After nearly a full week in Bulgaria, we were off to our next destination in the Balkans, Skopje, the capital city of North Macedonia. We decided to fly and we flew Austrian Airlines. We had a two hour layover in Vienna. Normally travel gurus advise against just having two hours layover anywhere but luckily for us, we made our connection with more than enough time to spare. In fact, our bags made it to our connecting flight too.

We flew out very early in Sofia. By this time, we had spent the night at the Ibis Sofia Airport so we would be a lot closer. In fact, we didn't want to take any chances and we left our hotel for the airport right before dawn. The hotel provided the free shuttle service. We were in the airport around 6 am, 30 minutes before the check in counters opened. Thanks to our Star Alliance Gold status with United Airlines, we often have our own check in counters together with the First and Business class passengers and almost always have access to lounges. Going through security was quick and smooth.

We arrived in Skopje around mid day and from there we took the shuttle that runs from the airport to the city center a few times during the day. We specifically chose a flight that arrived in Skopje mid day since we didn't want to take any cab and there was no metro unlike in Bucharest and Sofia.

We again chose the IBIS in Skopje and we were very pleased with it. It was right in the heart of the city and we walked to many of the city's important sights. In fact, it was on the block right next to where the Marriott Hotel was.