This Student Dormitory In Eastern Europe Will Give You Nightmares. It Is Absolutely Horrifying.

View of the dormitory.

This is “Goce Delcev” a student dormitory in Skopje, Macedonia, that houses 1200+ students every year. It is the biggest student dormitory in the country. In general, student dormitories in Macedonia are notorious for their sub-human conditions. This one in particular is deteriorating very quick, both from too much corruption within the internal dormitory administration and the indifference of the governmental structures.

Entrance to one of the 4 blocks.

Pipe leaking is a very common occurrence in hallways, corridors, rooms, showers, reading room, etc.

Reception

On the left, “Go take a shower at your boyfriends’ places!” On the right, “There is no warm water. The problem is being fixed.” Warm water availability is pretty unpredictable. Different blocks have different warm water availability during an academic year. There are years that one or two blocks don’t have warm water at all throughout the year. On average and with a little luck, 40% of the time there is warm water.

Hallways

No lights and broken pipes everywhere.

Hallways 2

Ditto.

Hallways 3

No, it is not art.

Hallways 4

Decay and moist. That radiator is not working, nor is it working anywhere in the hallways.

Cafeteria

Lines at lunch time. You have to be there in advance to get the better food. The food supplies cannot even serve one quarter of the students living in the dorm.

Cafeteria 2

Ditto.

Food in the cafeteria.

The food varies between pasta, potatoes, chicken steaks and sausages. It is the same food every single day. Since they also do a poor job in disinfection and deratization (the ridding of rats), you can also spot various species of cockroaches and other pests crawling between the dishes. Sometimes some unfortunate cockroaches end up drowning in the dishes.

Gourmet A’la Goce Delcev.

Spaghetti and sausage.

Potatoes

Half-baked and poorly peeled.

Potatoes 2

Ditto.

Lettuce

Adding lettuce to the diet means adding variety to your diet.

Buffet

The dorm grounds also have a buffet, that has even less food supply than the cafeteria.

Coupon store.

When the rent is paid for the month, every student receives coupons with a total value of 4000 MKD (~65 EUR). Those coupons can be spent within all student dormitories in Skopje. The coupon store is used to purchase products, and said products are allegedly “half-the-price” than normal supermarket prices. Naturally it is far from the truth. The coupon store is empty half of the time.

“No salt”

They should start writing stuff that the dorm has; that way the list will be a lot shorter.

Entrance

A stray dog sleeping on the reception comfy beds.

Room interior.

You either chase the lazy drunk caretaker (1 caretaker for all 4 blocks, they cannot afford more) for up to 3 months, or repair the room yourself with money from your own pocket.

Room interior 2.

Moist is very common. Moist-less rooms are non-existent at this moment.

Room interior 3.

Ditto.

Room interior 4.

Drying clothes.

Room interior 5.

Nice and comfy mattresses. After 5 months of begging, the mattress was replaced.

Bathroom

Blocks A and B, have common bathrooms, while blocks V and G have a bathroom in every room.

Bathroom 2

After 2 months of chasing and bribing (with booze) plumbers, caretakers and other drunkards, the bathroom was fixed.

Bathroom 3

One of the better bathrooms.

Bathroom 4

Ditto.

Common showers.

The “showers” in blocks A and B. Out of 3 cabins, only one or none actually works.

Common showers 2.

Cabin view.

Common WC-like thing.

It is an insult to WC-s if one calls this a WC.

Corridors

This was taken when a major pipe leaked on the 7th floor. The water flew down to the 2nd floor. Not a single f*ck was given. Elevators also break down many times per week, so you have to climb the stairs up to the 15th floor. 2 years ago, one of the elevators in block B detached itself and fell into the shaft, there was no one inside. A while ago, the second elevator detached itself too, with a student inside. He sustained minor injuries and trauma.

Corridors 2

*Sigh*

Water sink in the common showers.

I would love to brush my teeth and wash my face there every morning.

Bonus photo.