Skopje - officially under construction

I arrived this afternoon in Skopje, having landed in Pristina and crossed into Macedonia by taxi. Much the least hassling way to get here given the daily BA flights to Pristina from Gatwick.

Even in the 18 months since I was here it has changed remarkably, with the current right wing nationalist government's 'antiquitisation' programme involving ever larger status of Alexander the Great and Philip of Macedonia, all designed to rile the Greeks as much as possible.

Monstrous new buildings are going up along the river with faux colonades, alongside genuinely interesting older bronzes of Macedonian heroes like the one in the picture. What finished off the composition for me however was the caravan just behind the statue. Nice touch.