Matka, Macedonia

For quite some time ive been having an idea for several thematic updates, and finally, one of them gets to see the light of day today...Today's update can be called ex-Yugoslavia, since im about to present postcards which relate to each of its former republics...your opinions and suggestions are more than welcome, esp if you have any ideas for any sort of thematic update, you are more than welcome to share it with me...as long as it can involve at least 4 cards, its ok....and if a certain subject can lets say involve 10 different kind of cards, i dont need to have all ten of them in order to make a post....so, you are more than welcome to contribute...i have another idea pending in my head and it will come up shortly as well :)

Ill begin with my own country...well, regarding the location, i was supposed to start with either Macedonia or Slovenia and move forwards, but of course, if i have to choose between these two, the patriotic feelings are gonna prevail :)

Macedonia gained independence from Yugoslavia on 8th September, 1991....im one of those people who long for the good old days of Yugoslavia...things just seemed so much better back then and the world seemed so easier to reach....right now i feel like in a cage, imprisoned on my own territory
Ever since the separation from Yugoslavia we had been facing this enormous and according to me, a problem with no solution, that is, the dispute with Greece....Greece wont let go, we wont either (at least i hope  we wont), so its a dead-end street

anyway, getting political here wont really solve anything, so lets not waste space with that :)

here on the card you can see a place called Matka, which is in the nearest vicinity of Skopje (17km away) and which is a place where people go on a picnic or to relax, esp during weekends or when the weather is nice....unfortunately i havent been there in a loooong looong time...i dont even recall when was the last time i went there, which is a pity coz its really beautiful...

Matka represents both a canyon and an artifical lake.

There are also a number of monasteries there, like St Andrea, St. Matka, St. Nikola......St. Andrew's Monastery is located on Lake Matka. This monastery was built 1389 and is filled with frescos of a great artistic importance. Near Andrew's is the St. Nikola Shishovski Monastery, situated on top of the cliff above Lake Matka, thus giving the visitor a spectacular view of the lake and its surroundings. While there is no information when this monastery was built, it is first mentioned in the 17th century. Unfortunately, the monastery was abandoned during the 18th century, only to be resettled the following century.
Close to both Andrew's and St. Nikola's is Matka Monastery from the 14th century. The monastery is located on the left side of river Treska, about 12 km from Skopje. The frescos of this monastery date from the 15th century, but they don't match those of Andrew's.

EDIT***  I forgot to mention something which i thought was worth mentioning but eventually it slipped my head.
Matka in Macedonian actually means "a womb"...I guess the canyon resembles a womb. But the funny thing is that "matka" in Finnish means "a trip"....what a funny thing languages are :)