Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
The relevant particulates are under 10 microns across, so there isn't much to see, but you may smell a certain smokiness in the air. There is one other town in North Macedonia with the highest level of pollution in Europe, Tetovo, but Skopje is usually in the top 4 most polluted cities in Europe and easily the most polluted European capital city, where the impact has a measurable negative impact on lifespan. It looks ok when you are there, a bit of haze maybe, but the city is hemmed in by mountains,it suffers from temperature inversion and isn't that windy, so pollution gets capped down at low levels. Access to wood is easy and cheap, given the surrounding forests, and so when subsidised coal ended with the collapse of Tito's Yugoslavia there was this fatal switch to wood burning stoves.
It wasn't so much in Tetovo, but tonight I drove from Skopje to Ohrid (not a great idea to do at night lol, luckily no snow, just ugly mountain roads with no lights and heavy rains) towards the end i DEFINITELY smelled "camping" that distinct wood burning stank.
Originally Posted by
Will100
This whole thing is ridiculous.
If you are old and vulnerable flu is dodgy at any time.
Just travel, live your life and enjoy the sale fares and empty cabins.
I wouldn't say it's "ridiculous" but I agree with the rest of your statement. My biggest issue is that I haven't seen much of the sale fares. At least, nothing like out of the normal type sales. I fully expected to see like some premium cabin fares with low prices, but haven't seen much of it yet. Hoping some stuff still pops up, I've got free time in the summer...