Wednesday 6 July. Day 20: Negotino to Skopje

July 6, 2016

Looking north in the Vadar river valley, outside Negotino

We spent a short morning riding the old road next to the M1 motorway to Skopje. It was pretty empty of traffic as a consequence. We were on our way to Stobi, the ancient Roman city - or ruins thereof.

Riding the R1102 - the old main road to Skopje.

Although Stobi was discovered in 1924, excavation didn't start until the 1960s. Very little has been uncovered so far. Stobi is of a similar vintage to Heraklea near Bitola, but less crowded (i.e. almost empty). We decided only to 'do' one, and this was it!

You are given a guide as part of the entrance fee (who we also tipped at the end, but I'm not sure it was expected?). Our young guide had great English and a good university degree. She was really happy to have this job - and certainly was able to give us heaps of information as we walked around in the heat.

Mosaic floor, from the baptistry of the Episcopal basilica built in the 5th C. AD

The city was formed at the meeting of the rivers Crna and Vardar and was a crossing point for several key long distance roads of the Roman Empire. It was already occupied with settlements before the Romans from at least 1900BC, and was also an important city in the ancient Greek empire from the 4th century BC. Lots of history to be dug up!

One of the houses or palaces - I can't remember which!

After the 3rd Macedonian war in 168BC, Stobi became one of the largest urban centres in Macedonia.

After being attacked by Goths in 478AD and having a couple of major earthquakes, the remaining town was basically abandoned after the 13th C.

Archaeology students from the USA spending a summer volunteering on the excavation. It was stupidly hot. We had arrived early (about 10am?) but it was soon getting too hot to walk around without burning to a crisp. Within an hour of this photo it was lunchtime and everyone was snoozing under trees...

The tools of archeology. Earth-moving on different scales.

Our plan had been to continue riding to Veles (a reasonably large town) and then try to get a bus to Skopje to avoid the afternoon heat and a ride that had little interest to us. We arrived in Gradko looking for somewhere to buy cold drinks and maybe some bread for lunch, only to see a small group of people waiting at the bus stop. We established using three key words in Macedonian: Skopje (it works in any language); autobus (автобус) for bus; and golem (голем) for big which I had remembered because of the character in Jewish folklaw. I was worried that a minbus might make the bikes (even folding bikes) harder to manage. Plus lots of pointing at clocks and sticking fingers in the air. We established that the big bus to Skopje was due in 10 minutes. So that was it. We took it!

We had a ride through town back to the hotel and spent a few hours taking the bikes apart enough for the suitcases; cleaning them for Australian customs; and packing them away. Local kittens (strays?) had a marvellous time sitting on things we needed, hiding in the suitcases and generally getting in the way. CUTE. A local came out to check on the kittens - it seems she feeds, treats their eye infections etc.

Grilled vegetables at Gostilnica Dukat, about a 10 minute walk from the hotel.

It was common to have a three piece live band in restaurants. It was extrememly uncommon for them to play traditional Macedonian music. It was extrememly common for them to play Mariah Carey. It was even MORE common to see the European Cup Football on every TV screen in every restaurant...

Today's ride: 25 km (16 miles)
Total: 475 km (295 miles)

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