Tetovo, Macedonia Day Trip

One of the things I really wanted to do was to visit Tetovo on a day trip from Skopje. 

I can't seem to find any bus schedules online for Macedonia, and the bus station couldn't give me an exact answer on frequency of buses from Tetovo to Skopje.

I just had to trust there are regular buses that comes back from Tetovo. If not, I might have to hitch hike!

The bus ride from Skopje to Tetovo was about 1 hour and cost MKD 120.

My main interest in visiting Tetovo was for the Pasha's Mosque or Šarena Džamija (which means painted mosque in English).

The mosque was originally built in 1438 and later rebuilt in 1833 by Abdurrahman Pasha.

The entrance to the mosque was closed when I arrived, but an old man saw me and asked if I wanted to go in. He then opened the door for me and it was amazingly beautiful on the inside. Every wall was covered with floral paintings or with images of different mansions. 

The mosque keeper specifically also pointed out to me the depiction of Mecca on one of the walls, which apparently is rare and perhaps the only example of the illustration of the shrine of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, in southeast Europe.

The mosque keeper asked if I was Turkish and I said no, from Singapore. And he said "Selamat" to me, and then later asked if I was Muslim and I said no.

I think I had my head properly covered with the very versatile scarf that made him think I was a Muslim 😂

Apparently there's a story that the mosque was built by 2 sisters, to commemorate their father whom died before he could make a trip to Mecca. The 2 sisters are buried in the gardens of the mosque. 

There's also a hammam (as in most places there's usually a hammam next to a mosque) nearby, which is now converted to an art gallery, but the paintings were rather odd and sparse, with no write up about the art work. 

I went about exploring the city while I was there, passing through the Green Market. The fruits were like 4kg for MKD100, which was just about €1.50!  I would had love to buy something but not a 4kg quantity! 

I was also trying to search for the Dervish Monastery, which required passing through another huge street market, where you can find all kinds of items being sold - fruits and vegetables, cheese, plants, live chickens, clothing, lights, power drills and miscellaneous household items, etc

This also required passing through a huge cemetery located at the foot of the mountains (with some snow). 

The Dervish Monastery appeared to be mostly closed when I was there, so just a couple snaps of the building which seemed to be in a similar colourful style as the Pasha Monastery, though was less well kept as Pasha. 

And then a lunch at a nearby restaurant (Dante Restaurant and Pizzeria) which seemed to had good reviews. It's interesting how everyone who visited the restaurant seems to know each other. The food was average though it was annoying how smoking was allowed indoors. 

I made it with just 5 mins to spare to the bus that leaves at 1.35pm, otherwise I would have to wait for 1 hour for the next bus! It's also interesting how the fare to Tetovo was MKD120, but the return was MKD130. 

I wasn't able to get good views on the way out as the 1st bus had stickers on the window, but the return bus was great, allowing me to see the snow capped mountains on the way back. 

I also saw sheeps and it was hilarious seeing a half eaten box of pizza in the middle of the highway, which of course I only noticed after the photo was taken.