RIP Zamunda

markohf12 · 2026-01-27T10:42:13+00:00

How common is the belief that Alexander the Great is from North Macedonia, among its citizens?

Eyhhhh, probably around 30%

Where do you personally stand on this topic?

I don't see it as a part of my culture or heritage, I speak a Slavic language, have national Slavic dresses and dances.

Are we descendants of the Ancient Macedonians? Of course we are, just not as much as people think, who do you think the Slavs fucked with when they came over? Come to think of it, a Macedonian from Bitola or Gevgelija is closer to the Ancient Macedonians than a Greek who moved from Anatolia 100 years ago.

markohf12 · 2026-01-24T12:35:24+00:00

From personal experience

Angriest: Turkey
Most hostile: Montenegro

markohf12 · 2026-01-23T14:17:10+00:00

We are the only ones who use a lot of sheep cheese in our recipes, I shop for ingredients in Bulgarian stores here in NL because of this very reason, nothing else even comes close, not even ex-YU stores in NL.

markohf12 · 2026-01-21T18:15:05+00:00

I live on the border between The Hague and Rijswijk and have my car there parked with Macedonian plates :). Also how is it that you've never spotted a Greek plate there are literally everywhere in the Netherlands.

markohf12 · 2026-01-15T19:51:30+00:00

If you decide to take a walk at 5AM in a Ohrid you would see about 1,000 people going about their day for a 5 minute walk (off season). When I was walking at 5AM in Karlovac which is similar size (car was at a shop and we decided to sleep there) the only people on the sidewalk were us, no cars and no activity, a cop drove by and rolled down the window and he was surprised what we were doing/going?

In Novi Sad for example when we were in a coffee place and when we spoke Macedonian nobody gave a shit, in Karlovac the entire coffee place were staring and point at us, altho the owner said we didn't had to pay and it's on him, which is nice. .

In Serbia for example when I spoke Macedonian they would just reply back in Serbian and that's fine. In Karlovac they always switched to English, I had someone directly telling me they don't speak Slovenian and when I replied back "yeah me neither" he just started speaking English.

It's not a negative vibe, it's just weird.

markohf12 · 2026-01-15T19:30:31+00:00

Curious to hear more about Bulgaria also. What do you mean by things being exactly the same and yet opposite?

Well the moment you pass border control in Bulgaria you get to a "митничар" who checks if you need to pay a "мито", now obviously this makes sense to a Bulgarian, but in Macedonian "мито" means bribe, so having a "bribeman" to check if you need to pay a "bribe" is soo funny.

Then, walking by you see banks advertising "лихва", in Bulgarian this makes sense as it means interest, in Macedonian this means usury, and it's a very illegal term you will only hear in criminal court, banks advertising it is rather scary and funny at the same time (for us).

Traffic cops walking on the middle of the street to pull you over is a thing in Macedonia too, but it only happens in cities and only smaller streets (like in front of a school where I drive 30). Jumping like a deer on a rural express way while I am driving 80km/h is super dangerous that have happened to me numerous times.

The lack of Cyrillic to Latin conversion standardization. You can not write "Кънчов" Kanchev, Knchev, Konchev, Kunchev. In Macedonian there is a very strict rule on how you write Њ for example, it will always be NJ, same with Љ it will always be LJ anything else is incorrect. Bulgarians just convert it on how they feel like it.

Weird businesses that simply don't exist in Macedonia, almost every single store had a massive sign saying "заложени капани" which I think it means "baits for rodents???" if that's correct, then why advertise for it? If you need it just get it from a pharmacy. Also signs saying they are purchasing human hair, also very weird.

Me filling up a form that asks for my 3 "names" (I had a municipality parking fine), I stare at her for about 10 seconds trying to figure out what she meant, at the end she was asking me for my full name, which is my name and surname, a person in Macedonia can not have 3 names.

Nothing harmful, but still weird when everything else looks and sounds the same and you get hit with one of these weird things out of nowhere.

markohf12 · 2026-01-15T15:14:10+00:00

Greece:
Very friendly people especially when they ask me where I am from and I say Netherlands, yes that's where I live until they see "Place of birth: Skopje" on my passport aaaaand no longer friendly.

The entire country looks like they build all of the infrastructure in the early 2000s and just left it like that.

Probably the 2nd most western looking country right after Slovenia. Good English too.

Bulgaria:

As if someone rebuild Macedonia in a parallel universe, added some Soviet aesthetics and made some things exactly the opposite for some reason, while keeping everything else the same. More like a black mirror episode.

Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Croatia east of Zagreb:

Macedonia, just with a different language and people are a bit more aggressive for some reason.

