Macedonia

Day 1: 

I arrived at the hostel around 8pm. The little old lady and her husband walked me to my hostel to keep me safe. It was actually very cute! 

I stayed up way to late chatting with new friends while fending off a total creeper. This man decided I was the love of his life and wouldn’t leave me alone. He was harmless but to be honest, I didn’t love him watching me sleep during the night. I woke up three times and he was creepily in my room watching me. And yes it’s weird, his room was upstairs, so he had no reason to be there! To be fair, he wasn’t just creepy with me, he freaked every single girl out and had to be asked to leave. 

Day 2: 

I met a hectic Australian this morning and we decided to explore Skopje. She was the most cliche Australian person I think I have ever met. Her slang was on point, she was bogan, loved to party and literally was everything tourists think of us. Lucy was great though. We had the best day! 

We caught a bus to the top of a mountain. The bus system was confusing and we spent ages trying to figure it out. Eventually we worked it out and made it to the top of the mountain. The cool thing to do was cycle up the mountain and I feel nothing but relief that we didn’t decided to do that on impulse in the morning. The mountain was much bigger than the hostel guy led us to believe and frankly I would have died. Everyone going up looked like hardcore professionals in all the bike get up.l and some had trained for months to make it to the top. 

Half way we caught a chair lift to the top. The view of the city was average but the view of the mountains was something worth talking about!  We spent a couple of hours exploring the walking paths, taking insta photos and eating our healthy lunch of chips and ice cream. Probably should have planned ahead and bought something tasty for a picnic, but we just weren’t that prepared. 

Eventually we decided it was time to head on down, but the cable cars had stopped for half an hour. Turns out they have half an hour on and then half an hour off. I would love to work there. Imagine getting a break every 30 minutes?! 

We made it back into the city and were dropped off nowhere we wanted to be. Turns out the bus didn’t go back to the same place we were picked up and we had a few kilometres walk ahead of us. We checked out the palace and walked around the bizarre. It was a cool old town. So many monuments and so much exploring to be done. Dinner was a tasty gyros and it was bigger than my face, it was amazingly delicious. 

The rest of the night we hang outside in the park and ended up chatting with all of our new friends. The creepy guy left me alone and had moved onto new prey. Lucky for me, sucks for her! 

Day 3: 

Today we caught a bus to Lake Ohrid. I was lucky enough to sit in the front of the bus and I had two seats to myself. This really helped with the bus sickness. Shame about the driver who smoked the majority of the way! 

We arrived out our hostel and were super disappointed. This was supposed to be the best hostel in Macedonia and it was honestly very average. The only reason it was good is because of all the travellers and the cool atmosphere. 

The group of us headed off to the lake for a swim, found a restaurant for lunch/dinner and then spent the night with a large group of people. Mostly everyone was drunk and having a great time (not me of course!). This girl was there in basically a ball gown and heels, this was her usual attire and I was literally in shock. Who travels with such fancy clothes? Only a true rich Londoner! 

Day 4: 

Breakfast consisted of mouldy bread and mouldy jam, talk about delicious! 

We headed to the remote beach today. Along the way we saw a church, a beautiful boardwalk and the lake. Of course it was a beach by the lake so I am not sure if that is actually a beach! Either way, it was the perfect day in the sunshine. 

This old man was the only one on the beach, aside from our group. He was rocking a man g-string and spent the day bending over in front of us and winking showing off his package. He was having such a great time hahaha. 

We had a late lunch/early dinner and enjoyed some traditional food. Of course for me that means I ate a Shopska salad. Tasty as! (Actually… not even joking. But I am sick of having the same thing twice a day). 

We watched the sunset and sat around chatting for hours.

Day 5: 

Exploring the lake was on the agenda for today. Lucy and I went on a boat trip with a group of strangers and checked out Lake Ohrid and all it had to offer. It was an exciting day cruising along on a boat, listening to the engine murmur and looking out for the beautiful sites. It was actually kinda perfect.

Day 6:

The morning started at 3:45am as we woke up to catch the 4:15am bus to Albania. Talk about an early start. I am not friendly in the morning so I was basically a horrible person for the first few hours. 

I went with three friends and it was nice to have the company. Especially considering they kept changing the buses, stopping for food, to chat with friends, to visit a mechanic, to fix the door etc. who knew one could stop so many times?