When we left Struga the second time, we thought for sure that was it for this trip. When our host told us he’d see us again soon, we said definitely not this trip. We fly to Iceland in three weeks so we won’t be back again until a future trip. This is a great reminder that you should never say […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
We walked into Struga almost daily. It was a beautiful, 40-minute walk along Lake Ohrid on a wide, perfectly maintained sidewalk/boardwalk to get to town. It was also almost exactly 10,000 steps roundtrip to walk to the closest edge of town where the library was located. The walk also gave us the opportunity to interact with some neighbourhood puppy strays […]