What actually started somehow as a joke, ended up in a 3 day citytrip to the Macedonian capital city Skopje…
My colleague Irfaan asked me in June if I would come with him to visit the Supercup football match between Real Madrid and Manchester United…somewhere in August…
At the time I thought…why not, as doing citytrips is one of my hobbies and when else would I go to visit Skopje? But I actually never thought he would get tickets for the match…so taking it as a joke really…
A joke…until Romy, David and me were having holiday in France last July and Irfaan called me up with the message he scored the matchtickets…As soon as we could we bought the plane tickets and a place to sleep, figuring out that all became a bit expensive…but ok…we went anyway…
Eeearly morning of Monday 7th. August Irfaan picked me up home at 04:30am and before heading for Eindhoven where our Wizzair flight would take us to Skopje Airport directly, we drove by Irfaans brother Chamoun in Rotterdam. After picking him up we made a brief stop at the highway for a pee and a fresh cup of coffee and continued our way to Eindhoven where flight and all went smooth.
Around noon we got to the giant apartment we booked for the night just outside the city center. Quick shower and off we went into town for lunch.
Until now not too many fans showed up, but as temperatures rose to 40 degrees, we could imagine why…We crisscrossed through town visiting the old bazaar and Aleksandar Makedonski square. The latter was arranged for holding the fan zone where a DJ made some noice while fans played some ball games or gazed at the 3 main European trophies (Champions League, Europa League, Supercup) which were put into place for making selfies.
We decided to have a rest home. We listened to some music and had dinner before we went into town again for a beer.
On matchday (Tuesday 8/8) we had to checkout at 11am which we did sharply. Checkout yes, because our flight back to Eindhoven was scheduled for 6am tomorrow morning so paying an extra night was not very profitable in our opinion.
We got to town again finding our breakfast at the Tinex supermarket. The IBIS hotel was so kind to take care of our bags and so we enjoyed another day at sunny Skopje where temperatures hit almost the forties again. Beer and water were alternated and slowly more and more fans showed up in the streets of Skopje were the Mancunians outnumbered the Royals with ease. Because we had tickets for the Real blocks, we decided to walk to the stadium with them. The security checks were so strict, even coins had to be thrown away…
We got to our block and as curious as always I walked around the stadium making some videos and photos by just returning to my seat when the referee whistled for the first time.
The match actually was not too exciting, but to watch players as Bale, Lukaku, Ramos and Ronaldo, it is just a joy to watch. After 90 minutes Real overpowered United with 3-1.
As the game ended around 11pm and and the flight was at 6am…we had some time to kill. We left the stadium after seeing Ronaldo doing his cooling down and waiting for the buses leaving the Telekom Arena. We walked back into the city following the Vardar river and had some kind of late dinner at the Burger King. Soon after we picked up our bags at the IBIS and ordered a taxi for the airport where we had to wait 2 hours before checking in.
Skipping the night and arriving at noon on Wednesday 9 August, an experience richer I jumped into bed to recover…
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