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| Mother Teresa's memorial |
The immigration officer at Aleksander the Great Airport studied my Macedonian visa and consulted a page on his desk and shook his head. He consulted his colleague in the immigration officers ‘cage’ next to him, but she didn’t have the answer he wanted and he went to consult the Immigration Police booth behind him. An officer dressed smartly in blue uniform came up to me, asked me to sit on a bench and disappeared into his cubby hole with my passport. While the line of passengers at the immigration desk grew rapidly shorter I wondered whether I was being denied entry as an Indian in the land of Alexander, for bringing an end to Alexander’s world conquering campaigns two and a half thousand years ago! Soon the officer came back and asked the immigration officer to stamp my passport – my paperwork was in order and I was free to get into the land of Phillip and his more illustrious son.
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| The Old Stone Bridge |
Macedonia is a small country of a little over 2 million people in the Balkans, north of Greece, with which it has a tense sibling rivalry. Here too it is Alexander ( or Aleksander as the Macedonian’s prefer to write) who seems to be the bone of contention. Greece holds Alexander as their own, and would prefer the ‘northern’ Macedonians to remember their geographic place on the map. On the other hand Macedonians are intensely possessive of Aleksander and are planning a 25 metre tall statue of the old warrior king astride Bucaphelus in the centre of their capital Skojpe ( pronounced ‘skopia’). At present the ten metre high pedestal is being constructed in the central square which is peppered with statues of all kinds – heroes from the past on their horses, women talking to each other with their, a shoe shine and even a bikini clad woman taking a dive into the river Vardar which flows past. Erecting statues seems to be an obsession with the current government which has apparently spent over 2 million euro each for installing four gigantic lions on each end of a city bridge. It is not surprising I found the topic very politically sensitive when I ventured to ask about them. The small memorial to Mother Teresa and her statues in the centre of town provided an assurance in an unfamiliar land.
The old Skojpe bazaar is dominated by the Kale fortress. It is a jumble of small shops and eateries and narrow lanes. Since it was a Sunday evening it was empty when we explored it but the morning bustle could easily be imagined. There are a number of dome shaped buildings from the Ottoman times some are mosques, some have been converted into museums. The most interesting building that I noticed was a mosque which gradually morphed itself into a barber’s shop. Macedonians has many religions – Islam, Orthodox Christian being principal among them. The people too are from many ethnic strains – I felt comfortable as an Indian with similar hybrid vigor.
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| Skojpe Bazaar |
The business end of my Macedonian trip was a workshop in Ohrid, a lake resort 160 kilometers away. The 2 hour journey from Skojpe to Ohrid twisted and turned through snow covered mountains. It was an unusually cold year I was told. Ohrid lake was a sight to behold – a vast expanse of blue ringed by snow clad mountains. The old town of Ohrid is a Unesco heritage site and reminded me of our own hill resorts like Nainital and Ooty with its steep roads and paths crisscrossing the hillside overlooking the lake. Ohrid is famous for churches. They say it had 365 churches, one for every day in the year, even today many of them are standing – from small twenty by fifteen feet structures to massive monuments. Ohrid is still discovering its past through excavations in many parts of the town. There is an old amphitheatre and even today it is used during the tourist season for holding events.
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| Ohrid Lake |
Macedonian food generously uses cheese. They even batter fry cheese somewhat like paneer pakora- but instead of a snack it is eaten as a main course. Another Macedonian speciality was a baked fluffy pastry which first made circular like a pie and then sliced up into cubes or diamonds or regular cake slices. Chopska, fresh vegetable salad which uses grated fresh cheese as the principle dressing, also seemed very popular. I was told that the lake serves a excellent trout which is now endangered due to overfishing. The scales of a different fish are also fashioned into Ohrid pearls which are then turned into jewelry and sold in every corner of the town. The restaurants ringing the lake served a variety of cuisine, and even though it was very cold most of the customers preferred to sit outside with heating through different kinds of heaters for comfort. Macedonians still love to smoke, the new visual warnings on the cigarette packets notwithstanding. 
The Macedonian currency at 43.50 dinar to the US dollar provided a familiar exchange rate and there was no need to indulge in crazy multiplication for conversion every time I bought anything. The best buy in Macedonia were chocolates. They make reasonably good chocolates and the prices are unbelievable.
The immigration officer at Aleksander the Great Airport studied my Macedonian visa and consulted a page on his desk and shook his head. He consulted his colleague in the immigration officers ‘cage’ next to him, but she didn’t have the answer he wanted and he went to consult the Immigration Police booth behind him. An officer dressed smartly in blue uniform came up to me, asked me to sit on a bench and disappeared into his cubby hole with my passport. While the line of passengers at the immigration desk grew rapidly shorter I wondered whether I was being denied entry as an Indian in the land of Alexander, for bringing an end to Alexander’s world conquering campaigns two and a half thousand years ago! Soon the officer came back and asked the immigration officer to stamp my passport – my paperwork was in order and I was free to get into the land of Phillip and his more illustrious son.
The old Skojpe bazaar is dominated by the Kale fortress. It is a jumble of small shops and eateries and narrow lanes. Since it was a Sunday evening it was empty when we explored it but the morning bustle could easily be imagined. There are a number of dome shaped buildings from the Ottoman times some are mosques, some have been converted into museums. The most interesting building that I noticed was a mosque which gradually morphed itself into a barber’s shop. Macedonians has many religions – Islam, Orthodox Christian being principal among them. The people too are from many ethnic strains – I felt comfortable as an Indian with similar hybrid vigor.
Macedonian food generously uses cheese. They even batter fry cheese somewhat like paneer pakora- but instead of a snack it is eaten as a main course. Another Macedonian speciality was a baked fluffy pastry which first made circular like a pie and then sliced up into cubes or diamonds or regular cake slices. Chopska, fresh vegetable salad which uses grated fresh cheese as the principle dressing, also seemed very popular. I was told that the lake serves a excellent trout which is now endangered due to overfishing. The scales of a different fish are also fashioned into Ohrid pearls which are then turned into jewelry and sold in every corner of the town. The restaurants ringing the lake served a variety of cuisine, and even though it was very cold most of the customers preferred to sit outside with heating through different kinds of heaters for comfort. Macedonians still love to smoke, the new visual warnings on the cigarette packets notwithstanding. 
The Macedonian currency at 43.50 dinar to the US dollar provided a familiar exchange rate and there was no need to indulge in crazy multiplication for conversion every time I bought anything. The best buy in Macedonia were chocolates. They make reasonably good chocolates and the prices are unbelievable. 
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