Romans (not Roma)

 Twice, Stephen and I took the Macedonian equivalent to the  Bataan Death March in search of an ancient Roman aquaduct on the outskirts of Skopje One try:  Google maps walked us to an army barracks that Google maps told us was right next to the aqueduct.  The armed soldiers did not speak English, but made clear that we were not going to enter the military base as sightseers. We left there and walked through a major road construction site in pursuit of the Holy Grail Aquaduct.







But that too was a dead end and as we headed home we discovered the equivalent of Route 1 "The Auto Mile" in suburban Boston.That is, if Route 1 had wild goats.   But NO aquaduct. 



Fast forward two months, Stephen has another idea. We follow google maps directions back to the "Auto Mile"  and  go beyond where we had been in our previous attempt... -- this time  we walked to a cemetery on hill further down the  "Route 1 Auto Mile" road.  Remember, we are walking where there are often no sidewalks and the ones that do exist are full of metal sticking up. holes or other trip-up problems. Fortunately, we also walked by the hospital, in case one of us got injured. We found the cemetary nestled on the side of the hill.







Stephen finds an unmarked path and I wait for the universal "eureka we found the aquaduct sign!" before I schlep  uphill  any longer. And yes, he finds ruins.....! maybe ? Roman ruins?






It's hot, I'm tired of the wild goose chase, but we found some ruins. Maybe Roman?  maybe a quarry that was abandoned? No signage, no clue. And definitely no Roman Aquaduct. 









We schlep home. 


A few weeks later, we rent a car to go to Kosovo and  Stephen has another  eureka moment as we are leaving the city...."let's go find the ancient Roman Aquaduct."  And we do. And it is amazing. And we DROVE on the Auto Mile instead of walking to get there! There is a God!





It is stunning to me that all these ancient ruins all over the city could be revenue generating tourist attractions, bringing in much needed dinars  (Macedonian currency) to try to preserve  some of these treasures as Greece and Italy and other holders of ancient hsitory have done. Opportunity lost.



But sadly the Aquaduct grounds  also doubles a garbage pit where one slob dumped a couch into the nearby river. 


And lots of other folks just dump their trash here. Imagine this in Athens or Rome...


piles of trash all over the place....









Speaking of Romans....they have nothing to do with Roma....a subject for another day.



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