Feb 262013
 

We arrived at our hotel, the Holiday Inn Skopje, where the front desk agent was a step back in time 20 years to a time when the concept of customer service in this corner of the world just didn’t exist. He got us our room, but that was about it. Upgrade? Forget about it. Benefits as a platinum member? Forget about it. Help finding places to eat, etc? Yeah, you get the picture.

That said, the room was clean, cool, and comfortable so there’s really nothing to complain about, especially since our rate of around 100 euro was completely reasonable. We headed out for a walk, and the first stop was coffee. We found a small coffeeshop on Alexander the Great / Macedonia Square and got some espressos and eventually a few local beers to get us moving again before dinner.

Wandering to dinner, we walked past the National Theatre, which was nicely lit:

IMG_3786

For dinner, we decided to try Old City House which received quite good reviews on TripAdvisor. When we got there, they informed us they were full, but there was a nice room downstairs we could eat in…problem was, we were the ONLY people in this room.  While we ate they sat two more tables so it was a little less odd.  Food was solid, good salads and grilled meats, but nothing overly memorable.  It did the trick though.

The next morning, we decided to just wander the city.  The one thing that struck us about Skopje was all the statues.  Everywhere.  This is just a sampling of all the statue pics we took – it’ll give you a little idea of just how plentiful they are.  I haven’t been able to figure out what’s behind this, but if anyone has an idea I’d love to know!

We’ll start with one from the #WTF or #QDF gallery.  Is this some sort of abortion statement or something?

IMG_3798 Continue reading »

Feb 142013
 

Got to our hotel, the Swiss Diamond Hotel Pristina, and check-in was a breeze. Hotel was quite nice, staff were friendly, and the room was quite nicely furnished as well. Overall, very impressed!  The front desk staff pointed us to some major areas to walk and where we might find a bar serving drinks, and overall were quite helpful.  Just a few thoughts on the hotel:

Breakfast was included and was quite comprehensive.  Set up in what looked to be a ballroom or conference room, there were several stations including eggs to order, all sorts of breads and pastries, cold meats and cheese, salads, hot meats, you name it.  Quite a good breakfast, and included in the rate.  The only downside was trying to get coffee, as it was quite hold to find servers.  Overall though, it was quite good.

Our room also had a balcony overlooking the city, with a pretty cool view:

IMG_3722\

Continue reading »