A Day in Gostivar

On the way to Skopje’s bus station, our taxi driver started up a conversation. “You’re off to Ohrid, right? Beautiful weather for the lake!” We agreed about the weather, but told him that we would be spending this fine summer day in Gostivar. This baffled him. “Gostivar? Why would you want to go there? A job?” Nope, just sightseeing. “Heh, sightseeing in Gostivar! Haha!” He thought we were kidding, and didn’t stop chuckling all the way to the station.

With a population of 80,000, Gostivar is o...