Thru the Lens: Skopje
It looked like an urban mirage.
As my bus from Ohrid cruised through downtown Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, I had to do a triple take. In the middle of the river a fountain shot jets of water towards the sky while neo-classical buildings adorned with statues stood proud against the beams of floodlights. Seriously, where the hell am I? But that was about all I saw of the city the first time around since I popped over to Amsterdam for a few days.
When I returned, I had time to see all the new buildings and many of the statues scattered around the city. The majority of them are clustered along the river, which itself resembles a huge construction site. As I understand it, the government wants to “modernize” the city. But rather than modernize infrastructure it appears a lot of the funding has gone into building statues. On bridges, in squares, in parks, on buildings. The statues, they’re everywhere.
But hey, if you like statues, then you’ll love Skopje!