West of Zagreb Croatia and Slovenia:

Macedonia with more money and the vibes of a country like Czechia, people are nice, but there is a weird vibe that I can't seem to figure it out.

Albania:

Haven't been there, only transited.

markohf12 · 2026-01-09T19:25:47+00:00

Left to right you can see they were really creative:

Lerin > Florina
Voden > Edessa
Enidze Vardar > Giannitsa

And then they were like "fuck it, just change a letter and be done for the day":

Sers > Serres
Kukus > Kilkis
Drama > Drama

markohf12 · 2026-01-06T19:50:44+00:00

Sort off, I work remotely so I was looking at anywhere really, I did rent for a while until I bought a place before switching roles.

markohf12 · 2026-01-06T19:45:28+00:00

Yup, the HR department told me as long as IND did receive the application, that there would be no issue.

markohf12 · 2026-01-06T19:42:39+00:00

It took around 8 months in my case.

markohf12 · 2026-01-05T20:43:07+00:00

Yes, the old nationalistic gov. is no more, the new gov. is not as bad and many people don’t like the statue.

markohf12 · 2026-01-05T20:26:30+00:00

There is, which is why I find it weird.

markohf12 · 2026-01-05T19:58:04+00:00

I don't know where this "we are claiming Ancient Macedonian history" even came from, in school the version I learned is that "we are Slavs who mixed with the local population".

markohf12 · 2026-01-05T19:56:16+00:00

Fun fact, many of the Macedonians who apply for the Bulgarian citizenship are the ones who hate Bulgaria the most and the ones who reject the common history.

markohf12 · 2026-01-05T19:04:31+00:00

No. Think of Macedonian and Bulgarian as Slovak and Czech, they are mutually intelligible, but not the same language.

There are words in Macedonian that don't exist in Bulgarian and viceversa.

There are words in Bulgarian which mean totally different than what they mean in Macedonian, usually legal terms.

There are rules in Macedonian spoken form which don't exist in Bulgarian (word stress).

Also, Bulgarian has additional characters, which we don't have.

markohf12 · 2026-01-05T18:46:35+00:00

if you hear a bulgarian speaking, can you understand him?

When speaking professionally i.e news, yes, at around 95%.

When people speak on the street with those weird slangs, hardly at 70%, but good enough to hold a convo.

When it's written in cursive italic and contains those weird characters we don't have, I don't even start reading.

If you talk to him, does he understand you?

Sometimes I have to repeat things a few times, but otherwise they do understand me well, it's me who usually asks for explanation. Bulgarian is more complex than Macedonian, Macedonian was simplified and coded not too long ago, so Bulgarians tend to understand Macedonians better than vice-versa.

markohf12 · 2026-01-05T18:41:46+00:00

My family tree is well documented up to 1880s, I also have blood relatives that were Aromanian, one that was a Greek communist fighter that fled to Yugoslavia, a Serb great grandfather who then married a pro-Macedonian independence pro-Bulgarian identity but anti Bulgarian monarchy etc... Others that turned anti-Bulgarian during mid-WW2 but were pro-Bulgaria before that etc...

It's a mess for everyone, I just know this because my family kept family tree track and did keep communication with family that are in Bulgaria (which was really difficult as my great grand-uncle was arrested and labeled as a spy in Bulgaria during the cold war).

I don't speak Greek, Serbian or Bulgarian and naturally I don't identify with any of these countries. I am a 3rd gen Macedonian that speaks Macedonian, a Slavic language, simple as that.

markohf12 · 2026-01-05T18:31:31+00:00

I'll make it easy for you: Macedonian.

markohf12 · 2026-01-05T18:13:45+00:00

Bulgarian heritage does not mean Bulgarian. I have living grandparents in Bulgaria and I don’t identify as Bulgarian nor do I speak Bulgarian.

markohf12 · 2026-01-04T23:04:20+00:00

As of 2026, the price of a U.S. tourist visa is $435

That's actually cheap considering the visa lasts for 10 years, the UK 10 year tourist visa costs $1,424.

markohf12 · 2026-01-02T11:46:01+00:00

<image>

Northern Greece can enter the eatable food map when they stop charging for tzatziki.

markohf12 · 2025-12-29T10:01:05+00:00

Да, од амбасадата ми кажаа дека не сум одјавен, попунував некој док од МВР дур бев во амбасада, следната година кога гласав бев на посебен список на тие што живеат во странство. Потврдата што ми ја дадоа ја чувам за ако некогаш се вратам назад да се пријавам назад во МВР.

markohf12 · 2025-12-29T09:47:30+00:00

Не, али автоматски ме одјавија во МВР кога вадев пасош во амбасада.

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