What Can $10 Get in Macedonia?

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I finally made it back to Macedonia, and in this video, I take you around the streets of Skopje (Europe’s strangest capital city) to see how many things I can get for less than $10. Hint – this city is super affordable!

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What’s up, guys? I’m Drew Vinsky, and in this video, I’m going to show you what $10 can get you in Scopier, Macedonia. This is Red Bull flavored ice cream. Wo! Oh my god, it’s so weird. The strangest city in Europe. Statue, statue, statue, statue. Look, there’s even a statue of people swimming with their feet. Here we go. Most people have never heard of Scopier. It’s a quirky little city in the Balkans where things feel a bit off in the most fascinating way. Giant statues, fake castles, and weird architecture makes it feel like you stepped into a budget movie set. In this video, we’re going to see what $10 can get us here. From street food to wacky culture and everything in between. Joining me on this adventure is my amazing wife, Deanna. Macedonia, baby. This is actually the 99th country that we’ve traveled to together. All right, let’s dive in. The market here is bustling with shops, restaurants, people out and about. You can hear the call to prayer going off for the mosque, which is interesting. About 30% of Macedonia is Muslim. And of course, we’re in an Ottoman market. Very Turkish vibes around here. What does it feel like? Like the town in Antalya. Like the city center. It feels like this. Exactly. Like with umbrellas and stuff. [Music] Yum. Good. M. This is our Turkish coffee here. M. Oh my god, that is good. It’s loaded with sugar. It’s really tasty. Just a little bit is all you need. That’s it. In the US, coffee is like eight times this amount. Fresh Turkish tea. Literally exactly how you would find it in Turkey. Same cup, same taste, just classic black tea. Was your channel something like Juru something? Yes, I know you from YouTube, bro. Can I get a picture? Yeah. Are you from here? Yes, I’m from here actually. Three, two, uh, that’s cute. Tell me one thing you love about Macedonia and Suga. Best place ever. How about Scopia? Scopia is cool, too. But you can, you should visit the statues. Just sat down at a nice fancy Balkan restaurant here. Going to try some local food. That’s the worst feeling when you think your food is here, but they bring it to another table. One thing I love about the Balkans is the fresh vegetables. We have these lovely tomatoes with cucumbers and grated cheese on top of it. You won’t find tomatoes this tasty anywhere else. They’re so freaking fresh. This is just the appetizer for the main course coming soon. [Music] The main course has arrived. This is called in Serbia it’s called chbachi. I’m not sure what it’s called here. Just kebab. But it’s these little meat sticks. Give this one a try. You put the spicy sauce. Spicy on the side. Go for the dip. Oh my god. It’s like the tastiest meatball or sausage. I think it’s ve bursting with flavor. Crispy on the outside. It’s almost like crunchy. If there’s one thing the Balkans does better than the other regions of Europe, it’s food. It’s time for dessert. And I only had to walk two steps to find the baklava place. Let’s get one. Can we get one of these? Oh my god. Yeah. One. Thank you, bro. Going for the bro bakova. [Music] Holy crap. That’s really sweet. This is so tasty. The guy was on the phone. There was four customers that walked in and he was just on the phone and then the customers walked out and the guy was like, “Who does that?” In other countries, they want to sell more business, but he doesn’t care. Anyways, that was one of the best baklava I’ve ever had in my life. What’s happening over in this corner of the world? Extreme. I think one Red Bull. Thank you. [Music] This is Red Bull flavored ice cream. [Music] Wa! It really tastes like Red Bull. Oh my god, it’s so weird. Shout out to my friends at Red Bull. Got ice cream of your flavor in Scopia, Macedonia. Who would have known? Before I continue this budget challenge, I want to share with you something really useful for how you can use your phone on your upcoming trips. It’s an eim company called UBG and it’s my secret weapon for how I stay connected in over 200 destinations. UBG is an app that gives you eim data plans so you can say goodbye to outrageous roaming fees. You could save up to 90% compared to your local carrier. And best of all, there’s no commitment. Yep, no more hunting for SIM cards, sketchy public Wi-Fi, or renting pocket hotspots that always die on you. UBGi just works. Even if you run out of data or Wi-Fi, you can still recharge the app. That is a gamecher. All you have to do is activate your eSIM when you land and the plan will kick in immediately. Instant data, zero stress. All right, let’s do it. So whether you’re traveling for business or adventure, download UBG by scanning this QR code to clicking the link in the description down below. Staying connected everywhere should be easy. All right, let’s head back to the story. A cool thing that I find about Scopia and Macedonia in general is they use a cerillic alphabet. The same that you’ll find in