Skopje for Digital Nomads

Skopje is the capital city of North Macedonia, a country north of Greece, west of Bulgaria, east of Albania and south of Kosovo/Serbia. With so many tourists visiting some of its neighbours, you'd think there would be a spillover of tourism into Macedonia, yet here it sits, not bothering anyone.

Sometimes a lack of visitors is a reason not to go somewhere, and sometimes it's the reason that you should. Which is it with Skopje?

Skopje is surrounded by mountains, which means that when the conditions are right you get some beautiful views. I took this one from the window of my Airbnb.

Why did I come to Skopje?

Because I had no idea what North Macedonia is doing here.

Not only had I never met anyone from North Macedonia, I'd never even met anyone that'd been to North Macedonia. And when I started thinking about coming to Skopje and I mentioned it to some well-travelled, educated Europeans, they'd look at me with a blank expression.

Skopje?

I'd tell them that it's the capital of North Macedonia, but their blank stare would continue. "And that's near South Macedonia?" was one of the responses I received.

It was interesting to me that there's this country in Europe that even Europeans don't know exists. It was either going to be a hidden gem or there was going to be a reason that no one comes here, and it excited me to find out which.

Arriving in Skopje

If you arrive in Skopje by air, as I did, then you're going to arrive at Skopje International Airport, roughly 25km east of the town centre.

There's a shuttle bus service from the airport. This is the most cost-effective way of travelling to the city centre, with tickets costing just 199 ден and the last stop being nearby to Holiday Inn.

Unfortunately the buses leave very infrequently, and though my plan had been to take this shuttle bus to save money, my flight to Skopje was delayed by almost seven hours, so I was just "fuck it, I'm not waiting around" and took a taxi.

Taxis from the airport have set fares. This was the only time I took a taxi in Skopje, but speaking to other people I was led to believe that non-locals get regularly fleeced by taxi drivers, so while the set fares from the airport might seem high, at least you know that you're paying the same as everyone else. The fare to the city centre is 1,500 ден / €25, and will be one of the few times in Skopje where euros will be accepted.

If you need local currency there are several ATMs in the airport arrivals area - you can't miss them. I got charged a 350 ден fee for withdrawing 8,000 ден on my foreign card, but after my delayed flight I couldn't be arsed to fret over it.

If you instead arrive in Skopje by bus, the bus station is about a 30-minute walk from the town centre. I walked here twice - once to buy bus tickets, and then once with all my luggage when I left Skopje. Even dragging a suitcase behind it's an easy walk, although there are plenty of taxis hanging around, as well as some local buses if you've got too much to carry.

You'll see this sign of set fares at the taxi rank in the airport. The top line (Airport - SKOPJE for 1,500 ден / €25) is the one you're likely to want if you're staying in Skopje.

Getting into Skopje

Holders of many passports can enter North Macedonia for 90 days visa-free. I entered on my German passport. I didn't get asked a single question or even have my passport stamped. The border agent just took a quick look at my passport, handed it back to me, and that was it. Couldn't have been easier.

Registering in Skopje

Under North Macedonian law, any foreigner staying in paid accommodation must be reported to the local police within 12 hours. I only found this out after I arrived when my Airbnb host said that she needed to come around to collect my passport. And while it is the responsibility of your host to do this registration, if it's not done then you are the one that faces fines when leaving the country (typically €500 to €1,000). Therefore it's in your interest to chase after your host if they don't offer to do this for you.

My host took my passport to the local police station, then returned about 15-20 minutes later with a registration card. She instructed me that on my penultimate day in Skopje, I needed go back to the police station and get the card completed with my departure date.

I did that. I held-up the card to the policeman who was in the station. Without a word, he took it, found a piece of paper that was sitting in a file, completed something on it, added my departure date to the card, and handed it back to me. Not a single word was spoken.

Whether that ever made it onto a computer or not I'm not sure, but no one ever asked me for this registration card when my bus crossed the border into Bulgaria, and nor did I see anyone else get asked for their registration card, so this was likely an entirely pointless process, but these are the rules and to mitigate even the slight risk of receiving a large fine, ensure that you're registered by your host when you arrive in Skopje.

My registration card once completed with the departure date.

How do I feel about Skopje?

With my flight being delayed for seven hours, it was the middle of the night by the time I arrived so I didn't get to see Skopje in the daylight until the next day.

