Ohrid Encore
While Greece has been on our bucket list forever, and we originally booked Struga, North Macedonia as a filler destination until we could re-enter the Schengen zone, life has a way of surprising you. It turns out that we LOVED Struga, but Greece is average. Within the first week of arriving in Greece, we were looking at nine weeks in Greece not with excitement, but with resignation that we would spend so much time there.
We decided that life is short, and since Struga is where our hearts are, we should return there for a couple of weeks. We looked at dates to see what worked with our accommodations in Struga and booked it. We left 1.5 weeks early from our first Greek location and planned to check in to our second Greek destination almost one week late. In reality, it wasn’t even much of a financial indulgence. Given how cheap everything in Macedonia is versus how expensive everything in Greece is, I think in the end we saved money by going back to Macedonia for two weeks!
And oh, what a two weeks! We had the most incredible time. Struga welcomed us with rainbows overhead as we pulled up, which we took as a good sign of the two weeks to come! We reconnected with some friends, went to some of our favourite spots, spent a ton of time at the library, and explored a few new areas we didn’t have time to get to the first time around. There were some additional new spots and old favourites we didn’t have time to make it to. But it wasn’t for lack of trying. We were up between 6:00 and 7:00 am every day and often didn’t get to bed until 11:00 pm. We were constantly out and about, even if it was just relaxing on a beach or having a leisurely coffee at a café.
This time around was similar yet different to our first trip. On our first trip, the weather was cooler, more in the 20-25C range, with a few beach days sprinkled in but also an unseasonable amount of rain. Not that it was pouring our first time or anything. It was generally nice, just that you’d get some overcast and drizzles for a part of the day regularly. And the days we didn’t, we were going further afield and not indulging in too much beach time since we knew we would have a lot of beach time in Greece.
This trip, though, there was a lot of beach time. The mornings and evenings were cool, around 20C, while it was 30ish during mid-day and sunny the entire two weeks. It was also busier in Struga with school letting out for the year shortly after we arrived. The beaches were packed with families most days. And the river was quite the hopping spot with teens and early 20-somethings jumping from the sides or the bridges into the rivers. It was common for us to get up and head to the beach for an early morning swim, or to go for a late evening swim around 8:00 pm.
The one thing that remains consistent is that this is a place that REALLY caters to families! It is not a party town to go to if you’re in that phase of life. It is a place full of swimming, water sports, playgrounds, cafes, restaurants, small amusement parks, and the typical vendors selling popcorn and candy along the main boardwalks. It’s a very social place where everyone knows everyone else, and kids can roam all over with minimal parental supervision. It reminds me of what life was like growing up in Canada in the 1980s and 1990s, being free to roam the neighbourhood at will with friends until the streetlights came on.
So, what did we get up to other than the library, cafes, and beaches? We went back to Ohrid a couple of times to walk around, explore, take another sunset cruise, and go to a few fave restaurants and cafes. We went back to several of our fave cafes and restaurants in Struga, including the restaurant on “Happy Street” (as we dubbed it), Adenia, Bamboo, Sharm, Relax, Antika, and Beach Bar Holiday.
We tried out a few new places that became favourites, including Matador, Pizza Angela, and Verses. Jon and Katia got to have their sushi date at Sky Drini which Katia had so been looking forward to but hadn’t happened last time. We had our June mommy-daughter book club with Daughter of the Deep. We went to the market on Saturdays, cooked some amazing foods, indulged in some baking, and relaxed with cherries from our kindly neighbour who picked buckets of them for us straight from her tree!
Jon jumped into the river a few times and came to terms with the limitations of his age! I went for a long walk into Kalishta for a coffee, but mostly just to enjoy the gorgeous walk. We went to the local amusement park twice, where the girls were thrilled to do bumper cars over and over. They did the swings a couple of times, as well, but mostly just wanted to do the cars. We had meant to come here on our first trip, but never got around to it! We had a couple of nights out on the town, exploring and joining everyone out for walks, dessert, popcorn by the river, and more.
Our time was busy and amazing, yet also relaxing and full of so many amazing new memories. We loved every second of our time here, and it was with broken hearts that we said goodbye to this amazing city again. Coming back here for two weeks during our Greece time was the right decision. We just wish we could have stayed longer, but alas the unit was already booked by others checking in the day we left. But, we will definitely be back again. Maybe not as quickly as this first return! But we plan to return for a family vacation end of summer 2025 to celebrate the girls’ 10th birthday in our favourite city in the world, Struga.
