Hello folks, it’s me. I’m in Macedonia. I don’t really know how I settled on coming here other than by exploring google maps and looking at places to drive around the Balkans. I picked up a rental car in Sofia, Bulgaria, and drove it to Skopje, Macedonia, the capital. When I crossed the border, the passport control guy asked “what are you doing here?”

Good question! I’m not entirely sure. But it has been lovely. The drive from Sofia to Skopje was gorgeous. It was about 3.5 hours of beautiful fall scenery, rural towns, rolling hills, and larger mountains in the distance. I stopped at a monastery on the way just past the border crossing into Macedonia and had a coffee and a wander. My AirBnb host in Skopje, Angel, gave me the recommendation – and it was breathtakingly beautiful. Angel was actually such an angel (sorry, I had to do it) because he gave me so many great recommendations. He also personally greeted me at the AirBnb, which was only $22 a night, and then he carried my luggage up the stairs. Shoutout Angel.

Here are some pictures from the monastery:

Macedonian history – an abridged version: I spent my couple of days in Skopje exploring and learning more about the history. The walking tour was full, so I took it upon myself to learn about Macedonian history on my own. I also went to the Holocaust museum there, which an Australian woman on my Sofia walking tour recommended that I visit. It was powerful and devastating. Macedonia was occupied by the Axis powers during WWII, and saw mass deportations leading to the deaths of thousands of Macedonian Jews.

Macedonia was once part of socialist Yugoslavia, until the country declared independence in 1991. Until 2018, the country was known as The Republic of Macedonia. However, there was a dispute about the name. Greece did not like it and kept vetoing Macedonia’s attempts to join the EU. Greece was mad and insisted that the country be called ‘North Macedonia.’ There was a referendum in the late 2010s to change the name in order to continue with EU accession talks, but it was boycotted by the Macedonians. Their parliament ended up passing it regardless, and the name is now officially The Republic of North Macedonia. But nobody here calls it that, so I won’t either. Macedonia officially became the 30th member of NATO in 2020, but their hopes of joining the EU are not yet fulfilled. There remains a lot of regional strife in the Balkans, and there is too much history to fully get into in my little blog. I have found the Macedonian people, much like the Bulgarian and Turkish people, to be incredibly kind and welcoming, and I haven’t had any issues crossing the borders. 

If you love history, scenic mountains, gorgeous lakes, and good food – come to the Balkans and experience it for yourself. It is also very cheap once you get here.

Vibe(s) of the moment: solitude, nature, fall colors, writing, and photography

In the last few months, I have taken up a new hobby: photography. I ordered a new camera about a month before I left the country and started playing around with it around Denver. My friend Tamara, who is also one of my favorite people (hi Tam, if you’re reading this – I miss you), recommended a good camera for me and I took her advice. I went with the FujiFilm X-T50, a mirrorless digital camera where I can use bluetooth to get the images delivered to my phone.

After Skopje, I drove to Lake Ohrid and stayed at a hotel on the massive lake that spans the Macedonian and Albanian border. There are gorgeous mountains all around the town, and it has coastal vibes even though it is a lake and not a sea. I have spent a lot of my time in Ohrid going on long walks along the lakeshore and taking pictures. I also found a lovely coffee house and shisha bar where I have spent hours and hours sipping hot drinks, shisha-ing (I know tobacco is bad but whatever, I’m an adult), and writing on my laptop. The shisha guy here now knows me and said “welcome back!” when I returned on day 2 in Ohrid. He is a sweetheart and I will miss him. It has been quite zen here, and I’ve been able to write a lot more of my silly little book. However, I am ready for my next two stops – Tirana and Budva – where I will be staying in hostels again and attempting to make more new friends. Soon enough, I will hit up the local bars armed with my red lipstick, plaid skirts, and my newfound and somewhat-artificial air of confidence – the combination of which seems to both entice strangers while also signaling to people to not fuck with me.

Until then, here are some photos taken with Fancy Camera:

Snack of the moment: ‘chicken steak’ on a skewer with masala sauce over rice. Once again, I was unsure what to expect from Macedonian cuisine, and I am still not entirely sure what is considered authentic. But I did have a delicious dish my first day in Ohrid – the chicken steak, which was put over some crispy rice and drizzled with their version of a masala sauce. It was delicious. Here’s a picture:

Song of the moment: Go Find Yourself or Whatever – Carly Rae Jepsen 

Why? Because this was what I called my last solo road trip in the spring of 2023, when I took a little under three weeks off of work and drove around the American west to go bouldering and snowboarding. The Go Find Yourself or Whatever Trip. That trip is also when I started writing my book. However, that trip was just the beginning. It helped to reignite my love for traveling and my love for adventure and a good road trip. I realize that it is aggressively American of me to rent a car and drive it around Europe, but I don’t care. Apparently my accent is also “aggressively American.”

Featured lyrics:

You feel safe in sorrow

You feel safe on an open road

Go find yourself or whatever

And I wake up alone, you made me vulnerable

I am, indeed, trying to find myself or whatever. I hope I like what I find.

Okay, now listen to the song. It is a beautiful song, and Carly should not just be recognized for Call Me Maybe, even though that song is an absolute bop:

Honorable mention song: The Lakes – Taylor Swift “take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die…” (cuz I’m on a lake) (get it?)

Oh, and here are some Macedonian cats for good measure:

Finally, I am going to start sharing some fun statistics for this trip:

Countries: 3

Flights: 2

Trains: 1

Kilometers driven: 424

Hostels: 1

Hotels: 3

AirBnbs: 1

Boyfriends collected: 8 (just kidding!!!!!)

Cats photographed: too many to count.