"Te Sakam Macedonia!" a FYR of Macedonia Travel Page by Pijlmans

My girlfriend is from Skopje, Macedonia; I am from Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

After falling in love with her, I fell in love with Macedonia. What a beautiful country!

Macedonia is located in the Balkan and borders Serbia and Kosovo in the north, Bulgaria in the east, Greece in the south and Albania in the west.

We both love to hike in the mountains, and as there are no mountains in the Netherlands, we frequently go to Macedonia to visit the family and go out into the nature. And do some sight-seeing, since we both havenīt seen it all yet!

In the "Tips" section you find some highlights of Macedonia in general. The same tips, supplemented with local information, you will find in the sections per city. Therefore, the best way to browse my pages is to use the links below to the individual cities and villages.

Skopje, the capital of Macedonia and the artificial Lake Matka.

The east side of Lake Ohrid: Ohrid, Leskoec, Velgosti, Ramne, Velestovo, Konjsko, Pestani and Trpejca.

The west side of Lake Ohrid: Struga, Kalista, Radozda, Oktisi, Vevcani, Visni and Gorna Belica.

The west side of Lake Prespa (Stenje), Konjsko and the uninhabited island Golem Grad.

The east side of Lake Prespa: Podmocani, Kurbinovo, Slivnica, Nakolec, Ljubojno and Brajcino.

Along the main road from Skopje to Ohrid: Tetovo, Gostivar, Kicevo, Vrbjani, Lesani and Velmej.

Along the more scenic road from Skopje to Ohrid via Mavrovo National Park: Galicnik, Tajmiste and Debar.

In the south-west: Prilep, Krusevo and Bitola.

A trip from north to south-east: Kratovo, Lesnovo, Stip and Strumica.

The archeological sites Heraclea Lyncestis near Bitola, Stobi near the village Gradsko, Plaosnik in Ohrid and Skupi near Skopje.

Hiking in Macedonia.

This site also has a lot of information about the mountains, hikes and mountain huts: http://www.mkdmount.org/.

Some things you definately need to know before you go hiking in the mountains:

You are supposed to take your own food to the mountain huts, so you have to plan well ahead and think of what youīre gonna eat and when (enough water for the trip, pasta, soup, fruit, nuts, canned food etc). Toilet paper sometimes comes in very handy as well, ahum...

Donīt forget suncream either, the sun is strong in the mountains and you donīt notice getting burned because it can be sunny and chilly at the same time. Wear a hat.

Take your mobile phone so you can get help in case of an emergency.

The best tourist guide is the Bradt Travel Guide Macedonia by Thammy Evans, a must for everybody visiting this country!

I hope you will like our sometimes main-stream, mostly off-the-beaten-track experiences!