I was greeted that next morning by heavy rain; some of the only bad weather I saw in Skopje apart from when hail stones the size of chicken nuggets started randomly falling out of the sky when it was 30°C. But I had to get outside and get setup in Skopje by figuring-out restaurants, supermarkets, getting a SIM card etc. So I trudged-out into the rain to what resembled a scene from The Last of Us.

Why are there no people here? And why are all of the shops and restaurants closed?

A shopping mall was thankfully open, meaning I could at least buy some food from the supermarket to take back to my room, but what the Hell is going on? It's cold, wet, there are no people, and everything's closed.

Turns-out this day was a public holiday, and I'd just timed my arrival in Skopje really, really badly. There were no more public holidays during my stay and it was shorts and t-shirts weather everyday thereafter. It wasn't a good first impression, but in the following days I started to really love Skopje.

Friendly people, a calm and relaxed place, good restaurants, beautiful scenery. For about a week I was smitten over Skopje and so glad that I'd come here.

By the end of my stay I'd tempered that view a little bit. While it remains in my mind a really nice, really beautiful, really friendly place, I also found it a bit boring. I just didn't find that much to do. Which can be nice, because I was more productive here than I've been in a long time, and I ticked-off some lingering to-dos. But it's hard to get excited about somewhere that isn't exciting.

Who is Skopje suitable for?

Given the above, I'd say that you're only going to want to venture here if you're someone who's happy in their own company. I'll get into the social side of Skopje below, but you're going to spend a lot of time alone.

North Macedonia is not in Schengen. Given its location, it's great for people needing to get out of Schengen to reset their 90-days.

It's also got the smallest tourist presence of any capital city I've ever been to. You'll see occasional tour groups being herded like muppets around the Alexander statue everyday, but that's about it. It's a city that hasn't changed at all for tourists, even in the centre, which for a European capital is rare. So if you're fed-up of being treated like a tourist and just want to be treated like a person, then you might like it here.

Paying for things in Skopje

The currency used in North Macedonia is the Macedonian denar. Typically prices are just a number without any currecy symbol, but you might also see the suffix ден, which is the short form of the word 'denar' in Macedonian Cyrillic. In international currency contexts you'll see it shortened to MKD.

In most places the denar is the only currency that's accepted, and that is what you should expect to pay with, but you will encounter euros on occasion. I was given change in euros when I took a taxi from the airport, presumably because the taxi driver gets paid in euros by tourists all the time and he wanted to get rid of them. And when I bought a bus ticket to Sofia, the bus company didn't accept card payment, but did accept euros, which was lucky because I didn't have enough denar left.

In 95% of places in Skopje card payment is accepted, but it's one of those frustrating situations where it's not accepted everywhere, so you need to carry cash with you just in case. All big businesses like supermarkets accept card payment, but you'll occasionally go somewhere like a restaurant or a barbershop where only cash is accepted.

When I arrived in Skopje I withdrew 8,000 ден from an ATM in the airport. This lasted me for my entire five-week stay. I didn't need to use an ATM again, which was lucky because the ATM charged me 350 ден to make the withdrawal on my foreign card. I'm uncertain whether all ATMs charge such a high fee, or whether this was for the privilege of withdrawing money in the airport. I read that Halk Bank, Stopanska Banka and Uni Banka all have low fees, but I never verified this.

As long as you have a debit card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees, then you'll be able to pay for almost everything by card, and won't need to go to an ATM more than once during your stay.

How affordable is Skopje?

Skopje is the only place I've been that's cheaper than South-East Asia. My accommodation was £20.52 per night for a large, really beautiful one-bedroom apartment. And that's Airbnb prices. Shop around on Facebook groups and I'll bet you can find something for half that. Groceries and restaurants are good value too.

What language is spoken in Skopje?

Macedonian.

Is it easy to get by with English in Skopje?

A lot of people in Skopje have a basic grasp of English. Not everyone, so definitely don't expect it. But typically when going into a restaurant or dealing with a cashier in the supermarket, as soon as they realised that I didn't speak Macedonian, they'd know enough English to communicate simple things.

Some products in the supermarket include English labelling, but many don't. Google Translate works pretty well with Macedonian.

As there's little tourism here, don't expect English signs or English to be spoken, but you can get by fairly easily.

How is the Internet in Skopje?

While the speed tests I did here were a little uninspiring (roughly 25mbps download speed and 10mbps upload speed in my Airbnb), I didn't really have any connection issues in Skopje.

In my Airbnb the connection never once dropped-out, with the only frustration being that the wifi didn't always reach to the toilet. In coffee shops and cafes that I connected to I never had an issue either, and my mobile data always worked. For normal use, including video calls, you won't have issues in Skopje.

