Day 445: I Was on Hot Seat, Literally…

10/24 Skopje – Tetovo – Struga – Ohrid, Macedonia

Last night at dinner, a Kiwi named Sam and I had agreed to check out Skopje in the morning before we travelled together to the south of Macedonia. Skopje is a city perfect for strolling around since it’s not too crowded and totally walkable. This capital of Macedonia has a lot of statues; almost ridiculously so. And all of them are brand new. In fact, most of the socialist looking structures in the main square are brand new. I think the government has some sort of plan to push Macedonian tourism forward. For without these new structures, there’s nothing distinctive in Skopje beside an old fort that is forbidden for entry.

Shorty after noon, Sam and I returned to the hostel to get our stuffs and meet with two other guys: David from Canada and Andrea (Yes, Andrea is a bloke) from Italy. The four of us took a bus heading south. Sam had been told about a town called Tetovo; how it’s a university town worth checking out. Whoever told him that deserved a kicking. We arrived in Tetovo only to find it a run down town. After a quick bite, we hoped on the next bus going further south to Struga. Our desired end destination for the day was Ohrid, 15km away from Struga.

The three-hour bus ride to Struga was a painful one. David had suggested we grabbed the seats at the very back of the bus. Half an hour in, our feet and legs were burning. The engine must have been right underneath the seats and it’s constantly releasing hot air. We were miserable. There wasn’t a chance to move seats because the minibus was packed. A guy even brought his own chair to sit on the aisle. During the ride, Andrea hit on a local Macedonian girl on the bus. The girl got off at Struga. We lost Andrea in Struga :]

The rest of us continued on to Ohrid. In Ohrid, we rented a private apartment for EUR25; it has a bedroom, bathroom, living room and a balcony. The owner set up the couch as a bed which I promptly chose to sleep on. Canada and Kiwi shared a tiny double bed :]