I’m staying in the lovely city of Ohrid thanks to the simple aim of adding to my sub-par personal country count. Because checklists are what matters!
Questions
Skopje-born designer Marjan Pejoski was responsible for the swan dress that Björk not only wore to the Oscars, but also sported on the cover to which of her albums that contains the singles “Pagan Poetry” and “Cocoon”?
VESPERTINE
Sometimes known as ‘Vlachs’, which officially recognised minority group in North Macedonia are dotted around the Balkans with a large portion of their population living in Albania and Greece, even though their name is very similar to another European country?
AROMANIANS
How many yellow rays does the sun on the North Macedonian flag have, naturally being the same as the number of red intersections between them?
EIGHT
Operating under the ceremonial presidency of Stevo Pendarovski, which social democrat became the tenth Prime Minister of North Macedonia in January 2022?
DIMITAR KOVAČEVSKI
Not to be confused with a genus of flowers, which kingdom that corresponded roughly to present day North Macedonia lost some of its status when Philip II of Macedon launched a successful campaign against it in the years following the death of King Agis in 358 BC? The southern part of it that included cities like Astraion was subsequently annexed.
PAEONIA
Returning to Serbian rule as part of the newly formed Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the territory of North Macedonia was ruled by which country during World War I?
BULGARIA
One of the few peaks to be the high point of more than one country, which highest mountain of North Macedonia is found on its border with Albania?
MOUNT KORAB
Still named in honour of Josip Broz Tito, Titov Vrv is the highest point in which range of mountains that extends into Kosovo and is depicted on the coat of arms of Skopje?
ŠAR MOUNTAINS
W. H. Auden, Pablo Neruda and Léopold Senghor are among those to have been awarded the Golden Wreath at the international poetry festival held in which North Macedonian town that lies on the banks of Lake Ohrid?
STRUGA (Struga Poetry Evenings)
Kiril Makedonski is known for composing what first opera in Macedonian, its title being the first name of a revolutionary with the surname Delchev who was killed fighting the Ottomans in 1903? He is considered a national hero in both North Macedonia and Bulgaria.
GOCE
Served in an earthenware pot and having a name consisting of two rhyming words, what bean stew is considered to be a national dish of North Macedonia?
TAVČE GRAVČE
Popular in the Balkans, which red pepper spread is commonly seen in North Macedonia, even being a possible addition to a pizza for those hunting new toppings?
AJVAR
Easily confused with a similarly named liquor from Chios in Greece, which aniseed flavoured spirit is particularly associated with North Macedonia, though it is found elsewhere in the Balkans? It is considered to be a specific variety of rakia.
MASTIKA
Its name being derives from a sheep meat although nowadays pork is more commonly used, what is a bread pie that is oval in shape, sometimes called ‘Macedonian pizza’?
PASTRMALIJA
The home stadium used for most of North Macedonia’s games is named for which ‘Elvis Presley of the Balkans’, who died in a car accident at the age of 26? He competed in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest for Macedonia, finishing in 14th place, the country’s highest placing at the time.
TOŠE PROESKI
2017 and 2019 saw Skopje club RK Vardar win the European Champions League in which sport, with their opponents in the finals being Paris Saint-Germain and Vaszprém from Hungary?
HANDBALL
Playing six games for Macedonia following the splitting up of Yugoslavia, which member of Red Star Belgrade’s 1991 European Cup winning squad also won the European Golden Boot that same year? He held his nerve to score the decisive penalty in the final against Marseille.
DARKO PANČEV
North Macedonia’s national handball, basketball and volleyball teams play at a sports center in Skopje named for which second president, who unfortunately was the victim of a plane crash in Herzegovina while travelling to a conference there?
BORIS TRAJKOVSKI
The country’s all time top goalscorer with 38 goals, who scored North Macedonia’s first goal in a major football tournament when they lost 3-1 to Austria in Euro 2020? He spent most of his playing career in Italy and was a starter for Inter Milan when they won the 2010 Champions League final.
GORAN PANDEV
Also runners-up twice, which women’s handball team from Skopje won the Champions League in 2002? Originally having ‘Kometal’ in their name, they ceased to compete for a time but became champions of the North Macedonian league once again in 2022.
GJORCHE PETROV
When Macedonian player Pero Antić became the first player from his country to play in the NBA he spent both his seasons as part of which franchise? During this spell they won the 2015 Eastern Conference with their highest ever winning ratio at over 70%.
ATLANTA HAWKS
Although born in Dagestan and representing Azerbaijan at the 1996 Olympics, who became Macedonia’s first Olympic medallist when he won a freestyle wrestling bronze in 2000?
MAGOMED IBRAGIMOV
North Macedonia’s first silver medal at the Olympics came at Tokyo 2020 when which Taekwondo fighter reached the men’s heavyweight final, being denied gold by ROC representative Vladislav Larin?
DEJAN GEORGIEVSKI
Representing Yugoslavia at the time, Skopje-born Shaban Trstena won an Olympic gold medal in 1984 at which sport? This is the second most successful for the former country thanks to four golds, though it moves ahead of gymnastics if ranked by total medals.
WRESTLING
Buried in Ohrid, which patron saint of North Macedonia is considered to have been a key figure in the development of the cyrillic alphabet? A public holiday is celebrated in his honour on 8 December.
CLEMENT
The debut film by North Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski, which 1994 war film that starred Katrin Cartlidge won the Golden Lion and was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars?
BEFORE THE RAIN
Set in the remote North Macedonian village of Bekirlija, which 2019 film received Oscar nominations in both the foreign film and documentary categories, the first time this had ever happened?
HONEYLAND
Whittipedia 