Today was the start of part two of my trip.

Nathan flew home today and I moved on to North Macedonia to start the back half of my Balkan 2023 Trip.

I had an early wakeup call today, 7:30am, as I had a 9:30 bus to catch.

Even though it wasn’t raining anymore, it was still pretty cloudy out and I went back and forth as to whether I should dress in shorts and a t-shirt or change into something warmer for the 5 1/2 hour bus ride.

In the end, I decided to not dress warmly as my experience with buses has been that they seem to be too hot and the last thing I wanted to do was ride uncomfortably in a bus for so long.

Goodbye Sofia

I got to the bus station plenty early which gave me enough time to casually walk around looking for which platform my bus would be departing from.

There was an anxious 2 minutes there though when I didn’t see my bus listed on the little departures tv screen inside the terminal.

For a brief second, I thought maybe I was at the wrong bus terminal.

But nope, I was put at ease pretty quick when I asked the security guard and he pointed me to where I had to catch the bus.

Phew.

I used the Matpu bus lines to get from Sofia to Skopje.   There are a couple buses running each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Thankfully it was a “real” bus and not a little caravan like I had ridden in previously.

Although, the bus was a bit old, it still was comfortable enough to travel in.

There were only 14 of us making the journey today so we were each able to get our own row so there was plenty of room to stretch out.

After 2 1/2 hours, we did a quick little 15 minute stop at a little diner on the side of the road right before the border.   It was a good chance for people to have a smoke, use the bathroom, and just stretch out the legs.

Of course, it was really chilly once outside the bus.   Thankfully I had moved my hoodie to my daypack just in case so I popped that on to stay a little warmer.

After our pit stop, we reached the border another 10 minutes later around noon.

Border Control

Since we were leaving the Schengen area, we actually had to go through border control to have our passports stamped.

We had to get off the bus three separate times, once to check our bags, and twice to get our passports stamped leaving one country and entering another.

I was at the front of the bus so I exited and went to passport control first each time.

After checking me out, each time I was instructed to walk 30m up the road, literally crossing the border by foot, to wait for everyone else to be checked out.

Did I mention it was chilly out?

Yeah, I was shivering a bit as I waited for the other 13 people to go through passport control.

Thankfully there were no issues with anyone and once all 14 of us had walked down the road, the bus drove to us to pick us up.

And, just like that, after a half hour of stop and go, we were in Macedonia.

Country number 48 unlocked!

Hello Skopje!

The bus actually arrived in Skopje a half hour early which was a nice surprise.

It was still cloudy but not really chilly at 25C which is my way of saying it was perfect weather.

This was the first time this trip that I arrived at a new hostel without being drenched in sweat.

Ahhhh, I could get used to this…

After checking in real quick, I bounced straight back out in the Skopje streets in search of food.

This poor little boy hadn’t had anything to eat yet today and you all know how much Todd loves his food…

As a little aside to my eating, I should mention that what I thought were mosquito bites are actually hives.   Yes, I’ve unintentionally eaten gluten and now I’m paying the price.

When I first got diagnosed with celiac disease a few years ago, it was because I had hives for months.   I’m hoping the hives won’t be here nearly as long this time but I have my doubts.   I may just be scratching incessantly for the remainder of the trip.

By the way, I’m pretty sure the culprit were the Yogurt & Herbs potato chips I’ve been addicted to since the first day of the trip.   I looked it up online last night and, yup, they ain’t gluten free.

Walking around Skopje

After my lunch I headed to the meeting point for the 5pm free walking tour.

I gotta say, these late afternoon walking tours are so much better than the daytime ones.   It’s just nice walking around town without the sun beating down on you.

For 2 1/2 hours we walked all over the city and two things stand out to me.

One, they love their country.   There are Macedonia flags everywhere.

Two, they love statues even more!

I’ve now traveled to well over 100 cities throughout Europe and the world and, I gotta say, I’ve never seen as many statues in one city as I have here.

What does that mean?   Well, a bunch, and I mean a bunch, of photos.   I just can not take a photo of a statue.   It’s like in my traveling DNA.   I can’t control my fingers.   They must grab the phone and snap the photos.

Our tour guide actually gave us alot of good information about alot of things including food and day trips from Skopje which I’ll be doing over the next two days here.

Speaking of food…

Yup, it was dinner time!

I, along with 4 others from the walking tour walked back to a restaurant our tour guide had pointed out for a little bit of beans and sausage.

The five of us pooled our money together to pay the bill.   I actually hate when payment is done this way because inevitably the last person decides how much the tip is even if other people (like me) have tipped a good amount.

In the end I ended up double tipping because they were only going to leave 2100mkd ($52.50) on a 2040mkd ($51) bill for a whopping $1.50 tip.

I mean us servers gotta stick together you know?   Karma and all that good stuff!

So, yeah, that was my first day in North Macedonia.

I have a couple more days here in the capital city of Skopje before moving on to the beachside town of Ohrid a few days from now.

So far, my first impression of the city and of the country is good.   I’m happy I’m here and I’m happy to see what adventures await me…