Athena Vs Poseidon

Long ago, there was a battle between the gods.  Well, many battles, but one specifically I’m referring to here.  Who should be the patron god of Athens?  Given the name of the city, I think we can all guess the outcome of the competition!  But, legend has it that Poseidon made his offer to the people, which included salt water.  […]

Walking Back In Time Amongst Gods and Greats

We have been throwing ourselves into learning about culture and history everywhere we go.  In Macedonia, we started listening to a non-fiction audiobook about the life and times of Alexander the Great as a family.  We all found the information interesting.  We finished the book in our first two days in Greece, as we happened to be touring around Northern […]

Living it Up in Ohrid

Ohrid was definitely bigger, busier, and pricier than Struga itself, though still so very affordable from a Canadian perspective!  We decided early in our accommodation search that Ohrid was too big of a city for us to want to stay there, opting for the smaller Struga.  And while we LOVED doing day trips to Ohrid, which we did many times, […]

History and Culture in Ohrid

Ohrid is the main city on, you guessed it, Lake Ohrid!  It is a much bigger city than Struga with a population of a little over 50,000; three times the population of Struga.  It’s also much older than Struga, which means there is sooooo much more history to see and experience here.  We made many trips to Ohrid to explore […]

St Noam’s Monastery, Springs, and Bay of Bones

Based on another Valentina tip, we did a fantastic day trip down to the south of Lake Ohrid to check out St Noam’s Monastery.  We parked in the lot and walked into the beautiful arched entrance to the tree-lined walkway.  Off to the side of this were tons of stalls of local crafters selling their wares.  We stopped and looked […]

Vivchani Springs

One of the many outstanding recommendations from Valentina was to go out to the mountains and explore Vivchani, the natural springs there, and to eat at Via Ignatia restaurant.  She was three-for-three with those suggestions!  Vivchani was only 20 minutes by car, so we went out there three times. On our first trip there, we stopped for a coffee at […]

Foodie Paradise in Struga!

Anyone who knows us in the slightest will doubtlessly know that food and drinks are some of the things we live for!  We are not people who care a whole lot about material things, but rather experiences, good food, and yummy drinks.  And wow, Struga was outstanding for checking all of these boxes!! Along the way into Struga, we passed […]

North Macedonian Cuisine

We have loved getting to experience new foods and cuisines on this year away.  And North Macedonian has been some of our favourite food.  It is such a mix of Greek, Balkan, and Turkish-inspired foods given where they are located and the 500 years they were occupied by the Ottoman Empire.  There is such variety and flavour.  And being inland […]

Kalishta, Easter, and a Cave Monastery

We love to walk.  Walking along Lake Ohrid to Struga from where we are staying a few minutes east of Struga is so pleasant.  And we knew the path continued on and thought it would be nice to walk and explore further.  Which we did.  Multiple times, because it was such an amazing walk! Past the main river and beachfront […]