The hotel is a walking distance away of tourist attractions.
Breakfast in hotel.
Showing posts with label Macedonia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Macedonia. Show all posts
Thursday, November 23, 2017
28 January 2017 Best Western Hotel Turist in Skopje
28 January 2017 - We flew to Skopje from Zagreb on Croatia Airlines flight OU366. Arrived at the airport at 2245hrs. Guides arranged by Fez Travel took us to Best Western Hotel Turist for our stay in Skopje.
The hotel is a walking distance away of tourist attractions.
Breakfast in hotel.
The hotel is a walking distance away of tourist attractions.
Breakfast in hotel.
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Macedonia Square
Mon 300117 - We start our walking tour the next morning. All the monuments built at the Macedonia Square are huge.
This is one of them, a 22 metre high bronze statue of Alexander the Great standing on top of a white marble fountain.
The statue of Alexander’s father, Philip of Macedonia, with his hand raised.
The statues below that of Philip of Macedonia.
There are statues of Alexander the Great in all of his phases of his life, even starting from the time when his mother was pregnant with him. This is part of the Skopje 2014 project that cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and is not really popular with all Macedonians.
View of one of the bridges built over Vardar River.
We are standing on Stone Bridge and we can see the archeology museum in the background. The Stone Bridge is considered a symbol of Skopje as it was was build in the Roman Period, during the reign of Emperor Justinian The First and reconstructed by Ottomans.
Found a link to photos of the bridge before Skopje 2014 project.
Kale Fortress is situated on the highest point in Skopje overlooking the Vardar River.
Cifte Amam, an old Turkish bathhouse. It was the second largest in Skopje from that time. It is now the National Gallery of Macedonia.
To see more photo and know more about Skopje:
Skopje 2014: The new face of Macedonia
Skopje
BIRN's database documenting the cost of Skopje 2014 (in Macedonian).
This is one of them, a 22 metre high bronze statue of Alexander the Great standing on top of a white marble fountain.
The statue of Alexander’s father, Philip of Macedonia, with his hand raised.
The statues below that of Philip of Macedonia.
There are statues of Alexander the Great in all of his phases of his life, even starting from the time when his mother was pregnant with him. This is part of the Skopje 2014 project that cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and is not really popular with all Macedonians.
View of one of the bridges built over Vardar River.
We are standing on Stone Bridge and we can see the archeology museum in the background. The Stone Bridge is considered a symbol of Skopje as it was was build in the Roman Period, during the reign of Emperor Justinian The First and reconstructed by Ottomans.
Found a link to photos of the bridge before Skopje 2014 project.
Kale Fortress is situated on the highest point in Skopje overlooking the Vardar River.
Cifte Amam, an old Turkish bathhouse. It was the second largest in Skopje from that time. It is now the National Gallery of Macedonia.
To see more photo and know more about Skopje:
Skopje 2014: The new face of Macedonia
Skopje
BIRN's database documenting the cost of Skopje 2014 (in Macedonian).
Friday, July 21, 2017
Around Best Western Hotel Turist
Sun 290117 - The rest of our tour of the Balkans, starting with Skopje, is covered by a local guide and a local driver arranged by Fez Travel.
Our guide, standing beside me in the photo, is Denis, while the driver is Seko aka Boss.
Skopje is the capital of the Republic of Macedonia and this is its flag. We are expecting the weather to be Sunny with temperature ranging from 28℉-43℉ (-2-6℃).
We are staying at the Best Western Hotel Turist.
Some places of interest are just right outside the hotel. Like the Memorial House of Mother Teresa.
You can see many interesting sculptures like this along the streets.
A road guide for tourist.
Our guide, standing beside me in the photo, is Denis, while the driver is Seko aka Boss.
Skopje is the capital of the Republic of Macedonia and this is its flag. We are expecting the weather to be Sunny with temperature ranging from 28℉-43℉ (-2-6℃).
We are staying at the Best Western Hotel Turist.
Some places of interest are just right outside the hotel. Like the Memorial House of Mother Teresa.
You can see many interesting sculptures like this along the streets.
A road guide for tourist.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Flying to the Balkans
There are a number of airlines flying to the Balkans. If we decide to take the Turkish Airlines flight, it will stop over at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport on its way to our first destination in Skopje.
In June last year, that airport was closed after three suicide bombers killed at least 41 people and injured over 200. As it has been reported that there is a high threat from terrorism we decided to take the British Airways flight which stops at Heathrow airport for a connecting flight to Zagreb as they do not have a direct flight to Skopje.
This was our flight schedule planned by the travel agency. It would have been a total of 17 hours 35 minutes to get to Skopje with almost 4 hours waiting time for connecting flights.
To shorten our flight and waiting time we decided to make a stop over at Zagreb for one night to tour the capital on our own and take the Croatia Airlines OU366 the following day.
That decision extended our holiday to 13 days in the Balkans.
Checking in our luggage at KLIA on 27 January 2017.
Waiting for our flight to be called for departure.