Serbia, Bosnia, in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Bellarus, and of course, Russia. I can actually read it. Stas Golska, Charia. Hello there, Mr. Statue. You seem to have something on your hand. You really can’t walk more than 10 steps in Scopia without seeing another statue of a people with different emotions. This guy’s very sad. You know, his hands in his pocket, is probably stressed at work or divorce his wife. You know, he’s got the short tie. This guy’s over here like, “Hey, man. Let me show you a magic trick. Check it out. There’s a rabbit in my hat.” Whoa. Don’t forget to look up. How many fountains do they have? Three. No. One, two, three, four. The funny thing about the statues is they all are doing something different. One’s reading a book. One’s fixing his bow tie. Just making sure that it’s the same same person, different poses. This is Diana’s 99th country. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. How does that feel? Is this accomplishment? Is this one of the stranger ones you’ve been to? I think the strangest. Yeah, me too. All along the banks of the river here, there are like this bridge has like 50 statues and then this walkway has another 50. Statue, statue, statue, statue. Oh, and the other bridge has statues. lot of statues. What we’ve realized now is people actually stole the name tags. So, they are anonymous now. We don’t know who these people are. This is a giant replica of Paris’s a triumph right here in Scopia. And it says Macedonia right there, which is the real way of pronouncing Macedonia. Tell me about your city. Do you like it? Yeah, it’s great. I mean, it’s the capital of North Macedonia. There’s a lot of stuff to do here. This is the city square. From here you can go to the Ver River. You can see there’s a lot of restaurants over there. The museum, the archaeological museum is right opposite from here. All these statues are really weird. What’s the deal with these statues? Yeah. So, there are a lot of statues here in Scopia, especially the big one that you can see here in a square from Sander the Great. They represent different historical figures that some are connected to our country, some are not. As a tourist, it’s just strange to walk through and see so many statues, but as a local, is it like normal for you guys? Yeah. Yeah, it’s a bit strange for us as well, but uh only on the opposite side where there are like statues every 2 m or so on the other side of the river. And then the arch here. It’s the same as in Paris. Yeah. Yeah. It’s called the I think it’s it has the same name, the Arch of Victory. Nice. What’s up, man? You’re from here? Yeah. What’s it like to live here? It’s pretty good. What’s the best and worst part about living in Scopia? The best part is probably the mixture of cultures. The worst part is the management of the city currently. It’s kind of crazy to me how first of all the Balkans is so messed up politically, but all the countries around you, are they are they enemies or are they friends? For me particularly, all of them are friends. Of course, if you could say any message to people in the world, what would you tell them? Be friends. Be good to each other. Be kind. Macedonia has a long and complex history shaped by empires, wars, and identity struggles. After Yugoslavia broke up in the9s, the country peacefully gained independence in 1991, the year I was born. But that’s when the real conflict began. Greece strongly opposed the use of the name Macedonia, arguing that it implied a claim to the Greek region with the same name. It took nearly 30 years of tension, international pressure, and even blocked NATO and EU memberships before the country agreed to change its name to North Macedonia in 2019. Today, it still faces identity debates with Bulgaria and others. But it’s finally stepping out from the shadows and making its own mark. Diana spotted the corn, the grilled corn. She loves it. Let’s get a bag of it. Thank you. How is it? M corn. M. How does it rank of all the corns including Bali, including Istanbul? How does it rank this one? Number one. Diana’s a corn connoisseur. Look at us just walking around Scopier with our corn. Wow, there’s more corn. You know what’s the funny thing about corn? Eat it once, see it twice. See, there’s the fancy T-Mobile building right there. Just like other cities in the region, it comes alive at night. You can see everyone out and about enjoying the day. [Music] Just sat down at this shisha place and we got the whole view of downtown Scopier. Pretty good. It’s a very relaxing spot up here, you know, as I gaze out at the city and gather my thoughts more. There’s so many different influences here. You have like an Ottoman building here. Then you have like a modern T-Mobile building there. It’s like different periods of time all clashed together in this one place. You have old Ottoman marketplace with cobblestone streets. Then you have like churches. You have a church right there. You have a mosque. Statue. Statue. Statue. Statues. And a cutie pie. In total, I got a Turkish style coffee and tea, meat skewers for lunch, a huge piece of baklava, Red Bull ice cream, and street corn for just $95. Thanks for watching and subscribe if you want to see more $10 challenges around the world. [Music]