Funny signs and notices in Skopje (part 1)

As everywhere you are outside your own country, you'll likely bump into a few signs, notices or just an occasion where you have to think at least twice to understand what's meant there. For San and me, it's no difference in Macedonia. Here are a few examples that we made photos of today.


Macedonians write in cyrillic - which is phonetic. As most languages, Macedonian imported some words which are originally alien to the mother tongue. This shop's black/white sign is one of them. This sign is probably very common and normal for those who are brought up with the language and its writing. For foreigners like me, who are learning it, this is kind of an A-Ha Erlebnis to figure out. This is how it usually goes:
1. spell what's written;
2. say it out loud;
3. let it make sense to you.

Here you see ДРАГСТОР, where Д=D, Р=R, А=A, Г=G, С=S, Т=T, and О=O.

Translations to the english language can be challenging at times. Here's what's on offer in one of Skopje's fine restaurants (this was also mentioned in the Friday the 13th blog entry from last week).

Getting into one of Skopje's hotel by elevator, you will encounter this interesting feature in the left top corner the "elevator's dashboard": the PANIC sign. I'd like to know where this came from.

Thank you Paulão for the idea - I hope you get your large collection of funny signs up one day.