Day 124 - Memorial House of Mother Teresa - Old Baazar - Mustafa Pach Mosque
Saturday, November 3rd, 2018.
We got up late, had a late breakfast and I had to push everybody to shower and get moving! I kind of wanted to stay home as well, but we are so far from home and we have hardly explored the city. Well, we saw it all yesterday, but now we get to choose which museums we want to visit. Yesterday we discovered that Skopje is a wannabe important city. All the big monuments and impressive buildings have been recently built with cheap material. They copied several famous monuments from all over Europe, and everything just seems fake. Please keep in mind that this is my personal opinion, but after doing the tour and listening to the guide, apparently, the citizens of Skopje feel the same. Where is the history of Macedonia? Where are the old buildings of Macedonia?
I understand that the city looks new because after the huge earthquake they had to rebuild many buildings, but why not rescue the old Ottoman buildings and restore them?
Anyway, last night I read some reviews about the museums in Skopje, and they were not great. I know my kiddos don't want to see any more museums, but I decided to go to the Mother Teresa one. Even if it's tiny, it is important to me. Gregory decided to come with me to see it while Sunshine and Daniel stayed home.
-NOTE FROM SUNSHINE-
The reason I stayed home was that I had recently purchased some DIY hair dye I wanted to try out(don't worry Meme, it was just a lighter brown). Here's a tip: don't trust hair dye from the Balkan version of the dollar store, especially if the instructions are in Albanian. I wanted to dye my hair a little lighter, but the dye turned out to be henna, so it made my hair black! It soaked in my hair for about half an hour before I looked in the mirror and freaked out. Daniel stuck my head under the sink and helped me rinse it all out. We stained the counter and a towel in the process, but we were able to pretty much rescue my hair. My parents came home and said It wasn't very noticeable, but I don't think I'll be dying my own hair with only the assistance of my little brother ever again. back to the regularly scheduled blog with Lili...
After the museum, we walked around downtown, did some groceries and picked up the kids to go out for lunch at the old bazaar. We ate smaller portions for the same price as the touristy restaurant we went to two days before. We learned our lesson! After paying with cash, (hardly any places here take credit cards) we walked outside the old market, into the real streets of Skopje. This is the area that I like to see because it is the locals living their daily lives and not all those big and impressive fake buildings. We didn't find an ATM but we found a beautiful mosque called Mustafa Pacha.
After that, we walked back home and relaxed for a little bit, well if you call relax trying to catch up on the blog! Around 7:30pm, Gregory, Sunshine and I went out for coffee. We had a good time with Sunshine alone, she is a very sweet and smart girl. If Daniel had come with us, I would have convinced Gregory to treat us for dinner but we walked back home to prepare dinner. We finished eating at 10:00pm, it seems that we adjusted to the Spain schedule. We all have been going to bed pretty late and even if is a weekend, I would like to get us all back in schedule. Will see...
We got up late, had a late breakfast and I had to push everybody to shower and get moving! I kind of wanted to stay home as well, but we are so far from home and we have hardly explored the city. Well, we saw it all yesterday, but now we get to choose which museums we want to visit. Yesterday we discovered that Skopje is a wannabe important city. All the big monuments and impressive buildings have been recently built with cheap material. They copied several famous monuments from all over Europe, and everything just seems fake. Please keep in mind that this is my personal opinion, but after doing the tour and listening to the guide, apparently, the citizens of Skopje feel the same. Where is the history of Macedonia? Where are the old buildings of Macedonia?
I understand that the city looks new because after the huge earthquake they had to rebuild many buildings, but why not rescue the old Ottoman buildings and restore them?
Anyway, last night I read some reviews about the museums in Skopje, and they were not great. I know my kiddos don't want to see any more museums, but I decided to go to the Mother Teresa one. Even if it's tiny, it is important to me. Gregory decided to come with me to see it while Sunshine and Daniel stayed home.
-NOTE FROM SUNSHINE-
The reason I stayed home was that I had recently purchased some DIY hair dye I wanted to try out(don't worry Meme, it was just a lighter brown). Here's a tip: don't trust hair dye from the Balkan version of the dollar store, especially if the instructions are in Albanian. I wanted to dye my hair a little lighter, but the dye turned out to be henna, so it made my hair black! It soaked in my hair for about half an hour before I looked in the mirror and freaked out. Daniel stuck my head under the sink and helped me rinse it all out. We stained the counter and a towel in the process, but we were able to pretty much rescue my hair. My parents came home and said It wasn't very noticeable, but I don't think I'll be dying my own hair with only the assistance of my little brother ever again. back to the regularly scheduled blog with Lili...
After the museum, we walked around downtown, did some groceries and picked up the kids to go out for lunch at the old bazaar. We ate smaller portions for the same price as the touristy restaurant we went to two days before. We learned our lesson! After paying with cash, (hardly any places here take credit cards) we walked outside the old market, into the real streets of Skopje. This is the area that I like to see because it is the locals living their daily lives and not all those big and impressive fake buildings. We didn't find an ATM but we found a beautiful mosque called Mustafa Pacha.
After that, we walked back home and relaxed for a little bit, well if you call relax trying to catch up on the blog! Around 7:30pm, Gregory, Sunshine and I went out for coffee. We had a good time with Sunshine alone, she is a very sweet and smart girl. If Daniel had come with us, I would have convinced Gregory to treat us for dinner but we walked back home to prepare dinner. We finished eating at 10:00pm, it seems that we adjusted to the Spain schedule. We all have been going to bed pretty late and even if is a weekend, I would like to get us all back in schedule. Will see...
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| Memorial House of Mother Teresa |
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| The museum has important documents like her baptism certificate, photocopy of nobel prizes, her prayer book, etc. |
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| Lots of pictures |
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| Picture of Mother Teresa with her peace nobel price. |
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| Mother Teresa's Sari |
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| Memorial House of Mother Teresa has a Catholic chapel and next to the museum there is a Christian Orthodox Church. |
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| Gregorio, el Grande |
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| The stone bridge |
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| Eating at the old Baazar |
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| Shopping at the old bazaar |
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| Outside the old bazaar, we found the real market for the locals. We saw a lot of stand with people selling socks, underwear, electronics, batteries, etc. |
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| The entrance or exit to the Old Baazar |
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| Who wants meat? |
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| I just had to take a picture of this window. I don't know if the girls dress up a lot here but we saw many stores like this one with fancy and tacky dresses. |
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| Going to explore that mosque up there! |
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| Man washing his feet before prayer |
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| Mosque Mustafa Pacha |
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| I forgot my cover up but had my jacket! |
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| Beautiful blue decorations |
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| Monument to the creators of the Cyrillic alphabet The Cyrillic alphabet owes its name to the 9th-century Byzantine missionary St. Cyril, who, along with his brother, Methodius, created the first Slavic alphabet—theGlagolitic—in order to translate Greek religious text to Slavic. Daniel has learned to read the Cyrillic alphabet very well. It has been very helpful to have him around, Lol |
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