Macedonia is a lovely little country, we spent two nights in the capital Skopje. Filip's dad lives here so we also had an evening catching up with them and he took Taylor out for one of the days.
The central city of Skopje is under reconstruction as part of their bid to become part of the EU. There are many statues, water fountains, bridges and fancy things being built. They clearly have a vision and the city is very pretty. Macedonia is the birth place of Mother Teresa, so we visited the Mother Teresa memorial house and read the little gold plaques that we scattered throughout the city with her quotes.
Only a short walk out of the city is the Old Town markets nestles below the old fort. We wondered through the cute little market streets looking at the rugs and hand made leather crafts, of course stopping for an ice cream because it was so hot.
Another must do in Macedonia was the Millennium Cross. It is the largest cross in the world, it was erected in 2000 as a celebration of 2000 years of Christianity. Pretty impressive for a predominantly Muslim country. We took a gondola ride to the top of the mountain and enjoyed the view, play park and watched a thunder storm rolling in over the mountains.
Once again we we surprised by the surrounding countryside and little farms. There were lots of horses and carts, children herding goats, little road stalls with fruit and vegetables or as you will see in one photo a guy literally walking his cow up the state highway. Although new highways and bridges are being built, many people appear to do what they have always done e.g. we saw a number of people happily walk across the 3 lane state highway and climb the barrier in the middle rather than walking to an over bridge a few hundred meters up the road. We also saw little children maybe 8 or 9 years old driving tractors to the petrol station to fill up.
What would make headlines in a New Zealand newspaper is everyday life here. Unfortunately not long after leaving Macedonia we learned that they have closed their borders to refugees. There are many people mounting up at the borders. Police and military have lined the border and even used tear gas where families are desperate to get help. Europe is in crisis, and from what we have seen are not dealing with it very well.
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