I found a new companion for a few days in Skopje, the lovely Elke. We walked to the edge of the city and up Jesus mountain to The Millennium Cross. At night in the city you can see the 66-metre tall cross illuminated at the top of the Vodno Mountain; it is one of the tallest crosses in the world. I wanted to hike the hill and possibly see over into the canyon on the other side but time was limited. I wish I could have taken a boat up the Matka Canyon or kayak but I'll have to do it next time. There are a few routes up the hill and we inevitably chose one that was a little harder than the rest. There were two reasons for this: I was very relaxed and wanted Elke to lead the way and the second was how much time we had until sunset.

En-route there was an abandoned structure with its roof collapsed in and we also found a Christmas tree complete with ball balls and tinsel in the dense foliage of the forest.

The summit was thick with fog and we could just about make out the immense structure in the distance. From a 2002 census, 68.5% of the population of Skopje identify as Eastern Orthodox, while 28.6% are Islamic; it seems odd to have such a mighty Christian structure given the Ottoman history and current religious demographics.

The top of the mountain is was particularly chilly, maybe around 2°C. We caught the cable car swiftly down the mountain and enjoyed tea in a pub whilst we waited for the bus to take us back to the city. One of the peculiar things about Skopje is that they commissioned a company in China to produce the famous Routemaster Buses found in London; I did not expect see them in the Balkans. It felt so strange that much of the presented culture is imported.