Home of Mother Teresa - Skopje

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Hi Everybody!
We spent Saturday afternooon exploring Thessaloniki. We went to the Roman Forum, Paradisos Bath ruins, the Arch of Galerius, the White Tower, several Orthodox churches. We went through a park and I saw a woman jumping rope, my favorite exercise. I tried to communicate with her and found out that she was from Afghanistan.
Today has been great! We caught an early train from Thessaloniki to the capital of Macedonia, Skopje. We had a cabin with 6 seats that we shared with a super, nice guy - Chad. He is working for a contractor in Kosovo. Our trip flew by as he filled our brains with lots of interesting facts about this region of the country. Near the end of our trip, another American joined us. He was visiting a former Yale classmate from Macedonia.
The train took us through the countryside with views of rich, fertile farm land. We saw huge clusters of dark purple grapes on the vine and many fields of corn. A few farmers were using tractors but many were working with hand tools and carts. People were very friendly and waved at us. Using Chad's recommendation, we chose to stay downtown by the Vardar River. It has a riverwalk by it that takes you to the city center and to an old Stone Bridge that connects the old town to the new. As we walked to the center, we saw a large statue of Mother Teresa, Skopje's most famous citizen. Another statue intrigued us - it was a large female nude statue with part of the upper body missing. It had the dates July 10, 1963-2003 under it. Skopje had an earthquake on that date, but I don't what the statue represented. Nearby on a museum is a clock that stopped during the earthquake and has never been restarted.
I am enjoying Skopje and don't know why I was apprehensive about coming here. I believe it is the unknown that frightens people. A young German couple today told us that they were afraid to go to Albania. We told them how much we enjoyed our stay in Durres and encouraged them to give it a try.
Take care,
Everette

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