Now that we had completed a brief tour of our closest neighbors, we turned again to our bin of country names and drew one out. It was the Republic of Northern Macedonia! It was exciting because knew so little about the country. We immediately looked it up on a map.
The Republic of North Macedonia is on of the states that resulted from the breakup of Yugoslavia. It is bordered by Serbia on the north (and Kosovo, a partially recognized state in the southwest corner of Serbia), Bulgaria on the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west. Completely landlocked, it shares a couple of large lakes with Albania (Lake Ohrid) and Greece (Lake Prespa, also shared with Albania). Its capital is Skopje, located near the northern border.
Video List:
- Geography Now! Rep of North Macedonia
- Flag/Fan Friday Rep. of North Macedonia - no fan stuff this time, just flag stuff
- Why Do Greece & Macedonia Hate Each Other? - the first couple of videos allude to ongoing disputes between the two countries, so we thought we would look up what was behind it. Informative and professional.
- 10 Cool Facts About Macedonia - the kid isn't sure about his pronunciations, but the facts really are cool
- Macedonian Language - a native speaker of Macedonian runs through a lot of typical phrases and words
- Macedonian Food Tour in Skopje - a little more talking than eating, but shows some fun food and the atmosphere of Skopje (NOTE: does involve alcohol consumption)
- Why You Should Visit Macedonia - has a lot of cool jazz going and the pace is slow, but the views of the area are gorgeous and the video isn't that long
We had fun using Google Earth to visit the places mentioned in the videos, like walking through Skopje and Lake Ohrid. I wasn't sure what to do for food, though. I looked up a wonderful list of Macedonian dishes, but didn't feel up to the task of making any of them. Tavce Gravce (a baked beans dish) looked like the most likely candidate, but I didn't have a terracotta dish to be authentic. There are no Macedonian restaurants (that I could find) here in San Antonio. So as a last ditch attempt, I went to Amazon to try and find something from Macedonia - and success! I found ajvar, a spread made from roasted peppers and eggplant. It was made in Gevgelija, Macedonia and tastes really good on warm, toasted pita bread.
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