what's in a name?

Writing from a Mc Café (which has, by the way, become my best way to access the internet via their free wifi network - well, it costs me a coke to access!) in Bucharest, just wanted to give you a brief download on my visit to FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and what better way to start than by giving a short intro on the country and, in particular, its name. As most former Yugoslav republics (e.g. Slovenia, Croatia, etc.), Macedonia gained its independence in the early 90's (1991 to be precise). Prior to this, and within the broader geo-political context of the Yugoslav Federation, it was called Republic of Macedonia. Turns out, as has been the case in may of the bilateral and multilateral relations amongst countries in the Balkans, that the controversy over its name post independence is a direct result of a political dispute with neighbouring Greece (which has been ongoing since Macedonia's independence). The latter opposes the term Macedonia and Macedonian to refer to both country and citizens due to the ambiguity it generates as the northern region of Greece (and bordering with FYROM - Thessalonika being the most relevant city) is also called Macedonia. Therefore, and while negotiations continue to progress related to the future name of the country, the "temporary" (note the inverted comas!) name since its independence has become FYROM. Moreover, the country is referred to under that name at the international level and in multilateral bodies (e.g. UN, WTO, etc.) where Greece is also a member.

And so I left Belgrade at 9pm on Monday night, on what would be a c. 11hour train ride to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. Before departing a buddy of mine from the Netherlands/Bulgaria gave some tips on places to visit in the country. Being almost a local (at least of the region - Southern Balkans) I trusted his advice (as was later confirmed by some locals I spoke to). He recommended I spent some time in Lake Ohrid (in the South Western part of the country and on the border with Albania - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Ohrid). Unfortunately, given my "time constraints", I only had time to visit Skopje, and I didn't even spend the night there...

The train ride was usual enough... managed to get on a direct train which was good (versus what I had to go to get to Sofia). I managed to get some "ok-ish" sleep in the first instances of the trip (i.e. on the Serbian part), but upon crossing the Serbia/FYROM border at c. 3am, for some weird reason the heating went off in the 2nd class cabins/compartments. This, in turn, made sleeping quite difficult... It wasn't until 5am when I got a bit fed up and decided to wander around the train to see if there was any place where I could find a heated compartment. I went down to the 1st class train, which in these routes tends to be empty, and believe it or not... they had heating. Stayed in there with my fellow Macedonian travel partner from 2nds class (told him as I could notice he was also having a hard time in spite of being a local and maybe having been used to this) until we arrived in Skopje at c. 8am. From the train station, I went directly to the central part of the city. First impression was that the whole city seemed to be under construction, but a stalled one... which seemed to have been going on since the 1950's. In all fairness, Skopje reminded me a bit of Sarajevo, in the sense that it appears to be one of the least developed cities/regions in the Balkan region. Unlike Sarajevo, where one could tell that the "backwardness" of the city was due entirely to decades of military strife and human destruction, Skopje's seems to be a direct product of the lack of and organised political Macedonian entity (in reality, prior to its Republic status in Tito's Yugoslavia, the country had always been under the influence of its current neighbours - Greece, Bulgaria and Albania - and the country had historically been divided up amongst them for that matter) as well as to the limited emphasis placed by Tito's Yugoslavia on its development, as it was rather regarded as a "rural" Republic and as not being a "priority". In addition, in 1963 the country, and Skopje in particular was hit by an earthquake which devastated most of the city and many of its most relevant infrastructures were shed to pieces. In any event, culturally (as per the legacy left by the historical prevalence of many different ethnicities) it is one of the richest cities in the Balkans. The city is split in two by the Vardar river. On the northern side, one can find the Bazaar (part of the Ottoman legacy), which was most definitely one of the highlights of my visit and the Kale fortress (which today is used as a military building), where upon climbing to the very top hill and after attempting to enter (before I knew it wasn't a tourist sight one could technically visit) was asked for my passport by a Macedonian soldier and subject to a long list of question related to why I was at that particular spot...  Could still take some decent pics of the city from the top of the hill even if I was unable to enter the fortress (in my opinion, a bit shameful that a historic spot like that, built in the 6th century AD under Roman influence, would today serve as a military base). The southern side is the more modern one, with more of a vibe, pedestrian streets, plenty of cafes. Skopje does, unfortunately, not have too many museums one can see. I did check out the City of Skoje museum which was in the central part of the city. Also, one of the big "attractions" in the city is that Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born in the city in 1910 under the name of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, to parents of Albanian ethnicity. The house in which she was born has long disappeared, but on the the same grounds, a memorial museum and chapel were built (there is a picture below for the curious ones). She did not spend too much time in Skopje as she left for Ireland aged 18 and to India a year later. The museum is rather small and has limited displays but is interesting (particularly for me, as I had no idea a renowned world figure such as her - independently from her religious activity - was from such a remote city as Skopje). I spent the rest of the day exploring the rest of the city, which is under great construction works within the context of a urban development project, Skopje 2014, which is aimed to modernise most of the city centre with new buildings and infrastructure.

From Skopje I took the night train to Sofia, Bulgaria. In this case, it was not direct as I had to go to Nis (Serbia) and after a c. 1 hour layover take another train (at 3am) to Sofia. The interesting thing about this journey happened in the first part (Skopje-Nis), as I shared my 6-person compartment with a Serbian Gypsy couple. Maybe that was already unique enough, but it turned out that the man spoke "decent" Italian as he had spent some time there in the past. With my also "decent" Italian, we managed to maintain a lengthy and fluid conversation on all sorts of topics. Surely one of the highlights of my trip thus far... and positively surprising in the sense that I was able to communicate + gain local insights, etc. from someone who, a priori, I would have least expected.

I arrived to Sofia early in the morning... more fun stuff awaits so please read on! In the meantime, enjoy the pics!

pv