Is the tap water drinkable in Skopje?

I drank it everyday and look how great I turned-out.

Is Skopje safe?

Yes, I didn't really sense any crime while I was here.

I saw local cyclists being very mindful to lock-up their bikes when they stopped anywhere, the security guards in the shopping malls carry truncheons and the police all have guns strapped to their hips. I'm sure that's for a reason, but I at no point felt unsafe.

Throwing away your rubbish in Skopje

It may sound a niche interest, but I'm always fascinated by how countries choose to handle sanitation because it's an issue faced by every country in the world, so how each one chooses to handle the problem says a lot about them.

And having thrown away rubbish all over the world, Eastern Europe does it better than anywhere else, at least from a convenience perspective. They're the worst at recycling.

But the way it works here is the same as in Greece or Bulgaria, where every couple of hundred metres you'll find a large bin at the side of the road. You just throw your trash in there. There is no specific bin day like in the UK. There is no chasing after a bin lorry like in Taiwan. Just anytime you need to throw out your trash, the bins are there waiting.

You don't separate recycling in Skopje. Everything goes in these bins, because fuck the environment, that's why.

Tips for Skopje

If you, like me, know little about Macedonia other than it being where Alexander the Great came from, then a lucky coincidence is that the latest 'Hardcore History' podcasts when I was here were about Alexander the Great (Apple/Spotify).

All the statues around the city might mean a little more to you after listening to them.

My other little tip for Skopje is that if you go to a restaurant and see a sign that says 'self-service', be aware that it does not mean that the restaurant is self-service. You are not supposed to go behind the counter and start helping yourself to food.

It's a mistranslation that I saw in several restaurants in Skopje, but what they mean is counter-service. It's not table service, go to the counter to order, but don't go and start helping yourself to food.

Getting around Skopje

Apart from taking a taxi from the airport, I walked everywhere that I went in Skopje. It's quite a small city, and I didn't find anywhere I wanted to go to be out of walking distance.

Buses in Skopje resemble London buses in appearance, as many people felt the need to tell me. I was told by locals that if I did want to take the bus, then all the information on and around the bus itself is in Macedonian only. However, there's an app called 'SkopjeBus' which has information about the buses in English, so if you want to take one, I suggest downloading that.

For unknown reasons, Skopje's buses, both single and double-decker, are copies of London's red buses.

Being sociable in Skopje

The difficulty of having a social life was probably my least favourite thing about Skopje.

The only regular event I'm aware of here is the Sunday Meetup from the Skopje Expats ::: Events Facebook group. Every Sunday at 5pm around a dozen or so people, a mix of regulars and new people, meet at Café Samo for an English-language social.

I went three times during my time in Skopje, and while it was always pleasant, having it on a Sunday is a curious choice. I did query why, and the response was that it used to be on a Friday, but as it's an expats meetup, Americans working on US timezones couldn't come, so they moved it to Saturday. But on Saturday, many people had other things to do, so they moved it to Sunday. The upshoot of that, is that with many people working the next day (myself included), most people don't drink and it's a rather tame affair. Ironically I never saw an American there.

There's an associated WhatsApp group that you need to get one of the admins to invite you to by attending in person. You'll find in that group people will arrange other, more off-the-cuff events.

Search on Facebook you'll find other one-off events, but I'm unaware of anything else regular. There are no MeetUp events in Skopje.

The Sunday expats Meetup at Café Samo.

Things I don't like about Skopje

I could probably copy and paste this paragraph from any article that I've written about Eastern Europe, but nothing bothered me in Skopje more than smoking.

I hate smoking. I hate being around smoking, I hate the smell of it, I hate taste of it, and I hate the people that do it. And in Eastern Europe, everybody smokes. It's my one grievance with this region as a whole.

While smoking isn't technically allowed indoors in Skopje, the boundaries get pushed to the limits by both what's considered indoors, and by what's considered smoking.

Is that window open? Then this is outdoors. Do I have an electronic cigarette holder? Then that's not really smoking, is it?

Each time I went to a social event in Skopje, I didn't go home depending on when I wanted to go home, I went home depending on when I'd had enough of breathing-in second-hand smoke. And the biggest frustration I had with my apartment, was that with no AC in the bedroom I had to keep the windows open all night to stay cool. Someone in one of the surrounding apartments smoked on their balcony like a chimney, which meant a constant flow of smoke blowing-in through my bedroom window.

Without smoking I'd think of Skopje far more highly than I do.

