Sunday, August 18, 2013

Aug 9th, Skopje Walk



8/9       Friday
It’s another very hot day, but there’s a fort on the hill to be seen, so we suck it up and head out over the Stone Bridge and up the street to the fortress entry. We have to hike all the way around to the opposite side of the fortress to find the way in, where we come to a big sign: Fortress is Closed to Visitors. Really? They couldn’t find a place for this sign at the bottom of the street?
            We walk back through the Turkish neighborhood, weaving our way through the covered market, stopping to buy some incredible olives. We emerge in the old city, and stop for a cold drink at a little café.
            The Holocaust Memorial is a new, modern, grey granite building just near the Stone Bridge. There are two floors of informative exhibits, panels of photos and maps describing the heritage of the Macedonian Jewish community, who were primarily Sephardic Jews from Spain. They use a language called Ladino, a mix of Hebrew and Spanish. There is a great effort today to preserve the language and culture, despite the fact that there are a mere 200 Jews left in all of Macedonia. The Memorial tells the story of WWII, where thousands of Jews were shipped to Treblinka for extermination.






 1 Video Included

Skopje Walk




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