Adventure | North Macedonia

The lesser known Balkan nation-state is filled with surprises and breathtaking nature for adventure junkies.

North Macedonia is a small country with a contentious name. Bordering countries of Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia have all disputed the use of the name "Macedonia," claiming some shared history with the land. Shifting border territories over centuries has meant that what is "Macedonia" is exceptionally unclear. It became a largely heated debate when Greece blocked the country's entry into NATO until Macedonia agreed to formally change its name to North Macedonia. But for all extents and purposes, the land is still the same majestic land. It's mountainous, with a rich culture and history. There are lots of Slavic Orthodox monasteries and gorgeous old Ottoman era towns to explore. What's also great about the country is that it's incredibly affordable.

WHY MACEDONIA?

In April 2021, I headed on a solo trip to the Balkans. My first stop was North Macedonia, a country I only had knowledge of through reading history. I knew that Alexander the Great was from there. I knew that the territory had been disputed by Greece who also claimed some of the heritage for itself. I knew that it was mountainous. But to get a deeper understanding I'd have to experience it firsthand.

The truth is I chose to go to North Macedonia first because it was one of the easiest countries in the world to travel to during a global pandemic. North Macedonia's borders were open to Americans and there wasn't even the need to have a PCR test in order to be let in, at that time. But that wasn't the only reason, I had recently seen one of the country's most famous places, Lake Ohrid, featured in a travel vlog on Youtube.

I remember being amazed that such a gorgeous and magical place was so completely unknown to me in Europe. I know now that that lake is the second deepest in the world, second only to Lake Baikal in Russia. It also has endemic fish, delectable regional trout, and a mysterious and coveted method for producing beautiful fresh water pearls.

Lake Ohrid in the images I saw looked like it would have a mythic quality, and was dotted with ancient Byzantine churches, as well as high snow-capped mountains. One final reason I chose to go to North Macedonia, is that I actually spent quite a long time writing about the region during my PhD, which is a fun-fact about me that probably not too many people know. The last chapter of my PhD was actually focused on analyzing Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, which chronicles the author's real journey around former Yugoslavia in the late 1930s. So it was interesting in that I knew about some of these places abstractly, but knew very little concretely.

I had travelled to the Balkans before, in 2011. I ventured to Croatia and Slovenia as part of a longer Eastern European group tour with an Australian budget company. That was a very different experience, but I was still completely blown away by Croatia's Plitvice National Park, Split and island of Pag. I similarly hugely enjoyed taking a row boat out to the little church in the middle of Slovenia's mountain town of Bled.

SOLO TRAVEL

This trip to Macedonia was completely independent and I would be in the country for a month, with no return ticket. Where ever I decided to venture next would be entirely dependent on what countries were open and where I felt like going. I was also working full time remotely, and so would only be "traveling" on the weekends. In the biz of traveling this is referred to as being a "Digital Nomad" something I've thought quite a lot about and even written an article about.

To fly to Macedonia by air there are really two options: Skopje and Ohrid. Ohrid is a much smaller town on the lake and is essentially a tourist town. Therefore, in the pandemic (and during out of season months) it is not open. I flew into Skopje and decided to spend a couple days checking out the city.

SKOPJE | Macedonia

I didn't spend a lot of time in this city, but from what time I did, the thing that immediately stood out to me were the enormous statues dotted throughout the city, but particularly in the main square and along the most famous bridge over the river that runs through it. Apparently these statues aren't very popular amongst local Macedonians, who are angry at their incredible expense when the country is suffering economically. It is seen as a gross extravagance by many. Still, I think they were the largest statues I'd ever seen, en masse.

Highlights of Skopje were definitely the sprawling Ottoman style market, which did remind me a bit of a Turkish bizarre. You can get seriously turned around weaving in and out of the arcades and tunnels of the market. But you can also buy almost anything your heart desires.

OHRID | Macedonia

I had to take a private taxi to Lake Ohrid, as all public transport options, during Covid were closed to tourists. This meant paying about 100 USD to take a 2.5 hour car ride with a taxi driver. For an additional fee I could have added on a day tour of Kosovo, which is very close to the capital of Skopje, but I didn't have the time and I mistakenly assumed I’d be able to visit easily from Serbia later in the year.

On the way to Ohrid, we drove by many villages, some of them were Slavic Orthodox and some with towering minarets were made up primarily of Albanian or Kosovo migrants/ refugees who had resettled there largely during the war in the 1990s. Some Macedonians do not seem to have a warm relationship with their neighbours or the migrants. And the villages are segregated from each other so that the communities do not intermingle.

We drove through a national park which was mountainous and had open ski slopes. I was surprised to learn there aren't many archaeological sites that are open to visit in Macedonia because the country doesn't have the budget for it. That being said, there are ruins and partial ruins everywhere.

From the moment we arrived at Lake Ohrid, to enter the town we had to drive through a huge stone gate. The city of Ohrid was walled in Roman times, and there sits a well-preserved Roman era fortress on the hill presiding over the town. The streets are cobbled, there are beautifully unique wooden and Ottoman styled houses lining the narrow streets and allows and the town winds down to the lakefront.

My accommodation was up on the hill near the famous Church of St. John (at Kaneo) which is one of the most photographed sites on the island. As it was early April, it was still crisp in the air. Being high at altitude, I needed a jumper. But the advantage of being there at that time of year was that all the mountains that surround the lake were capped with snow and gleaming white in the sun.

The lake looked infinite and serene. On the far side of the lake was Albania, with a little village that was just visible to the eye and steep cliffs behind them. On my left were the high mountains of Gallecia National Park and on my right were more mountains. From my accommodation I could follow a lakeside walk along the cliff edge, through cherry blossom trees all in bloom for spring and towering cypresses.

