We love travelling, we love adventures and once in a while we love visiting places which are rarely at the tip of your tongue. Sometimes it’s curiosity, sometimes it’s an accident. Yes, yes. We do accidental trips once in a while. Trip of Macedonia was one of those – accidental, fun and a bit… (good) interesting. It’s a country that is stuck – between mountains, between histories, between changes.

Between mountains

While the country is not large – if you close your eyes and imagine you can fly, you can easily cross it over in an hour or so, it takes a while to get from one point to another. However, the reality is slightly different – everything takes time and everything has a mountain view once in a while interrupted by a lake or a river. The roads are (for the most part) great but because of mountain drama, most of it is one-lane roads with no chances of passing. While it is annoying when driving, every time you open your eyes, you see nature and beauty. Because of the landscape, a lot of places are still untouched and they make for wonderful hikes or rides. Also, once in a while for the lost folks who just happened to stumble upon an impassible (aka very steep and very bumpy road), a cemetery and a horse next to it. Yup, that happened.

We also happened to discover a national park nearly every 50 kilometres, magical views when opening the window, a number of hiking or biking routes and helpful information centers to guide you through them. We found lush mountains that – for our surprise – had pine trees but we also found mountains that look like desserts or even the ones that are on literal fire, because people are still using slash-and-burn farming. It’s a place filled with drama.

Hot tip for you: we booked a mountain biking tour with E-Bike Tours Macedonia in Mavrovo National Park and absolutely loved it. Dean was a great guide and we had so much fun; even if I hated it a little bit in the end.

Between histories

And the drama is not only in nature but also in the country’s history. As Macedonia is in the middle of the Balkans peninsula, it has leftovers of ancient history. As it was tossed around between a number of empires or countries, it has remnants of each chapter. And finally, as it was part of Yugoslavia, it has leftovers of communism and who is better to recognize that if not fellow Eastern European?

It is such an odd feeling to wake up in the city’s old town, walk through streets that are thousand years old and soooo tiny that cars shouldn’t be going there; then drive 5 minutes and stare at apartment buildings that are nearly the same there as they are back in Lithuania – true stamp of communism; drive 20 minutes more and get to stand on the resurrected village that is supposed to be dating back to iron age.

Locals have so much pride in their history and being part “one of the oldest” something something. They will happily tell you the stories or provide recommendations and tell stories of the country. At the same time, communism left the attitude of “just get going; just do something” which means that quite a few places are not preserved that well or in some cases are left to rotten. They want to protect the history and at the same time, they are letting it go because it takes effort.

Another hot tip: Ancient Macedonian City Heraclea Lyncestis is a great place to visit. You get to soak in the history of the place and get just a brief feel of a thousand years of history.

Between changes

Same as with history, same is with change. There are few people who still value and appreciate the times of Yugoslavia and communism / socialism. Some people definitely have the attitude with a whiff of communism – shady alleys, money under the table, masssive, massive houses (less than two stores is not worth building), and streets with junk. Some people going even beyond that – lose two horses in the capital, and I would like to pause here for you to realize the ridiculousness of this. We found TWO loose horses roaming around in Skopjes center. So, horses, carriages, old-school farming, dated monasteries with barely changed traditions are still a thing and I don’t think it’s going away soon. And then they speak English, are excited about joining the European Union, started building a few skyscrapers, and have few ATMs that support crypto. The same Heraclea City had dated ruins and AR / VR options for some rooms or houses.

I bet there will be few people left behind but it is interesting to see how they are mixing past and future. When you travel through North Macedonia you really feel as if you are on the verge of change. I am just not sure where that will lead them.

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I loved our time in Macedonia. I genuinely think there are only a few places like this left. It feels like you are in the middle of a very beautiful (and safe) tornado and you are not sure where that will take it and what you will discover. It’s a mix of religions, cultures, histories, and changes and all of that is wrapped in a gorgeous mountain wrapper. I might not go solely to Macedonia again but I wouldn’t mind if I had to pass it over and over again. A week after the trip and I am still baffled by the place.

So, if you are looking for a peculiar place to visit that is in Europe, Macedonia would definitely be high on the list.