Where to run in Skopje

One thing that I found odd about Skopje, is that in five weeks here, I didn't see a single person running along the road. And I was looking for them.

Despite there being little summer pollution, easy-to-cross roads, and wide, quiet pavements, people just don't run along the roads here. I'm not sure why.

That being said, you do have some very good options.

Riverside

All of my runs in Skopje were along the riverside. I would walk down to the nearest point of the river from my room, which happened to be the Stone Bridge in front of the Alexander statue, and I'd either turn left or turn right and just run along the riverside.

There's a cycle path that lines the riverside, although it's used by runners, walkers, electric scooters and even rollerbladers as much as it is cyclists. I did 10km out-and-back runs from Stone Bridge in both directions, and neither time did I run out of cycle path. It presumably goes on quite a lot further.

The terrain is basically the same in both directions, running along a paved cycle path next to a river, although I found the scenery to be more pleasant turning left at the bridge and going north-westish.

All of my runs were on the south side of the river, but you could also try the path on the north side.

The cycle path (on the right) is used as much by runners as it is cyclists. It's flat and goes as far in both directions as I wanted to run.

City Park

City Park is the imaginatively named main park in the city of Skopje. It's attached to the riverside, so can be combined with riverside runs. Honestly though, I didn't really like it.

I came here when I first arrived in Skopje and was scouting-out places to run, and it just didn't feel like a very pleasant park to me. Way too much trash lying around. I never came back again. However, it does have wide paths all the way around it, and also what I can only assume is supposed to be a running track?

There's a small loop of a rubberised running surface with a maze inside it. But when I say small, I do mean small. I'd be surprised if one loop is 100m, so good luck going around in circles. But hey, if you want to do sprints it might be suitable.

City Park isn't overly pleasant, but it does have wide paths.

Vodno

Vodno is that big mountain thing with a cross on it that you can see from the city centre, and is the most convenient place that I found in Skopje to go for a trail run.

From where I was staying it was roughly a 20-minute walk to the trailhead. From town, follow the main road until you can veer-off to the right, at which point you'll find yourself next to a little car park facing a rounded wall. At this wall you can either turn left or turn right.

Turn left.

I only came to Vodno once during my stay, when I was scouting places to run. I went left at the wall because I was following someone who had hiking gear on and who looked like they knew where they were going, and it was a lovely hike up to the Middle Vodno. Natural, peaceful with beautiful views.

I tried to come back down the same way but took a wrong turn somewhere, and came down a much less pleasant mountain bike path. When I got to the bottom I came from the right of this rounded wall, so while going in either direction gets you up Vodno, the left path is the nicer route.

I noted at the start of this path there was a red and white arrow saying 'Middle Vodno', and it was above some red and white spray paint. I took that to mean I should follow the red and white spray painted onto trees, so anytime I got to a junction, that's what I did. Walking at a leisurely pace and stopping to explore on the way, it still took me less than an hour to get to Middle Vodno.

Also worth noting that this sign with an arrow had a QR code which you can scan to download a map. I didn't realise this until I was back at the bottom, and it wasn't necessary - it'd be hard to get lost here, but I'll add the QR code to the photos below if you want to scan it.

My intention when I came here was to hike to the top of Vodno. However, I made the mistake of coming here on a sunny Saturday in early summer. And while the hike up to Middle Vodno was beautiful and I barely saw another person, there's also a road to Middle Vodno. I got so demoralised by all the smoking fat people that had just driven there, that I didn't fancy going all the way to the top - there's a cable car you can take up, so I figured it'd be the same at the top.

Instead I went back down, pledging to come back on a quieter day and go all the way to the top. Which I never did.

Still, I know for a fact that you can walk or run all the way to the top of the mountain, and going just up to Middle Vodno is a pleasant walk or run in itself, which I comfortably did in a scuffed-up old pair of poorly-tied tennis shoes. If you've got good trail running shoes you'll be fine here.

Just beware that the rewards for your effort get diminished by all the overweight people that take the easy way up.

If you walk here from the town centre, veer off to the right of the main road and you'll face this rounded wall next to a small car park. You can go to the left or to the right of the wall - both will take you up Vodno. However I suggest going left. The walk is much more pleasant.

Getting vegan food in Skopje

When it comes to getting vegan food, I found Skopje to be a little bit lacking in quality options.

By far the best place to get vegan food is Paradise Food (below). I went there roughly every other day that I was in Skopje. Beyond that I found it better to cook at home.