I could see how the early Christians held this place in such reverence. Many of the eastern orthodox churches there were built by early Christians who were fleeing persecution. Some of the churches have only been given rough dates from the frescos painted on their ceiling but in fact little is known about them.

The food in Ohrid is very good and also very cheap. It cost $3 to have a large vegetarian pizza delivered to me. I had many pizzas delivered. I’d rented a one bedroom apartment with one of the most beautiful views looking out over the lake, in the whole town. I had a balcony with a little table and chairs, but I only sat out there a couple times as it was too cold to be out there too long.

GALLECIA | Macedonia

In my apartment I was able to find a bunch of pamphlets and business cards from local tour operators and guides. One of those cards belonged to Misko, who is a mountaineering guide local to the area. I contacted him and in a couple days he met me for a coffee in town.

Our conversation went something like this, Misko said “So you like climbing mountains?” and I said yes. It was agreed that we could summit the Gallecia peak next to Ohrid. I had no idea what I was signing up for. The mountain was thick with snow. Misko brought ropes and an ice pick. We scaled up the mountain, over very hairy bits that were sheer and icy, connected by rope and with a ice pick if we needed to self-arrest. It turned out that Misko was a very capable mountaineer who had summited peaks all over the world. Recently, he summited the infamous Annapurna peak in Nepal.

At the top he ran into many local friends. It seemed like Misko was friends with everyone we encountered on all of our outings. The people on the mountain peak shared their homemade rakija with us, which is a strong but tasty alcohol infused with local fruits.

The next day my computer broke (the first of many computer breaking incidents I would have in 2021). I took it to the only computer shop in town but they didn’t have any MacBook help as people in Macedonia, Albania, and Serbia can’t usually afford Apple products, so parts are expensive and hard to come by.

I bought an extra, cheap computer for $300 and took it to an IT shop to get set up. There I encountered two of Misko’s friends who had been on the peak of the mountain the day before. They said, “We saw you and Misko scaling up the side of the mountain and we thought you were very brave as we would never have gone that way.”

MAVROVO | Macedonia

But I loved hiking with Misko, so I arranged to go on another exploration of Mavrovo National Park with him the following weekend. We went to a monastery there, where the monks are former drug users and delinquents who are getting the option to live clean lives as monks for several years at the monastery instead of going to prison.

In this way they are given another path towards rehabilitation into society. I actually thought it was a really nice idea. The mountains of Mavrovo were tall. We got locally made Macedonian bread, with cheese baked into it, and sat looking out at another large lake view. We also toured a ruined church and visited a ski resort. Many of the facilities were closed because of Covid.

The following weekend I again went hiking with Misko, this time we attempted to summit another high mountain but the snow rim was too high and Misko said if we attempted to break through it it would likely cause an avalanche. That was good enough for me to say “let’s turn around,” I was actually happy to get to experience real mountaineering for the first time since hiking on the JMT with my friend Katie in 2018.

Misko also took me to his waterfront home and introduced me to his family. He served me food and beer and told me about all of the adventures he liked to do in the area, from cycling around the entire permitter of the lake, to visiting the Albanian towns (which, unfortunately, because of Covid I wasn't able to do, as the land border there was shut).

He said that Macedonia didn’t have access to their own vaccine yet, so many Macedonians were heading into Serbia which was one of the few countries in the world giving out vaccines to foreigners. “I have a plan," he told me about getting vaccinated. Misko was planning to head to Belgrade to try to get a vaccine as soon as possible. I felt he was concerned about the situation but he also wanted to be able to get into Greece again, which was set to reopen in May or June to vaccinated tourists. Misko regularly went there to summit Mount Olympus, something he said he would be glad to do with me if I returned to the area in happier times.

THE PEOPLE | Making friends abroad

Beyond this, I was also able to make a local friend named Eli. I was walking along the lake one evening and met her as she was also on a solo walk. She told me about how few work opportunities there were even for educated people and how bad the pay was. Eli worked in a lakefront restaurant which she invited me to come and visit sometime. She told me she had a university degree in tourism and that’s where she had learned such good English, but she said since Macedonia wasn’t part of the EU it was difficult to get jobs out of the country.

She was a very good friend to me while I was in the area, and invited me to her family’s home for coffee. I was deeply touched. Misko and Eli turned out to know each other already, both working in the tourist industry, and in the coming days they accompanied me to the biggest monastery in Ohrid on the far side of the lake.

OTHER SITES | More around Ohrid

Saint Naums, which was built by the saint of the same name over 1000 years ago is a truly remarkable site along the lake. It was absolutely beautiful and the garden was filled with peacocks, one of which was albino. The view is from the far side of the lake, which is close to the Albanian border.

I visited the paper museum, which is run by an old man who owns one of Europe’s only remaining original Gutenberg presses, he showed me the whole process of making paper, so of course I had to buy some of his beautiful handmade work.

On the way to Saint Naums there is also an archeological site that recreates how ancient people lived along the lake side in pre-Christian times. This was a beautiful place to spend a couple hours and it's affordable to get a taxi there, especially if you're doing it as part of a longer journey to see Saint Naums.

VISIT MACEDONIA

By the end of the month, Ohrid had become a very special place to me. I think much of eastern Europe, and particularly the Balkan states are too often overlooked by tourists. They retain an authenticity that is harder to come by in much of western Europe. The people there are incredibly welcoming and friendly.

The nature is awe-inspiring and all of this is much more affordable than western Europe. If you take the time to really get off the beaten track in eastern Europe you will be duly rewarded. I rarely think about returning to places I've traveled to because life is short and there is so much world to see. But I would really like to go back to Ohrid soon and see my friends and keep exploring.