We still held a grudge against Serbia, so we just crossed it. We might give it another try later, but this time we went to North Macedonia. After our poor experience in Belgrade we decided that in Skopje we would stay closer to the city centre so we could explore it quickly. So we did – we booked a hotel in the middle of the old town.

When we arrived, a couple of local “entrepreneurs” tried to convince us that the hotel did not have a parking lot, but they could park us in their place for a small fee of about 15€/day. They were really persuasive, however we decided to double check with the hotel and they actually did have parking space (just as advertised). In general, people in the Balkans are nice and helpful, but don’t rush to give money to strangers. Before paying for help make sure that you really need it. 

Another small warning: in many old Balkan towns the historical centre is Muslim – the Ottoman legacy. There are many mosques in such places, and a loud pre-recorded song of a muezzin proclaiming the call to prayer will wake you up at dawn (which is around 5am in summer) whether you want it or not.

Our hotel (Old Konak) was located, literally, next door to a mosque, so our morning started early. We do recommend this place. It has parking 🙂, clean rooms, reasonable price and central location, so you can explore the city centre by foot, which we did after a decent breakfast in the hotel.

We walked through the old narrow streets and went to the fortress of Skopje. The entrance is free and there is no much to see inside. However, you can observe the city outside, as the fortress, as usually, is located on a high hill.

This is Mustafa Pasha Mosque, as seen from the fortress wall. The structure stands on a plateau above the old bazaar. It was built in 1492 by Çoban Mustafa Pasha, and is largely intact from its original state, and no additions have been made through the years.

It was windy, but we managed to quickly fly above the fortress and capture the panoramic view of Skopje.