After a relatively uninspiring few days in Sofia, we had low expectations of what was to come. Our next stop was Skopje, North Macedonia, which none of us knew anything about. We had only decided to go there because it was on the way to more popular destinations like Albania, Montenegro, and Croatia. We called a taxi from our Airbnb in Sofia to the bus station. Our bus to Skopje was through the bus lines Matpu, and the bus actually turned out to be pretty comfortable, even equipped with a bathroom onboard.
The ride from Sofia to Skopje was about 3 hours. About 1.5 hours into the drive, we reached the border. We were instructed to get off the bus with our passports, line up to be stamped out of Bulgaria, re-board the bus to drive ~20 metres to the Macedonian border, and disembark again to be stamped into Macedonia. It wasn’t the most efficient process but the border crossing didn’t take too long, and we entered North Macedonia with no issue. Fun fact, the country used to be called Macedonia until 2018 when they changed it due to a long-standing dispute with Greece. The region between North Macedonia and Greece was referred to as Macedonia, and the Greeks weren’t too thrilled with Macedonia co-opting the name, so the change happened.
Back on the bus, we enjoyed the rest of the drive through the beautiful mountains. Turns out, North Macedonia’s time zone is an hour earlier than Bulgaria’s, so our watches switched time zones. We got a bit confused for a moment, thinking we’d only been on the bus for two hours, but it had actually been three. We arrived into Skopje main station, which was only about a 10 minute walk from our Airbnb!
We arrived earlier into Skopje than expected due to the time change, but luckily our host Marija was very flexible allowed us to check in early. Marija came to meet us and gave us the keys. Our accomodation was a cute 1 bedroom apartment with a pullout couch and full kitchen in a really nice building, but somebody had spilled a copious amount of ketchup in the elevator so it was a bit of a jump scare crime scene when the elevator first opened! Marija also warned us that since it was Sunday and North Macedonia is a predominately Christian country, many shops and stores (with the exception of restaurants) would be closed.
We were starting to get hungry so we picked a spot on Google Maps and made our way. As we reached the river, we were like, “Wait, this place is adorable!” There was a massive promenade on both sides of the river, complete with cute, modern-looking restaurants with beautiful patios, and an array of statues and beautiful buildings. We were truly impressed.
The restaurant we had picked lived up to the reviews, and the menu showed us how astonishingly cheap everything was. We ended up ordering a bunch: bread basket appetisers, beet salad, breaded chicken, a burger, Aperol Spritzs, and beer. The entire meal for both Saz and I cost a grand total of $20 USD! That’s for appetisers, huge mains (with enough leftovers for a whole extra meal), and a drink each.
After dinner, we went for a walk through the main square to admire the colossal statues and impressive buildings. They call Skopje the City of Statues, and it definitely lived up to the name. We were blown away by at the sheer number of statues and how giant and extravagant they were! Many of these statues are part of the “Skopje 2014” project, which aimed to transform the city’s appearance and promote national and cultural identity.
After our walk through the town, we decided to have a little night cap at a local Mexican joint for some cocktails and dessert. Saz had a tequila sunrise, I got a margarita, and Michele went with a “mojitorita” (a mix of mojito and margarita). The server was super friendly and taught us to say “thank you” in Macedonian (Falah or Blagordaram).
We were already much more charmed by Skopje than we had been by Sofia, so the next morning we got ourselves ready for a day of Skopje exploring! Michele wanted to try a cute brunch place she had found online, so we took a nice breezy 40-minute walk along the river and promenade to get there. The restaurant, Tiny Tajni, was a quaint little place. There was a lady sitting in the booth next to us with the cutest little puppy, so we enjoyed our breakfast and played with the dog.
Saz had come up with a bit of a plan for the day at breakfast, finding random interesting spots on Google Maps. Our adventure began with a stroll through the nearby City Park. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and the park was massive!
We wandered around, soaking it all in before tracing the river towards our next destination: the mighty Kale Fortress.
We had seen the fortress the night before, as it sits high on a hill overlooking the city, and wanted to explore. The history of Kale Fortress dates back over a millennium, and the best part was that it was absolutely free to explore.
The fortress was super amazing! We got to climb right up onto the fortress walls, perch on top of the towers for a 360 view of the city, and just generally wander through the grounds. A similar attraction in America or Canada would’ve easily charged a 20-30 dollars entrance fee, so we were stoked to explore the historical site for free!
After our fortress adventure, we strolled over to the Old Bazaar. It was a charming collection of market streets, with tons of antique shops, clothing stores, and food vendors. The roads were paved with cobblestone and just had such a cute vibe. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, so we indulged in a bit of window shopping and ducked into some random shops.
