Official Name: Republic of Macedonia; Official Language: Macedonian (based on the Cyrillic script); Territory Coverage: 25,713 sq km; Population: 2,038,000 (2003); Ethnic Groups: Macedonians (65%), Albanians (25%), Turks (2%),
Serbs (2%), Vlachs (1%) & other; Religion: Macedonian Orthodox (70%), Muslim, Roman
Catholic. Position: South-eastern Europe, at the heart of the Balkan
Peninsula. The climate is predominately continental (hot, dry summers &
cold winters). In higher regions summers are cool & winters are cold,
with a lot of snow. Time Zone: Central European Time (GMT +1). Daylight saving time
(one hour ahead) is used in spring and autumn.
1st & 2nd of January -
New Year;
7th January - Christmas Eve;
April - Easter;
1st & 2nd of May - Labor Days;
2nd of August - National Holiday of Ilinden;
8th of September - Independence Day of the Republic of
Macedonia;
11th of October - Celebration of the Rebellion of the
Macedonian people.
The abovementioned days and each Sunday in the week,
are holidays. Nevertheless, as well as most of the restaurants of bars,
work even during the holidays. In all working days, the shops are opened
from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. Only in Saturdays they work from 8:00 am to
3:00 pm (there are usually extended working hours in tourist areas
during the season.
Institutions and offices: Monday to Friday 8:00
am, Saturday 9 am to 5 pm. Banks: Monday to Friday 8am to 7 pm, Saturday 8 am to 12 am (you
can expect extended working hours at the airports).
The monetary unit in the Republic of Macedonia is
the denar. Foreign visitors may convert foreign funds into local
currency in all banks or private exchange offices, which abide by the
exchanges rates recommended by the National Bank of the Republic of
Macedonia. Upon entering Macedonia you should declare the amount of
money you are carrying if you intend to take all or part of it out of
the country.
You can use all established international credit cards (American
Express, Visa, Dinners, MasterCard/EuroCard) as well as Eurocheques in
most hotels, shops and restaurants.
The National parks: Mavrovo,
Pelister
& Galičica. The lakes: of
Ohrid, of
Prespa, Dojran
& of
Treska and the canyon Matka. In winter, the winter tourists centers: Zare
Lazarevski, in the Mavrovo national park,
Popova
Šapka, above Tetovo in the Šar mountain &
Pelister,
above Bitola on the foothills of Baba mountain. The historical cities: Ohrid(the centre of the Slavonic literacy, the capital of the feudal
Macedonian state, where 365 churches used to exist once upon a time), Kruševo
(where the Macedonians in 1903 held an uprising against the Ottomans).
