Macedonia & Kosovo

On Thursday morning, we drove out of Albania, and into Macedonia, headed for a small city called Ohrid.

The town sits on the shores of a lake by the same name, two thirds of which are Macedonian, while one third lies within Albania. It’s a popular holiday destination in the region.

Our first day there, we had a rather relaxed time, taking a wee afternoon nap and spending the rest of the day just wandering around the town. We also walked along the lake front in the evening for a way until we reached a pretty wee church sitting just above the water.

On our second day in Ohrid, we went out on a boat in the morning and explored the lake a bit. The owner of the boat was very informative about the lake, and was also great fun. We all had to have our photo taken “driving” the boat, and we were also invited to toot the boat’s horn. Towards the end of the trip, we stopped and had a swim off the back of the boat – the water was incredibly warm!

After we got back to shore, we all went our own ways for a bit – some shopping, some finding a bar for a drink, others just wandering… I went to check out the paper museum with dad, and then he headed back towards town while I continued on to investigate one of the churches.

Inside was definitely not as cool as Berat’s churches had been, but I suspect that at one point it had been similar. Most of the walls were pretty damaged, but there were a couple of parts that were still intact. Later in the day, mum, Robyn and I had thought about heading down to the lake again for another swim, but ended up just sitting in the sun for a while instead, which was still lovely and relaxing!

The next day we were back on the road and headed to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. I’m not sure if it’s where we were staying, or just what the city is like, but Skopje wasn’t my favourite place. The centre of town has all been renovated and “done up”, but as part of this process all of the original facades have been plastered over so that they look like fancy marble buildings (but they’re not). There’s lots of statues and whatnot, but it didn’t feel like it had a lot of substance. Then, around the area we were staying, it seemed that the streets were filled entirely with places catering only to tourists, so again it didn’t feel particularly real. I did wander up to the local market though, which was definitely a bit more authentic – more stalls and little cubby-hole shops that you could possibly keep track of, selling everything from fabric to fruit, shoes to kitchenware. I found it all a bit overwhelming actually, so didn’t stay long, but I did appreciate that it seemed like a more genuinely Macedonian location.

On our second day in Skopje we headed out to see the Matka Canyon. It’s just a short drive out of town, and the river running through it has been dammed, so we hopped on a boat that would take us part the way up the lake. At the midpoint of the boat ride we were able to get off the boat and climb up into a cave containing mineral deposits and interesting geological formations. It actually reminded me a bit of the caves at Halong Bay in Vietnam. I enjoyed this outing quite a bit, particularly in contrast to our time in the city.

It was recommended to us that, instead of spending extra time in Skopje, we cross over the border into Kosovo for a day trip, so we also went and explored Prizren while staying there. It was a nice wee town with a river, interesting wee back streets, lots of mosques, and, of course, a fortress up on the hill. The walk up to the fortress was very steep, but at the top there you could see the storm approaching the city, and you could hear the call to prayer coming from the mosques, and it was all quite atmospheric!

Our final Macedonian stop was my favourite – a town called Bitola. It’s off the typical tourist trail, and as such, felt a lot more real. Lunch was our first priority when we arrived, and we had a lovely meal at a traditional Yugoslav-style restaurant.

We were originally supposed to go for a walk in the Pelister National Park while there, but with wildfires breaking out willy-nilly across Macedonia at the moment (we saw two up close!), plus the onset of a heatwave, it was decided that maybe this wasn’t the best idea. Instead, we visited a bee keeper and he showed us his bees and honey making process, and we also visited the archeological site of Heraclea Lyncestis, on the outskirts of the city.

Personally, I consider that to be quite a good swap, as I don’t think hiking into the mountains would have been that fun in this heat!! While at the Heraclea ruins, we had an interesting interaction. We were gathering for a family photo when we noticed an extra woman had integrated herself into the group.

There was a brief attempt at explaining that we were trying to take a group picture, but instead of moving out of the way, she sat down with us for the photo! It was both unusual and amusing, and when I sent the photo to her afterwards she was very grateful!

Though it seemed an interesting place, we only had one night in Bitola. The next morning, before breakfast, I went for a solo-wander, looking for some old Yugoslavian Army airplanes that have been left in a park in the city. When I got there, I was greeted with the sunrise, a beautiful view of the city, two old planes covered in graffiti, and a group of young people who I suspect had still not gone home from the night before! They didn’t stick around long though, and I had a nice wee quiet moment to myself before returning and getting ready to leave Macedonia and head to our final destination as a family: Greece.