It is sometimes hard to decide where to travel, especially during the summer when the prices usually skyrocket. That is why we as late as in May sat down and looked for a summer adventure. It had by then already been decided that Little A was going to spend a week with her grandparents on the Åland Islands. So, it would be Susann and I on this adventure. We eventually found a destination with reasonably priced flight tickets. We were heading to North Macedonia, flying from Stockholm Skavsta Airport down to Skopje.
This would be our second visit to North Macedonia. Our first time in the country was an Easter visit to Skopje in 2015. A visit that you can read more about here: Skopje, North Macedonia – Small Yet Spectacular.
Hello North Macedonia!
It was a Monday evening at the beginning of July that we sat on Stockholm Skavsta Airport awaiting boarding on our flight to Skopje. We had a late arrival in Skopje, with our flight arriving well after midnight. Luckily, we had booked a night at a hotel and arranged for a transfer from the airport to the city center. An uneventful flight and straight out of Skopje Airport we were soon on our way through the night toward our accommodation for the night. We will not mention the name of the hotel here, because it is not a place that we would recommend. But we figured that it would be sufficient for our very short stay in Skopje. After all, we had booked accommodation in Ohrid for the coming days. Skopje was just a stop for transfer this time.
Traveling from Skopje to Ohrid
After breakfast, it was time to figure out how to go to Ohrid, a town in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. We had initially decided to head to the bus station to take the bus to Ohrid. It would turn out that we had not really planned much for this vacation. Sometimes you just have to wing it and once we reached the bus station we found an alternative.
A local taxi driver made a decent offer to drive us to Ohrid. The journey there turned out an adventure in itself, with his car breaking down before leaving Skopje. At least he arranged for another driver to drive us and we did get to where we were supposed to go without any issues. The road between Skopje and Ohrid is, however, a bit more challenging. The highway is under construction and the old road still leads through the many valleys and up and down the many mountains and hills. Many times this can only be compared to a rollercoaster.
The rollercoaster eventually ended with a beautiful view of Lake Ohrid. Down in the valley, we saw the town. We were soon dropped off in the center. From there it was just a short walk to our accommodation. It only took a few minutes before we had checked in and were standing on our balcony with a view of the lake and surrounding mountains.
We were actually still quite tired, but we had made it to our destination. We could finally enjoy some good food, a short stroll along the waterfront, and an evening with a glass of local wine on the balcony. Further explorations had to wait, but we were feeling quite pleased with our choices so far. The adventure was just about to begin.
Join us and read more about our Balkan adventure here: Summer in Macedonia 2023
I’m delighted to see again images of these two cities, Skopje and Ohrid, which I also visited last year. They are fond memories; great efforts being made to make them welcoming to visitors.
It is, indeed, an amazing place and hopefully their efforts will continue and provide an even better experience in the future. 🙂