Feeling like it was time for a little refreshment, we stopped into a bar called the Beerhouse. We ordered some beers and Aperol Spritzes, and people watched through the Old Bazaar.
On our way back, we swung by the grocery store downstairs to grab the essentials for dinner – ingredients for homemade pizzas! We whipped up the pizzas one by one and had ourselves a delightful girls-and-pizza night. These homemade pizzas turned out to be absolute winners, especially with some added garlic and rosemary.
The next morning, we decided to explore Matka Canyon, a nearby canyon with stunning emerald waters, steep cliffs and lush scenery. It was constantly one of the most popular and highly recommended things to do in Skopje based on our research, so we were excited to check it out.
Having been burned by our experience with GetYourGuide in Bulgaria, we opted not to pay $30 dollars per person for a organised tour and just take public transportation ourselves. To read how to get to Matka Canyon via public transit, click here! We left our place around 7:45 to make our way to the bus station. The ticket office was located in a converted bus with its wheels removed, which was pretty interesting.
The bus ride to the canyon lasted around 45 mintues, and the driver had an….. affinity for abrupt braking that had us gripping our seats.
When we arrived at the canyon, we were blown away that such a beautiful place was so close to the big city. The crystal-clear water and mountains on either side painted a picture reminiscent of a pristinely clean Ha Long Bay. Our walk toward the main area traced a bright turquoise river, and we were simply stunned by its beauty.
Since we’d taken the earliest city bus, we had beaten the main tour groups and practically had the place to ourselves. We decided to rent kayaks – a double for me and Saz and a single for Miffy. Initially planning to go out for just an hour, we completely lost track of time, and the first 30 minutes sped by. We extended our adventure to two hours, paddling around and capturing the picturesque scenery. The kayak rental employee had told us that swimming was allowed in Matka Canyon, but the water was absolutely FREEZING so we did not take him up on that offer.
After our kayaking adventure, we stopped by the only restaurant in Matka Canyon for some afternoon tea. The restaurant was so cute with baskets of flowers hanging from the roof.
We enjoyed an afternoon tea, and decided to go on a short ~2 mile hike through the canyon! It was absolutely gorgeous.
The bus ride back was equally jolting, and it was packed. We were also terrorised by some kids that kept purposefully bumping into Michele and I on the bus…. but it was an amazing day trip and we got home happy, tired, and ready to chill!
The next morning, we set our sights on hiking up to the big cross on Mount Vodno in Skopje. Miffy wanted to go back to the brunch place that we ate at yesterday, so we made plans to meet at the trailhead in a bit.
It took about an hour to walk to the trailhead from our apartment, where we met back up with Miff and started our hike. The hike was fairly steep and wooded, but we finally arrived at a clearing about halfway up the mountain. There was a nice park with a cable car that you could ride to the top.
We stopped at a picnic table in the park and relaxed for a bit, as Saz and I were feeling sluggish and dehydrated that day. Ultimately the 2 of us decided to turn around at the middle point of Mount Vodno, while Miffy trekked on solo to the top.
As we were walking back down, we noticed that Saz’s backpack’s front zipper was undone. Our wallet was still inside, but her AirPods seemed to be missing. She couldn’t remember if she had even brought them out, so we continued the trek towards the city centre, covering over 11 kilometres in total.
We were pretty hungry after our hike, so we headed back to Beerhouse in the Old Town for drinks and dinner. Miffy texted us a cute selfie that she had made it to the top and was on her way back to meet us for dinner.
She joined us at the bar and we enjoyed dinner and drinks back in Old Town. While we were chatting away, Saz got a notification that her AirPods were “left behind” on the mountain. We hadn’t been home to check if they were there yet, so we realised that they had probably fallen out of the backpack on the mountain. The race was on as it was starting to get dark. The location of the AirPods was still active, indicating that they were at the picnic table we’d been sitting at earlier. We immediately hailed a taxi, and the sunset along the way was absolutely breathtaking – pink and purple hues lighting up the sky.
The taxi driver ripped up the mountain back to the park we were at, and we begged him to wait for us as we searched the park. We scoured the area but had no luck finding the AirPods. Despite the active location signal, we couldn’t find them anywhere. Saz even went so far as to search in a disgusting garbage can, while local kids came over to help. We looked for 45 minutes to no avail, and eventually had to give up our search, which was incredibly frustrating.
Thankfully, our taxi driver had patiently waited for us and drove us back home. It was a bit of a damper on an otherwise amazing time in Skopje, but shit happens!
We arrived in Skopje with little to low expectations, but left with super fond memories and amazing adventures. We were thoroughly impressed with the grand architecture, stunning natural beauty, and history of the city.
After a fun few days exploring Skopje, it was time to make our way towards Albania!