If you know the map of Macedonia a little bit, you’ll probably wonder what we did between Strumica and Bitola. Well, we took a few days off. Yes, even on a holiday you sometimes need a break! So, from Strumica we drove south to Greece where we stayed for two days and returned to Macedonia through another border crossing near the Macedonian city Bitola. We had a last minute reservation for the Goldy Hostel in Bitola.
After we parked the car and dropped our luggage in the hostel, we went to see Bitola. A beautiful and charming city. Our hostel advised the Bourbon street pub for dinner. A great place for the traditional fried cheese.
We returned to our hostel through the crowded pedestrian street of Bitola.
The next morning we visited the old Turkish town with the bazaar.
From Bitola we drove to Prilep. In Prilep everyone was making the final preparations for the Prilep Beer Festival. Otherwise probably a calm city with a charming old town behind the large square but now a bit to crowdy for us.
Luckily we found a free table in a very nice restaurant Del Posto. They had a great variety to choose from. Both traditional and exoctic food. Lada took sushi, I finally tried the pastrmajlija. Also known as Macedonian pizza.
During our lunch we made plans for the afternoon. We soon realized we had passed an interesting site when driving from Bitola to Prilep. The village of Stavica. According to our Bradt travel guide book, an old authentic picturesque village in a lovely landscape. Appaerently is was also featured in the movie ‘Before the Rain’.
We arrived in this village around 3pm when it was over 40 degrees. Of course nobody is outside with these temperatures so we got the impression that this village is almost a ghost town.
Usually it’s rain and other bad weather that makes people change their travel schedule. Today, the weather was just too good. Great weather for spending your day in and around the swimming pool or drink ice coffees as much as your body can handle in a cosy, air conditioned bar. But that’s not the best way to explore a country. Instead, search for an alternative schedule for our afternoon. So after Stavica, we drove to Kruševo. Kruševo is the highest town in Macedonia with an altitude of 1350m.
Our guess that it would be cooler up in Kruševo was correct. Still we enjoyed one more ice coffee – with mokka ice cream – before we explored Kruševo.
We couldn’t find an interesting restaurant for dinner in Kruševo so we went back to Prilep once again. Back in Prilep, we first went scouting for a camping spot near the monastery of the Holy Archangel Michael.
The beer festival slowly started when we arrived back in the city center of Prilep. I had a huuuuge burger from one of the stands on the festival but for something veggie for Lada we went back to the restaurant where we had lunch. That was restaurant Del Posto just behind the old town.
Our initial camping spot seemed to be a popular area for younger locals to have a drink with their friends. We decided to find another calmer spot closer to the monastery of the Holy Archangel Michael.
