2025 Balkan Travels - Northern Macedonia

Crossing the Border, Heraclea Lyncestis, and the drive to Skopje

After lunch in Florina, we crossed the border from Greece into Northern Macedonia (Macedonia became Northern Macedonia in 2019 after a dispute with Greece).  On our second long driving day of the trip, we drove through Turkish tobacco fields and towns on our way north.

A small portion of the mosaics of Heraclea Lyncestis.

Our stop of the day was the ruins of Heraclea Lyncestis, a fourth century BCE city that thrived until the Ottoman era.  A local archeologist gave us a tour of the ruins including beautiful mosaics showing religious and historical  stories.

We left the ruins and drove until it was almost dark.  We stopped at a vineyard to have dinner.  Our guide, an Albanian, kept warning us that the quality of food in Northern Macedonia was not as good as Albanian food.  My palette must not be that great since the food we ate in Macedonia was very good.

We ended the day in a very nice hotel in Skopje, capital of Northern Macedonia.

Skopje

Alexander the Great

Today we had a walking tour of Skopje.  We met our local guide at a fortress overlooking the old city.  The local guide explained the history of this capital city.  We walked to a nearby mosque and looked at the elaborate decorations.  Our guide walked us through old streets to the bazaar.

The bustling Bazaar full of both old and new shops included an old Muslim school and a hammam.  We had time to shop and the Wife bought some leather shoes unique to Northern Macedonia.

Mother Teresa

As we left the bazaar we passed statues of founding kings and Alexander the Great.

The end of the Skopje tour ended at a museum dedicated to Mother Teresa who was born in Skopje.  I'd never seen pictures of her as a young girl before.

We ate lunch in the modern downtown before we had some free time to shop.  Our bus picked us up and we drove a few hours to Ohrid.

Ohrid

Ohrid, a city on Lake Ohrid, is a nice lakeside city with a fortress overlooking the city.  The city is where the Cyrillic alphabet was developed by Saints Cyril and Methodius.

We met with a local guide and we had a walking tour of the old city.  He described the old housing style and the politics of the city during the different imperial eras.

Crystal clear Lake Ohrid.

We visited a pearl factory where processing pearls was demonstrated.  From there we visited an old Orthodox church.

Inside the Church of St Sophia.

After the church we rested at an amphitheater that is still used to this day for festivals.  We continued our walk through the hilly city as we visited the fortress looking over the town and lake.

Church of St John.

We toured the fortress and enjoyed the views of the city and the lake.  From there we walked towards the Lake shore.  We visited a small church perched on the edge of the lake.  It was not originally on the tour but our tour guide made it happen when the Wife showed interest in going in.

We then walked down to the shore and got on a boat which took us along the crystal clear waters of lake Ohrid pointing out points of interest including the prime Minister's summer retreat (formerly a communist leader's summer home).  The boat ride ended back in Ohrid not far from the restaurant where we would have lunch.

The church at the Monastery of St Naum.

In the afternoon we saw reconstructed "floating" homes used by people trying to escape persecution on the way to a monastery overlooking the lake.  At the Monastery we saw the rushing water that feed lake Ohrid from another, higher lake on the other side of the mountains.  The flow of water was impressive.

 

This was our last day in Northern Macedonia and the tour was nearly over.  Tomorrow we would travel back to Tirana.

Photos can be found in my 2025-10 Northern Macedonia Google Photos album.