Macedonian Immiration

[George S.]

What has the govt done to stem the tide of people leaving or that it cared enough for the diaspora.What is it doing to create opportunities etc??

[DraganOfStip]

Well,a friend of mine will be back soon from Nesebar,Bulgaria and another will be on his way to Ohrid.
After that I can tell you the difference in prices,but believe me it's not that far off.

[George S.]

yes but are there jobs in bulgaria and whats the standard of living like.

[DraganOfStip]

Again the cost difference between Ohrid and Greece is not pennies, its 50% more.

Here's something that an angry tourist in Ohrid posted on the social networks.He paid 2 eur for a small bottle of still water (in cafe's and restaurants across Macedonia the same cost around 0,5 - 0,7 eur).




On the other hand,media say Dojran is having the most successful season in years.Over 50 000 tourists have visited it so far.That's good to hear.

[George S.]

The country is not even in the eu allready its going down the eu plughole.I remember that last time i was there they said that there is a black economy and very high corruption all as a result of eu currency.Not only this but different charging of tourists and the citizens.

[777Bitola]

I was in Macedonia this summer for three weeks and everything's cheap, however there definitely is places to go if you want to spend your money. Usually dinner for 4 in certain places is around 20 dollars but in Hotel epinal in Bitola it was twice that.

Also tourist areas were slightly more expensive, St Naum in Ohrid has a new cafe and souvenir shop which was really nice. Souvenirs are overpriced obviously for the tourists but one thing I noticed in Macedonia is that sometimes you have to pay 10 denars to use the bathroom which was the case in St Naum, I didnt mind since it was only 10 denars and would rather have a clean bathroom then not pay anything and have a dirty one.

My father paid 200 to fix his teeth in Macedonia, when in America the same would of cost 2000.

So for the most part I would say if your visiting Macedonia from another country everything is cheap you can live like a king.

[DraganOfStip]

Another piece of great Ohrid hospitality.
Tourists ordered some food,paid heavy for it and received s**t.
As I stated in my previous post,it's cases like this that make most Macedonians leave Ohrid and turn to the sea resorts of Greece,Bulgaria and even Turkey.

http://think.mk/pregled/zoshto-nikogash-povekje-nema-da-go-posetam-ohrid-ovie-dve-fotografii-kje-vi-odgovorat

[George S.]

What a shit hospitality i hear that some macedonians even go to albania its cheaper and apparently better.Not that i advocate this sort of thing but others seem to be doing it.Do you blame them?

[DraganOfStip]

What a shit hospitality i hear that some macedonians even go to albania its cheaper and apparently better.Not that i advocate this sort of thing but others seem to be doing it.Do you blame them?

Albania is possibly the cheapest option for vacating abroad,Macedonian people who visited the resorts the past few years say it's cheaper than Greece or Bulgaria.
The major setback as they say,is that other than Albanian many hospitality workers don't speak a foreign language which makes communication virtually impossible.

[777Bitola]

Also why is tax in Macedonia at 18% lol thats stupid high, at first I thought it was auto gratuity for the waiter then I realized what it was.

[DraganOfStip]

. Again the cost difference between Ohrid and Greece is not pennies, its 50% more.

Gocka,my friend came back from Nesebar,Bulgaria a few days ago.
Beer on the beach was 1,20 eur (it is same price here in Stip,and it's not even a tourist resort),coffee was 0,8 eur (again,same price here) etc.
So you see,it's even cheaper than Ohrid.

P.S.: I'm not suggesting that Macedonians should vacate abroad,I'm just explaining why most Macedonians would rather spend their vacation in Greece/Bulgaria etc than overblown Ohrid.

[Gocka]

its simple Dragan. Macedonians are short sighted and selfish. They would rather save a few 100 denari by not going to Ohrid and would rather send a few thousand to Bulgaria and Greece. In the long run you are not saving anything because you are hurting your own people, and your own economy. So tomorrow when everyone in Macedonia is broke and there are not job, Macedonians can pat themselves on the back.

Jewish people will go out of their way, and pay more for a good or service to make sure they buy it from another Jewish person.Macedonians will go out of their way and pay more to make sure they avoid making another Macedonian some profit.

I still argue that Ohrid is not more expensive than Greece, and to be honest it doesn't even matter. Its wrong and short sighted on many levels. The few euros that Macedonians are able to scrape together and save, get sent right across the border to the same people who deny your existence and would gladly have you disappear form the face of the earth. I would rather pay double and keep my dignity, but Macedonians gave away their dignity a long time ago so nothing to worry about then. Happy holidays in Elada.

