June 20, 2016
Monday 20 June. Day 4: Mt Vodno and Skopje
The early morning light woke us at 5am, but we managed to get back to sleep for a few more hours. Breakfast consisted of bread, ajvar, cucumber, a variety of cheeses and processed meats, jam and nutella! Today we had designated as a day in Skopje to test the bikes and give us time to plan our route. Leaving Sydney we had both been pretty overwhelmed getting work finished and exams/assignments completed.
We took the bikes out for what was to be a 16km loop up to the top of Mt Vodno on the edge of town to the Pantelejmon Monestary in the village of Gorni Nezeri. However, by the time breakfast was over and we started the climb (over 8% most of the way) it was 9am and already very sunny, 34°C and forecast to keep getting increasingly hot. I’m afraid I piked 2/3rds of the way up to the ‘Millennium Cross’ which sits on the top of the 1000m high hill. The cross is 75 meters tall and was erected shortly after the 2001 conflict with Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians (who are Muslim). Controversy ensued as you can imagine.
After we got back to town we headed to a bike shop. My front disc brake was sticking a little and it needed some extra attention from a proper bike mechanic. The shop ‘Bikestop’ was good (on Ortse Nikolov) although busy, so we arranged to come back later in the day to collect it. One of the staff called Daniel had spent some time in Perth going to an English language school and staying with his uncle – so we had a good conversation with him before heading off.
Across the road was a pub with shaded outside tables. We drank lots of water and ordered some small plates to share. We ended up with heaps of cheese!!! Oops. Ordering malfunction. The salad was dressed with cheese; we had a good sheep’s milk cheese (like a slab of feta); a softer cow’s milk feta that had been mashed up with green peppers (AWESOME!); and toasted bread that also came with grated white cheese. We ate what we could, drank litres of water and (again) were entertained by kittens. There were lots of men sitting around drinking, smoking and sporting ‘man bags’. Sport (mostly football) was on all the TVs. The themes of Macedonia – men (with handbags), smoking, and football.
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We walked through the town the 2km back to our hotel in the heat of the early afternoon. After showering, we washed clothes and did some route planning for the next few days. We decided to extend the hotel as the forecast for the next day was again up to 39°C. An extra day in Skopje would mean we could get up earlier to climb Mt Vodno and get our legs working; be on a relatively flat course for a couple of days in the worst of the heat; and hit the mountains as the temperatures were due to drop a bit. This tour was off to a slow start.
After walking back through town to collect the bikes, dinner was at another local restaurant, Gostilnica Dukat. We had a wonderful eggplant salad, another salad of tomato and roasted green peppers, grilled pork and onion on a skewer and some smoked sausage. Incidentally, the Macedonians on King St Newtown in Sydney had set a very high bar for quality Macedonian food! We never found a smoked sausage better than theirs on this trip!
Walking home as the sun was setting, we passed a bunch of young men in the playground doing body building together in the park. There were about 6 small children (5 year olds) just standing looking at them strangely...
Also a little note: Tomatoes in Macedonia are mostly really really good - although not as consistently good as they were in Georgia (the one near Armenia)!
Today's ride: 15 km (9 miles)
Total: 15 km (9 miles)
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