Showing posts with label Skopje. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skopje. 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.

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Image may contain: indoor

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Breakfast in hotel.

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Image may contain: food

Image may contain: food

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Image may contain: food

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).

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.





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.


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.

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Waiting for our flight to be called for departure.