Gocka,my friend came back from Nesebar,Bulgaria a few days ago.
Beer on the beach was 1,20 eur (it is same price here in Stip,and it's not even a tourist resort),coffee was 0,8 eur (again,same price here) etc.
So you see,it's even cheaper than Ohrid.

P.S.: I'm not suggesting that Macedonians should vacate abroad,I'm just explaining why most Macedonians would rather spend their vacation in Greece/Bulgaria etc than overblown Ohrid.

[Risto the Great]

I don't really enjoy holidaying in my own country. If I have a choice, I would be more inclined to want to experience a different culture.

The last time I went to Macedonia, it was a pretty poor holiday destination. Not that anything else in the Balkans is much better.

The rest of your observations are just human nature. I don't think they apply exclusively to Macedonians.

The reality is that Macedonia is not a tourist's dream come true and its problems run far deeper than that anyway.

I might add, I much prefer the food in Lerin to RoMacedonia.

its simple Dragan. Macedonians are short sighted and selfish. They would rather save a few 100 denari by not going to Ohrid and would rather send a few thousand to Bulgaria and Greece. In the long run you are not saving anything because you are hurting your own people, and your own economy. So tomorrow when everyone in Macedonia is broke and there are not job, Macedonians can pat themselves on the back.

Jewish people will go out of their way, and pay more for a good or service to make sure they buy it from another Jewish person.Macedonians will go out of their way and pay more to make sure they avoid making another Macedonian some profit.

I still argue that Ohrid is not more expensive than Greece, and to be honest it doesn't even matter. Its wrong and short sighted on many levels. The few euros that Macedonians are able to scrape together and save, get sent right across the border to the same people who deny your existence and would gladly have you disappear form the face of the earth. I would rather pay double and keep my dignity, but Macedonians gave away their dignity a long time ago so nothing to worry about then. Happy holidays in Elada.

[DraganOfStip]

Here are a couple of good articles regarding the government's double standards with foreign investors against domestic companies.
The foreign companies that open factories here are doing that not just because of the cheaper laber power,but also because of all kinds of subventions from the government (tax reliefs,direct support,customs reliefs,low interest grants etc).
In a recent interview the director of Van Hool,a company for production of busses that opened a factory here a couple of years ago,says that out of the 30 million euros that were spent in the construction of the factory in Macedonia,17 million were provided by the government.
On the other hand,domestic businesses suffer great expences in a time of crisis and instead of the government support being focused on them,foreigners are being favored even though the macedonian worker gets the same salary and is often even treated worse in foreign factories (there were 3 death cases of workers in Draexlmaier's plant in Kavadarci so far).

http://faktor.mk/2015/08/07/drzhavni-subventsii-za-stranskite-firmi-majka-za-domashnite-makea/

http://faktor.mk/2015/08/07/van-hul-dilemi-shto-davame-a-shto-dobivame-od-stranskite-investitori/

[Big Bad Sven]

I was in Macedonia this summer for three weeks and everything's cheap, however there definitely is places to go if you want to spend your money. Usually dinner for 4 in certain places is around 20 dollars but in Hotel epinal in Bitola it was twice that.

Also tourist areas were slightly more expensive, St Naum in Ohrid has a new cafe and souvenir shop which was really nice. Souvenirs are overpriced obviously for the tourists but one thing I noticed in Macedonia is that sometimes you have to pay 10 denars to use the bathroom which was the case in St Naum, I didnt mind since it was only 10 denars and would rather have a clean bathroom then not pay anything and have a dirty one.

My father paid 200 to fix his teeth in Macedonia, when in America the same would of cost 2000.

So for the most part I would say if your visiting Macedonia from another country everything is cheap you can live like a king.

The last time i went to macedonia i was pretty heart broken and left delusional after getting scammed and ripped off by almost everyone in Ohrid and Struga. It was basically everything from alcohol, food, taxi fares, nightclub enntry fee. The few times i was able to politely speak up and question if these were the 'real' prices i would get yelled at and called a typical stingy macedonian australian. I knew this was not the case because some good macedonians stood up for me or told me what was going on.
Bit of a bummer when you have to pick on a young guy traveling alone back to his country of ancestry and wants no trouble.

I found the people in eastern macedonia where much more friendly and honest to deal with and more civilized/european in their manner.

I think its maybe a chip on their shoulder and they probably see macedonians from Australia as some sort of traitors and are jealous of them. I know plenty of Dutch and Australian people that went to macedonia and they where treated like kings. Even Bulgarian, serb and greek tourists are better treated then australian-macedonians lol