Weekend trip to Skopje, North Macedonia

Skopje, a medium sized city with around 500 000 inhabitants located not far from the Greek boarder was a destination that I visited during last weekend. What brought me there? First thing was a flat marathon and second thing was the direct flight from Zürich to Skopje with Edelweiss. The flight took just below two hours and immigration at the airport went smooth. It was much worse when departing. Standing in line was something that maybe 50% did. Uber does not exist so if you want to take a ride share from the airport download BeeRide. Otherwise taxis have fixed price 25 EUR (cash only, Oct-24). 20 minutes after I left the airport I arrived at my hotel. A rainy and dark Friday in desperate need of food.

Old town

The rainy first evening I also wanted to see something out of the city so I headed to the bazaar area. It was the completely wrong moment. Many places were closed and there were not many people out in the pouring rain. After running from one place to another that did not served kebab or was not cash only I found a burger place. Absolutely not fantastic but it was food. Then I headed over to a local place to try the local desert and wine. Way better than the burger but I didn’t needed another one. I went back another time when rain was pouring down and can summarize with a must see place for a coffee at one of the many coffee shops.

City center

The city feels untouched by tourists and there are still places to see. In the city center there were plenty of museums, I wanted to at least visit the city museum but feared it would not be in English so no visit and consulted google for what I wanted to know. I enjoyed the beautiful buildings from outside and tried to not walk to much since I was going to run a marathon the day after. The squares and streets were filled with coffee places and restaurants and price level was very low. Just to indulge!

Streets of Skopje

The streets reminded me about outskirts of Tallinn and Riga. It felt like a bit of leftovers from the Soviet era although the place has more in common with the ancient Roman empire. It has its charm to walk around the local streets. And yes, there were straydogs all around the city.

City of contrasts

You could clearly see that life is not European standard at all places. When I strolled along the river on the last day I saw primitive houses like the ones I built in the forest with my friends when I grew up. This was not the poorest parts of the city I got to learn.

Skopje marathon

41 195 meters of running at a two lap city course was what I did on Sunday. That meant a new medal to my collection and marathon finished in country 20-something. The race was well organized, weather perfect and I had a good run for most parts of the race. No new PB but hey, can’t always make records.

Eating

The city had a lot of nice places to eat and drink. I tried a few and the best one was Matto Napoletano which I visited both before and after the marathon. Its very popular so reservation is needed. The city also has a lot of nice bars although I wasn’t visiting more than a couple there is potential.

Can I recommend Skopje?

Absolutely. If you want to go for a weekend trip and settle down somewhere which is not over touristed and have been to all places like Prague, Budapest, Athens, Istanbul and so on go. If not, do the major cities in Europe first then it is worth a visit. If you are a runner, the marathon, half marathon, 10K or 5K races I can absolutely recommend.

/ Pernilla that had a good weekend in Skopje