I was wandering through the Old Town in Skopje when I noticed a poster for a circus. It had all the pictures you’d expect, lions, snakes, motorcycles, elephants .. and it was quite colorful as well. I figured, when would I ever get the chance to see a circus in Macedonia so I made my way in the direction of the Big Top.
I could see the place from quite a distance and soon enough I was at the ticket booth and purchased a ticket to get in. Since I was a bit early I bought the popcorn and drink and wandered around to listen to all the other people milling about. I figured I’d be the only English speaker there since I’d not met any up to that point while wandering around the city. But, sure enough one of the vendors was an British woman who was either dating or married to one of the circus performers. She didn’t seem the least bit interested in a conversation so I made my way back out of her booth and waited for the gatekeeper to let everyone into the tent.
I finally handed over my ticket and made my way to the stands a point I felt would be good enough to see all the acts. The place had plenty of seating and I basically had several seats in every direction to myself. The whole thing was rather enjoyable as I’d not been to a circus in decades let alone one in the Balkans. There were the typical acts like clowns, acrobats and the like which I found interesting as they really put themselves into the act and did a remarkable job.
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One act I found quite interesting was when they rolled out this giant ball with a door and the thing was on some sort of roller support system. Before you knew it, around six dirt bikes came into the Big Top and began riding around the giant ball and one by one they made their way into this thing. It must take quite a bit of practice but with seemingly little effort all six motorcycles were inside and facing somewhat away from each other. Then one by one they took off and began driving around the interior of the ball, top to bottom, side to side, around the middle for quite some time actually. Despite six motorcycles tearing around the interior of this ball and crossing paths within fractions of a second, there were no accidents.
I gotta admit that was a feat by itself, all that noise, activity, racing around in seemingly random directions and not one incident. The whole process started and stopped several time with varying combinations of cycles roaring around the interior of the ball and others remaining in place. Engines screaming, smoke everywhere, motorcycles passing each other within a hair’s breadth, quite amazing. I rather enjoyed it.
The other act I recall was a performer with his assistant bringing out trunks of poisonous snakes and reptiles. They brought them all out, set them in various places around the ring and proceeded to handle each one individually. They performed various tricks to test their nerve or the nerve of the audience and then after this process the snakes were placed back into the boxes and off they went back to from wherever they came. It was sort of interesting as they had a wide assortment of snakes and reptiles.
If you ever get the chance I suggest you visit the Balkans Circus. As Always I took dozens of pictures https://wp.me/P3CC9J-1Gu
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Wizard of Where
I loved the photos, being from Turkey I always wanted to visit Skopje and the rest of Macedonia. The circus must have been a jovial experience, although the performance with the motorcycles sounds quite intense.
Greetings from Cape Town