The neighbouring countries of North Macedonia are not fond of its national concept: Greece is offended by the country’s name and use of Macedonian symbols, while Bulgaria views the country as “artificial” and does not even recognise Macedonian language, claiming that it’s a dialect of Bulgarian.

The capital city Skopje makes a statement by exaggerating the unclear national identity or whatever that is. This is achieved by filling the city with various artifacts. Such as: flags, which are nice.

Classical architecture, which is actually newly built.

Statues, lots of statues.

And my favourite: lions! How can we have a circus without lions?

Which all make the city look ridiculous. I cannot believe that this was all planned, approved and built.

Apart from these obnoxious monuments, the city is brutalist.

Also, it’s gritty. It has lots of ad spaces and ads.

North Macedonia has a significant Albanian population (~30%) and Albanian is an official language, along with Macedonian. I am not sure how this contributes to the Macedonian national identity.

In August the city is boiling. Even unbearable during the day. The river waterfront does not provide any freshness. Look at all the dry grass.

Double-decker buses are another symbol of Skopje, which seem unusual to see here.

The general population also contributes to the symbolic non-sense.

Overall it feels like a weird dream: lots of out-of-place statues and buildings, double-decker buses, intense heat and a language sounding very familiar, but not understandable.

When the sun shines directly on this circle, the Macedonian spirit is summoned. This happens once a day at a different time every day (some say that the spirit is supposed to arrive at sunrise, but it is always late). All the symbols scattered across the city are part of a conversation with this spirit. Unfortunately, there is a big misunderstanding between the Macedonian spirit and the people, so the conversation often becomes heated and resembles a fight. This has been going on for decades.