North Macedonia stands upright under the feet of its neighbours.

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I went to North Macedonia to find out if there were reasons to visit this country apart from supporting a country with problems standing upright! I will continue to call the country Macedonia the name they use themselves.

Many of the Balkan countries are overlooked when it comes to visiting from the cold north. The last time I travelled through this country was when it still belonged to Yugoslavia. Still, I did not step off the train to Greece.

The Stone Bridge in Skopje

The flag

From 1991 until 1995, the new Country adopted a new flag with a sun on a red background. This Sun is also mentioned in their national anthem: ” Macedonia, the new sun of freedom, is born.” However, the Greeks meant this symbol was an ancient Greek sign.

The Name

They wanted to call the country Macedonia, but in Greece, there is a large area called Macedonia that they claim is their name. Therefore, until 2018, it was called «the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia», FYROM. In 2018, they eventually agreed on North Macedonia between the two countries, but none were really happy about this. I think it’s rich for Greek politicians to spend so much time and effort to score some votes on playing hard politicians abroad when the internal politics in that country has been fucked up for decades.

The present flag is seen from the Skopje Fortress.

The language

Another issue in the Macedonian conflict is their language. The Bulgarians mean that they speak Bulgarian in Macedonian, and it can probably be argued that there are close similarities, so it is maybe almost more like a dialect. Bulgarians also claimed that the whole country should belong to them, which it did up to the 13th century, then under Serbia, and eventually under the Ottomans. After the First World War, they were incorporated into Yugoslavia.

Church of Saint John the Theologian in Ohrid

Never give up

All these issues must be sorted out simultaneously as they have tried to unite a small country of several ethnicities, religions and a multicultural society. They were among the first countries to proclaim independence from Yugoslavia, and they managed to do this without being involved in the Balkan Wars in the 1990s. At the same time, it is a bit fun that they were so eager to become an independent country that they changed their name and flag to please Greece. Then, apply for membership in even bigger unities like the EU and the UN.

The snowy mountains

Almost there

I know the explanations above are very simplified, some of which are my opinions. But this is what makes a country. Borders are only made up by the rulers and have changed several times throughout history. I also have to mention one more issue that Greece and Macedonia have arguments about, and that is that both want to claim that the violent and greedy sodomist Alexander (the Great) is theirs. Today, Macedonia is one of Europe’s poorest countries. Corruption still has problems, but they are trying to find their own identity.

Is this a statue of Alexander (the Great)?

North Macedonia as a tourist country

Despite the issues mentioned in this post, there are good reasons to visit this country. Yes, it is a landlocked country with no beaches, but there is plenty of nature and interesting places to see and visit. I travelled around at the end of March and saw white mountain tops almost constantly. What you see in one week is always limited, but I will briefly introduce it in my following blogs.

There are plenty of religious buildings on my journey.

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