While in my room in Ohrid, I made some calculations regarding what would be the best possible route considering the amount of time I had left in the country. After some thinking, I decided I would finally go to Bitola, even though it was initially not included in my plans.
All in all, it was a very logical choice. The town was an hour and a half from Ohrid by bus, which I could take early enough to not feel I was wasting time in the morning but late enough to have a good night’s sleep. Once I arrived and I left my stuff in my room I immediately went to see the remains of Heraclea Lyncestis, which were little more than twenty minutes away on foot from the main street.
Heraclea Lyncestis was a city founded by Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great. It was later ruled by the Romans, with which it became an important episcopal town in the early Byzantine period. It is from that period that some amazingly preserved mosaics remain. It doesn’t take much time to see them all, I think I was there for about an hour. However, I found it by far the most interesting place in Bitola. The way the mosaics have been preserved is just amazing and I find it hard to believe this place is not heard of more often.
To be fair, there’s not much more to see in Bitola. I mean, of course I may have missed one or ten things, but I got the feeling that this small town is basically the ruins I mentioned, the lively main street, where my hostel was, and the bazaar, which was much less touristic than the one in Skopje and oriented towards locals, with a market whose stalls were full of nicely arranged colorful vegetables. The main street, by the way, was a nice little summary of the contrasts you can find in Macedonia, as there was a catholic church, an orthodox church and a mosque.
I decided to get luxurious in Bitola and I booked a whole room for myself, which cost me the equivalent of fifteen euros. I honestly don’t think I had ever booked a room for myself before. Well, joke was on me: the pillow was so thick and hard (ah, the jokes I would made if anyone told me this) I woke up at 5.30. Honestly, you give me two dozens of those pillows and I could build you a small hut.
The situation had an upside: going to watch the old bazaar wake up at 7.30am with all the people setting up their stands like two-legged busy bees wasn’t really that much of an effort. Again, I love how those veggies are so neatly displayed. I had burek for breakfast (after seeing jokes about it in so many slav related facebook pages I really had to try it- it had no cheese, by the way) and prepared my stuff.
Right before entering the bus station I paid a brief visit to a post office: the place was so dark I didn’t know it was open until I actually entered the place. The woman working there, however, spoke –again- good English. Oh, and fun fact, I couldn’t buy the bus ticket until the bus actually was in sight. I wonder if they don’t really trust it to come.
My next stop was Krusevo, a five thousand inhabitants village in which there was an uprising for Macedonian Independence in 1903. Why Krusevo? Because I saw there was supposed to be a funny looking monument, because it looked like a place where you could start and end a nice hike and because well, I didn’t really know where else I could go considering I had two days left in the country.
Once in Krusevo, a very nice man who worked at a pizza place there made a couple of calls so the woman who owned the apartment I was renting knew I was there. Google Maps was telling me the address was a different one and she was not answering text messages or emails. I had to spend some time getting toasted by the surprisingly hot October sun but it was worth it: I had a wonderful apartment with a lovely terrace all for myself for a ridiculously low price.
I was finally left alone in the apartment at 3pm. Since it got dark at around 7pm and I didn’t want to be in the countryside in the dark I decided to go for a four hour hike and, lucky me, I found that the Monastery of the Holy Assumption was precisely two hours away from my apartment. The whole hike was actually done along a more or less narrow road but I only saw three or four cars on the way. I didn’t see anyone other than those lone drivers.
Honestly, with a better photographer and a better camera several autumn postcards could have been made along the way as the colours were stunning. Unfortunately, my skills are what they are and my phone is what it is so well, there you go. The view from the monastery and from the cross that was close to it was also lovely.
There was one tense moment when I had almost reached the monastery. I was minding my own business and enjoying the scenery when I heard an animal growl. I am almost certain it was a wolf. I gave the world a great example of multitasking by grabbing a big rock while keeping my shit together to, well, not shit myself. Fortunately, whatever it was didn’t want Spanish meat and I never saw the animal.
The problem with staying in such a small village is that I wasn’t sure of the bus schedule. A shady website said 15.00, a piece of paper on the window of the building that acted as bus station said 16.30 and the woman who rented me the apartment, after a phone consultation, agreed with the piece of paper. Since there were no more buses until 7am next day, I decided to not go too far so I could be by the bus station a bit before 15.00 just in case.
It was a slow morning. I first went to the Ilinden monument, which is dedicated to all the people who participated in the Ilinden uprising of 1903, as well as soldiers-partisans of the Macedonia National Liberation Struggle 1941-1944. It is supposed to ressemble a medieval mace, although the first thing that came to mind when I saw it was some kind of mine. After that, I went to a nearby lake and existed for a couple of hours before I had a pizza in the village and went to the bus stop. The bus, by the way, was indeed at 16.30, and it sounded like two sick donkeys were suffering where the engine was supposed to be.
Once in Skopje I went to a different hostel which Chris, the Australian guy I had met during my first stay in the capital, recommended me. He was actually there so I spent that evening and the next morning chatting and walking around with him. I had to take a bus to the airport at 18.15 the next day and my plane was at 5.00 the following morning, so I had a very pleasant ten hour stay at Skopje airport, which I now know better than my own flat.
Long story short, I strongly recommend Macedonia (or North Macedonia, whatever you prefer) if you’re the outdoorsy type. I wasn’t particularly impressed by Skopje, Bitola doesn’t have much other than the ruins of Heraclea Lyncestis and Ohrid, although beautiful, is not big at all. However, it is very easy to find hikes in which I barely crossed any people, which is exactly what I needed. I definitely wouldn’t mind repeating in the future.
A Little Light Blogging 