Vegan 365 should have been my kind of place, being a family-run vegan restaurant with a focus on preventing animal cruelty, yet I found it to be repeatedly so frustrating that I never left happy.

It would be closed on sporadic and seemingly random days. I came here on two occasions when it should have been open, only to find that it wasn't. It's a small restaurant with only four tables, and on one of the four occasions that I did eat here I was sat alone at the smallest table, which can comfortably sit no more than two people. Although other tables were free when I arrived, service was so slow (an ongoing issue) that by the time my food arrived there were no free tables left. Right as I was about to tuck-into my rather messy burger, these two large German women stood over me and asked in their deep voices "do you mind if we sit here too?"

There was a much bigger table at the back of the restaurant also occupied by only one person, not to mention free tables outside, so in my head I was thinking "no, fuck off and let me eat my burger in peace you stupid fat Germans." Yet for some reason I have a need to avoid offending people, so sheepishly agreed and had to eat my burger trapped in a corner. I didn't like that they asked in the first place, although I did note that a high percentage of the customers here were a bit odd, but I didn't like even more that the staff, who were standing right there, didn't ask them to wait for a free table or to sit outside.

Just because it's a fully-vegan restaurant I came back again, and to avoid the previous issues I picked a quiet time when I was the only customer, yet right as my food arrived, in walked a woman with a buggy and a screaming baby. It was plain from the reactions of the staff that this baby was part of the family that runs this family run restaurant. But they then proceded to change this baby on one of the restaurant tables. The one right behind me. So I had both the smell, and the incessant crying of a baby being changed, one to two metres away from where I was having lunch. I will never, ever return to this restaurant.

Although not vegan, I had a much better experience at Zen Gusto. It's basic food, but they have a couple of vegan options on their menu including a vegan feta sandwich.

And as I speak Thai, I wanted to find someone in Skopje to speak Thai with. That was part of my motivation for going to Thai Box, although more interesting to me was that one of the keywords on Google Maps reviews of Thai Box is 'middle finger', in which you'll find three separate reviews of people claiming that the staff gave them the middle finger. Unfortunately the staff were lovely, and I chatted to the Thai chef in Thai for a while which made me happy.

The food was a little lacking though. I came in and asked for something vegan. When I was offered rice with vegetables, I asked if they had any tofu. They didn't. So it was just rice with vegetables, but at least I got to practice Thai for a bit.

Being a fully-vegan, ethically-focussed restaurant, Vegan 365 should have been my kind of place. Yet every time I ate here something would make me leave angry. Never the food. The food was always good. This is the cheeseburger for 250 ден, plus 80 ден for the fries. The drink behind it is the Immuno smoothie for 220 ден.

Paradise Food

Dame Gruev broj 7

My favourite restaurant in Skopje by far, Paradise Food is a fully-vegan restaurant with the exception that one of the drinks includes honey. When you go up to the counter, on your left are some pre-made, individually-priced items, including pizza slices, lasagne, and burritos. On the right is a buffet where you're charged by weight.

The buffet has the nicer, fresher, healthier food, but if you're not disciplined, it costs a small fortune. As I was going through something of a health-kick in Skopje, I'd often come here after a workout when craving calories, and I'd get my plate loaded so high it'd cost me up to 700 ден. The individually-priced items were closer to 100 ден per item, and three of them was an equivalent sized meal.

While there are three tables downstairs, the whole of the upstairs is tables, and even at peak lunch hour I never came here when I couldn't have one to myself. They also do everything to take-away.

In what must have been 15-20 visits, not once did someone change a baby on the table next to me, and I didn't see any fat Germans. Now that's my kind of restaurant.

When you go to Paradise Food you can either get food from the buffet, in which you'll be charged by weight, or from the fridge of individually-priced items. The former is fresher and healthier food, whereas the latter represents better value. This plate from the buffet cost me 490 ден.

Groceries

When going to supermarkets in Skopje, you can expect to find plenty of vegan cheese, like in every city in Eastern Europe for reasons I've never understood. Other than that, intentionally vegan options are a little bit lacking - you won't find too much pre-prepared vegan food that you can pop in the oven or microwave. And for some reason none of the supermarkets here stock tofu, which is weird. The only place I found tofu was in the fridge of Paradise Food, where they make and sell it.

Eastern Europe sure does love vegan cheese for some reason. Here it is in Ramstore supermarket, but more importantly, look at all the hummus!

Where I stayed

Cozy Sunny Apartment

50-ta Divizija 26 3/22

At £20 per night for an Airbnb, you might be thinking that I skimped on accommodation, but it's not the case at all, Skopje is just that cheap. It's the cheapest Airbnb I've ever had, but was still one of the nicest.

