photos on Tripadvisor.)

5 Holocaust Memorial Centre for the Jews of Macedonia is adjacent to
Museum of the Macedonian Struggle - so you can visit them together.
Holocaust memorial - 7148 Jews of Macedonia were sent to Treblinka. Photos and accounts of Treblinka are in the US Holocaust Museum, Washington DC USA.

7 Giant Cross
Millennium Cross atop Mount Vodno, over Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.
Photo by Rašo.
You can take the cable car up and down.

9 MONASTERIES AND MOSQUES

Side Trips
Monasteries and churches are abundant. Top tip to the site:

Ohrid

In Ohrid: Statues of saints Cyril and Methodius, who created the Cyrillic alphabet.

Ohrid, pretty hillside town overlooking Lake Ohrid, called the pearl of the Balkans.

Quaint street in Ohrid. Photo by Diego Delso in Wikipedia.

TETOVA
One hour away at Tetova in the north-west of Macedonia, near Albania, is a town full of Albanians, who at one point were fighting for a greater Albania, but in July 2018 all seemed peaceful. Go to see the painted mosque.
Go south to Greece and see Greece's second city Thessalonika (they call it Thessaloniki). I was very impressed by the stories of Alexander the Great, whose tomb has not been found, hidden, like the Egyptian pharaohs' tombe which were concealed in pyramids, hidden from grave robbers and successors who might want to erase him from history. The amphitheatre, where he killed his father at his father's wedding to a second wife who was pregnant with a son who Philip announced would be his successor, not Alexander.

Painted mosque at Tetova. Photo author: Делфина in Wikivoyage.

Šarena Džamija (Шарена Џамија)
The name means painted mosque. The outside shows flowers, a unique painting of Mecca, and Mohammed's tomb. Instead of a dome, it has an inner courtyard containing a tomb and filled with flowers.

Macedonia seems to have a love-hate relationship with neighbouring Greece to the south. Macedonia decided to name their airport, Alexander The Great, but Greece objected. A phrase sprang to my mind, from a Country and Western song, 'Why didn't I think of that?'

10 Wineries
Popova Kula in Demir Kapeja.
Pop over and feel cooler in the Popova Kula winery. The winery has striking architecture, a square tower, an upper terrace, a restaurant and accommodation.

Tikves in Kavadarci - started in the 1800s, merged with others to become the biggest in Macedonia and SE Europe. Makes 24 wines and brandy. The restaurant has brick walls and a big brick fireplace. Winery shop. Winery open Monda to Sunday. April to October. Oak barrels. To visit the vineyards, book one week in advance for a minimum of six people.

Useful Websites

For more information on sightseeing, monasteries, wines, caves and carnivals, the official Macedonia tourist board website

TRAVEL WEBSITES
MACEDONIA