Blogs from Bitola, Macedonia, Europe

My guesthouse owner gave me a small breakfast before leaving. I had coffee and polenta with cheese. After eating quite a lot of polenta in Romania and finding it pretty bland, I wasn't expecting it to be amazing. However, my hostess has found a way to make it more appetising, by adding cheese. It tasted so much better. After breakfast, I made my way to Ohrid bus station and bought a ticket for the 10 o'clock bus to Bitola. I was quite surprised at how busy the bus was. I had expected it to be quieter. The journey to Bitola only took about an hour and a bit. Bitola bus station is a little out of town and it took me about twenty minutes to walk to my accommodation. I got there before check in, but ... read more

Today we have done a whistlestop tour through Macedonian history. We started off at the Roman ruins at Heraklea - this was a large town in its heyday, and only a small proportion has been excavated. However, there's an amphitheatre, religious buildings and some baths that you can wander around and some really impressively preserved mosaics. It would have been really quiet without a Japanese tour group there! Tickets, in contrast to the prices in our guidebook, we're just 100MKD per person, plus 300 for photos. We then walked back to the town of Bitola - about 15 minutes away, via the station where we found out that there is indeed a train to Skopje, despite the appearance of the station from outside. Our plan is to take the train in a couple of days' time, ... read more

Today was an interesting day. Following breakfast we set off and stopped just on the outskirts of town for Gus to grab a coffee. We ordered the drinks and an old guy wandered in to the cafe. He looked well out of sorts and we soon realised that every day he would get his shopping and then come to the cafe and sit in the same seat. The exact same seats that we were now in. Well today wasn't going to be any different and he pulled up his chair huffing and puffing that two intruders had upset his daily routine. lol (see photo). Whilst at the cafe a random Merc illegally parked outside which was right next to the roundabout and just next to the pedestrian crossing. A few minutes later the Police pulled up ... read more

I came here a bit on a whim, in order to see another Macedonian town. It's pretty cute and I really liked the guesthouse where I stayed.... read more

Geo: 41.011, 21.3422Yesterday's delays getting into Bitola meant that there would be no time to check out either Pelister National Park, or the mountain hamlet of Dihovo. Though Bitola isn't a big tourist destination for foreigners, staying around for the day was definitely tempting after arriving yesterday evening, and seeing the cool cafe culture in Bitola's pedestrian zone, Sirok Sokak. I don't think there was a single Bitolan at home last night, and they were all either sitting at a cafe, or strutting their stuff, dressed to kill.Though Bitola is a little bit cooler than the Tikves region, I still wanted to get an early start on the day before things started roasting - even at 10 AM, temperatures were starting to climb into the high 20s, so the sooner the better to take the long ... read more