THIS IS SKOPJE | Our first impressions of Macedonia 🇲🇰

Welcome to the City of Statues. We are in Skopje, North Macedonia. This is the start of an incredible two-month trip we've got planned here in the Balkans. We're going all over the ex-Yugoslavia as well as Albania and Bulgaria and we cannot wait to get started but it all begins right here in Skopje. The first place where we're heading is Ploštad Macedonia or Macedonian Square which is the heart of the city. The statue behind us in the middle of the square here is of probably the world's most famous Macedonian and the guy that a lot of Macedonians claim to be the direct descendants of, Alexander the Great. Born in 356 BC he died in 323 BC aged just 32. Despite dying so young at the time of his death his empire stretched all the way from here in modern day Greece and right across Eurasia to what is now sort of modern day the edge of modern day China. By the way if you didn't figure it out already Skopje is called the City of Statues because they're everywhere and they do actually look very beautiful. So in the main square here it's actually really empty considering it's the main square of the city but it's probably got something to do with the fact it's 40 degrees today and we seem to be the idiots walking around in here. So behind us is what used to be the station here in Skopje now it's a museum and I don't know if you can see the clock just behind me the time on there is 417 which is the time that in 1963 in July 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit Skopje causing 200,000 people to lose their homes and over a thousand deaths. It was devastating to the city and that clock still here is almost like a reminder and a memorial to what happened. We're just going past Mother Teresa memorial she was actually born in Skopje. Skopje is relatively a small city but it's so interesting because you see such a variety of architecture you've got the communist past all these modern buildings then you have the past from Ottoman empire and also all these oldie worldie buildings as well like like this one for example and it's just so fascinating you just feel like you're walking around just staring everywhere it's really pretty and it's a really cozy city as well you feel really I know it's got a chill vibe there are lots of cafes and like people chilling on the streets it feels really sociable it's really pretty. Some of these buses here in Skopje look very familiar apparently in the 50s the Yugoslav government bought a load of London buses that were working here in Skopje and then in 63 in the earthquake a lot of them were destroyed but the buses you see now are like Chinese made double-decker buses but they look really similar to the London route masters. A little fun fact for you let's keep moving. So we were going to head over the stone bridge but you get a better view of the stone bridge from here. Built in the 15th century during the Ottoman era on Roman foundations it separates the more socialist modern side of the city with the more historical side where we're going now. So the official language here in Macedonia is obviously Macedonian which is a South Slavic language and actually we've been here about a week and we've been trying to pick up a few phrases and words and it's actually as Russian speakers it's been really fascinating to see how many like similarities there are and so many false friends. One example is ovoshie which in Russian means vegetables in Macedonian means fruits so we thought we were looking at a menu and we're like pancakes with ovoshie we're like pancakes with vegetables. Skopje has got quite a lot of Ottoman influence and we are heading to the old bazaar which is one of the biggest ones in Balkans. So as with the whole of the Balkans Skopje itself is really quite multicultural there's like around 70 Macedonians here around 20 Albanians, Turkish people, Bosniaks, Serbs, Romani and so many more and yeah as I say that's reflected throughout the whole of the Balkans really it's such a multicultural area. So we're just heading uphill just left the old bazaar and we are on the way to the fortress. So this is Skopsko Kale or Skopje fortress interestingly kale is a Turkish root word and this fortress was built in the 6th century AD and it's been destroyed and rebuilt throughout its history. It's been controlled by the Byzantines, the Ottomans, the Bulgarian Empire, the Serbian Empire and obviously now North Macedonia. Also the view over the city here is awesome. This is Bohemian street we've been coming here quite a lot since we've been staying in Skopje and there are lots of bars and restaurants here it doesn't look that busy now but this is how it looks like in the evening. And we just grabbed some ice cream this one is pistachio and this one is walnut and fig and it's delicious. Can I have a bit please? Right we're going to finish the video here in Gradski park or the city park. And we were just talking that we're so excited for the next two months that we've got here in the Balkans like so excited to do it all and to show you everything. We are setting off tomorrow and there is so much that we plan to see just can't wait. So thank you very much for watching this video and see you in the next one.