In June last year, that airport was closed after three suicide bombers killed at least 41 people and injured over 200. As it has been reported that there is a high threat from terrorism we decided to take the British Airways flight which stops at Heathrow airport for a connecting flight to Zagreb as they do not have a direct flight to Skopje.
This was our flight schedule planned by the travel agency. It would have been a total of 17 hours 35 minutes to get to Skopje with almost 4 hours waiting time for connecting flights.
ITINERARY
|
DATE
|
DAY
|
DEP
|
ARR
|
FLIGHT
| ||||||||||
==============================
|
=====
|
===
|
====
|
======
|
======
| ||||||||||
KLIA - LONDON HEATHROW
|
27JAN
|
FRI
|
0005
|
0550
|
BA34
| ||||||||||
LONDON HEATHROW - ZAGREB PLESO
|
27JAN
|
FRI
|
0825
|
1145
|
BA848
| ||||||||||
ZAGREB PLESO - SKOPJE
|
27JAN
|
FRI
|
1410
|
1545
|
OU368
| ||||||||||
SOFIA INTL - LONDON HEATHROW
|
06FEB
|
MON
|
1410
|
1545
|
BA891
| ||||||||||
LONDON HEATHROW - KLIA
|
06FEB
|
MON
|
1855
|
1520+1
|
BA33
|
To shorten our flight and waiting time we decided to make a stop over at Zagreb for one night to tour the capital on our own and take the Croatia Airlines OU366 the following day.
ITINERARY
|
DATE
|
DAY
|
DEP
|
ARR
|
FLIGHT
| ||||||||||
==============================
|
=====
|
===
|
====
|
======
|
======
| ||||||||||
KLIA - LONDON HEATHROW
|
27JAN
|
FRI
|
0005
|
0550
|
BA34
| ||||||||||
LONDON HEATHROW - ZAGREB PLESO
|
27JAN
|
FRI
|
0825
|
1145
|
BA848
| ||||||||||
ZAGREB PLESO - SKOPJE
|
28JAN
|
SAT
|
2115
|
2245
|
OU366
| ||||||||||
SOFIA INTL - LONDON HEATHROW
|
08FEB
|
WED
|
1410
|
1545
|
BA891
| ||||||||||
LONDON HEATHROW- KLIA
|
08FEB
|
WED
|
1855
|
1520+1
|
BA33
|
That decision extended our holiday to 13 days in the Balkans.
Checking in our luggage at KLIA on 27 January 2017.
Waiting for our flight to be called for departure.
Have you been to the Balkans?
The Balkan region and Peninsula comprise of countries in the southeast region of Europe. They are Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, and the European part of Turkey.
I came to know about the Balkans through EU Holidays Pte Ltd. My family joined them for their "11 days Europe Highlight" group tour at a very good price which includes 2 nights free stay in Dubai, as it was the transit point flying on Emirates to Europe and back. Airport tax was also waived.
Their "11D 8N Adverture to the Balkans" would have cost us close to S$3,000 per person and this does not include transport to Singapore to join the group. I discovered that they have agents in Malaysia promoting the same package at RM10,000.00 plus per person.
I did a search and found a 11 Days package to the Balkans which includes 10 nights stay with breakfast offered by Corporate Information Travel. Their itinerary indicated a discount of 20% if payment is received before 31 January 2017 for group travel, of up to 10 to 12 pax, in 2017. The agent offered us a 10% if we pay in 2016 to travel in 2017. My family of 4 decided to go for it.
The package tour covers 7 countries in the Balkans and these are the places we visited:
I came to know about the Balkans through EU Holidays Pte Ltd. My family joined them for their "11 days Europe Highlight" group tour at a very good price which includes 2 nights free stay in Dubai, as it was the transit point flying on Emirates to Europe and back. Airport tax was also waived.
Their "11D 8N Adverture to the Balkans" would have cost us close to S$3,000 per person and this does not include transport to Singapore to join the group. I discovered that they have agents in Malaysia promoting the same package at RM10,000.00 plus per person.
I did a search and found a 11 Days package to the Balkans which includes 10 nights stay with breakfast offered by Corporate Information Travel. Their itinerary indicated a discount of 20% if payment is received before 31 January 2017 for group travel, of up to 10 to 12 pax, in 2017. The agent offered us a 10% if we pay in 2016 to travel in 2017. My family of 4 decided to go for it.
The package tour covers 7 countries in the Balkans and these are the places we visited:
Skopje (capital) and Ohrib in Macedonia
Triana (capital) in Albania
Budva and Kotor in Montenegro
Dubrovnik in Croatia
Sarajevo (capital) in Bosnia/Herzegovina
Novi Sad and Belgrade (capital) in Serbia
Sofia (capital) in Bulgaria
I found this map of Central Europe posted on the website of the University of Texas Libraries, Austin.
I have amended it because Serbia and Montenegro were known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until 2003. They are now independent states. A better map with boundary of Montenegro can be seen at the following link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans#/media/File:Balkan_peninsula_line.jpg
The other countries that made up former Yugoslavian republics were Bosnia and Herzegovnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, and Kosovo.
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