Welcome to Skopje, Macedonia’s capital
that is a synthesis of old and new, of antiquity,
modernity and a future rich with possibility. In its varied architecture,
the city of Skopje attests to a long history of great civilizations and turbulent events.
Macedonia’s second city, Bitola
is a grand old town that still bears the marks of its turn-of-the-century importance
as a center for diplomacy – while also exemplifying the country’s time-honored cafe culture.
The many cafes lining the city’s pedestrian main street (the Sirok Sokak) provide endless
see-and-be-seen opportunities for Bitola’s fashionable youth. The stately old architecture of
Bitola hearkens back to more than a century ago when the town was a center for international
diplomats to the Ottoman administration, supplanting Skopje and becoming known far and wide as
the “city of the consuls.”
Ohrid,
immortal Ohrid – a kingdom of light and water, a repository of
ancient ruins from Macedonia’s earlier kingdoms – is the sublime
lakeside town that for many represents the culmination of the
Macedonian experience.
The Strumica
area is full of things to see. Aside from hiking the nearby
Mt. Belasica and waterfalls of Smolare and Kolesino, visitors shouldn’t
leave without experiencing the exquisite solitude of Vodoca and Veljusa,
two nearby Byzantine monasteries still inhabited by monks and nuns and known
for their fresco paintings, mosaics and general tranquility.
