First impressions so far of Skopje, North Macedonia:

Everyone is super nice and most people speak good English

There are a TON of cultural statues and buildings, largely thanks to Skopje 2014.

Everyone wears masks and people take disinfecting seriously. I had to wait 15 minutes to get a SIM card as they disinfected the small shop, and my gym is open for 1.5 hours at a time, then closed for 30 minutes while they disinfect everything, then open for another 1.5 hours, repeating the process until the gym closes.

People online say that Skopje is “kitsch” and while that may be true, it’s a helluva lot more interesting than somewhere like Kosovo or Belgrade. I love all the statues and cultural buildings.

As with Albania, Mother Teresa is a huge thing of pride here, as she lived in Skopje for 18 years. There are statues of her, monuments, placards with her quotes, and every souvenir shop has something with her on it.

EVERYONE wears a mask. Belgrade was about 20% mask-wearing, Tirana was 50%, Pristina was 95% and Skopje is easily 100%.