As is the case when I stay anywhere, of most importance to me is staying somewhere that gets a lot of natural light, and being up on the 5th floor with slanted south-facing windows, this room gets a lot of natural light. It faces Vodno so has some great views too.

It has AC, but worth noting that it only has AC in the living room. It doesn't do much to keep the bedroom cool, and as I was here during a heatwave, that meant that I had to put the fan on the bedside table and sleep with the windows open just to stay cool at night, which was marginally problematic for a couple of reasons.

Firstly is that this is Eastern Europe, and so everyone smokes. Being on the 5th floor, if anyone on the floors below sits on their balcony and smokes, then the smoke comes-in through the open windows. I did grow a bit tired of breathing-in second-hand smoke at random points day and night. And secondly, usually only on Friday and Saturday nights, there was a bit of external noise - loud music from somewhere nearby, which could get annoying.

These were problems very specific to being here when the temperatures were getting up to 37°C during the daytime. Should you come at cooler times of year when you can sleep with the windows closed they'll be non-issues.

The room is very spacious, particularly the living room, and is equipped with everything that you might need, barring a microwave. Lots of cooking equipment and utensils, a washing machine, and lots of comfortable chairs to sit at.

There's also a "drying room" that includes a clothes rack. Great for drying clothes, but of little other use, and it seemed to be there in place of a balcony. Given the views and the beautiful weather, a balcony would have been amazing, but alas, you can look out the window instead.

The room includes wifi - roughly 25mbps download speed and 10mbps upload speed from my tests. Fast enough for video calls and a reliable connection, so long as you're close enough to the router, which is in the living room behind the TV. Frustratingly, if you're sitting on the toilet or lying in bed, which is 95% of where I use my phone, the connection gets patchy.

The location of the room is really good. About a 15 minute walk from the Alexander the Great statue that marks the centre of Skopje, less than 30 minutes walk to the bus station, about 20 minutes walk to the base of Vodno, and there are three large supermarkets within 5-10 minutes walking.

Ramstore is the best of these, and where I did most of my shopping in Skopje, although it does occasionally suffer from long queues. Vero Market in Diamond Mall has the same products as Ramstore but higher prices. Tinex is pretentious and shit, but it has self-service machines, and Eastern Europeans are scared of self-service machines so you're never going to have to queue.

I met my host in person on one occasion - when she came to collect my passport to register me at the local police station. For doing this I very much appreciated her, but she also did one thing that annoyed me.

In the house manual it says:

For stays of 3 weeks or longer, we strongly reccomend to ask us to organize an intermediate cleaning (or approximately every 10 to 14 days). The price is 25 Euros (1500 MKD) to be given to the cleaning lady.

When the host came to collect my passport, she also informed me that she'd already arranged for the cleaner to come twice during my stay, and asked me if that was ok.

In order to have a good relationship with her and to placate any concerns that I might be a bad tenant, I agreed, but this annoyed me.

I'm a very clean person. If no cleaner had come during my stay you wouldn't really know - the room would still look the same. So the fact that she'd arranged for the cleaner to come at a cost of €50 to me, and then only afterwards asked if that was ok, left a bit of a sour taste. The house manual makes it sound like an optional extra. The reality is it's organised without your input or consent.

I didn't even think the cleaner did a great job. My least favourite chore is changing the bedding, so I at least thought it'd save me having to do that.

Nope, she didn't do it.

Even adding €50 onto the price, this is still a great value room. Lots of natural light, very spacious, well-equipped and a perfect location. Despite its flaws I'd stay here again.

The main reason I booked this room was to stay somewhere with a lot of natural light. The slanted windows face south (the same in the bedroom). In that sense it's absolutely glorious, not to mention the living room has more than enough space to exercise and plenty of comfortable seating.

Summary of Skopje

The world would be a much better place if all urinals were at dick height. Short people can fuck off.

Do I want to come back again?

Skopje falls into the category of amazing places that no one seems to know about.

While Skopje's not an exciting place, it's one of my favourite not exciting places in the world, and I say that unironically.

As a digital nomad, at least one who's in it for the long-term, you can't just go to exciting places and party all the time. Sometimes you need to go somewhere that you can focus on yourself, get your health in order, and tick-off some lingering to-dos.

That's what Skopje is. It's beautiful, it's friendly, it's cheap, and there's nothing to do. I was more productive here than anywhere else that I've been, and I would gladly come back here to do nothing all over again.