The train from Bitola to Skopje

---

After a short walk along the river in Dihovo, we got a taxi to the station in Bitola. We bought our 314MKD (~£4) tickets to Skopje, with the train waiting in the platform an hour early. There are a lot of train tracks, some heading in the direction of Greece before disappearing into grass... The railways here have clearly seen better days, but the train had comfortable seats, and windows that opened. After shopping for some snacks in a little shop by the station, we got on. We thought it might be quiet, but it filled up a lot before we left, on time. It was the only train from Bitola at a sensible time, with just 4 trains per day to Skopje (there are a lot more buses, but we thought the train would be nicer).



Before Prilep, the countryside is mostly quite flat, with a patchwork of fields growing sunflowera, peppers, grapes, and something that looked like artichokes. North of Prilep, the track winds through mountains. We stopped at lots of tiny stations, many with very run-down buildings, and others with nothing to obviously mark them as a station. It was an interesting, if rather warm, journey!

---