Travel Light in Macedonia - Hiking, cozy villages & crystal clear lakes: Travel Light, #3

Introduction

Since you have chosen to read this book, I guess you, like me, find traveling to be an essential part of life. No matter how we like to travel and live, we do not want to sit completely still. We want to make the journeys that appeal to us. In many cases, we change our mind over time. For a certain period, we want to travel comfortably to places where the children have entertainment, and we can have time to read a book for once. Another period we want to experience new environments, be active or enjoy nature and silence. Sometimes we long for big cities where life is hectic, and we can shop, have memorable dinners, experience culture, and visit historical sites. Some never want to make long journeys. Me and my daughters like to make different kinds of trips and to pick out small treats of adventure, nature, historical sites, architecture, busy cities, warm baths, and sleepy villages during a journey. Preferably, we want to pick, choose, and be able to change our minds during the trip. It may be like this time when we discovered that we love to hike, which we did not know before we got the chance to go hiking in the stunningly beautiful green mountains of Macedonia.

Me and my daughters are not the kind you would typically think would go backpacking. We live comfortably in the centers of big cities, I work with change management, my oldest daughter, Frida 25, is a cancer researcher, and my youngest daughter Lynn 17 is still in high school. Our way of traveling differs radically from our daily life which makes it much more exciting. We travel with a light, well-planned packing which we can carry long stretches, which we can place under the seat, or on the hatrack on buses and trains. We can even bring it to the toilet if there is no alternative. We can easily relocate with all types of transportation and do not have to say no to an adventure that pops up during the trip. We plan some of the things we want to do but don’t make exact plans beforehand. Also, we prefer not to run around and panic shop things we've forgotten at home. When we travel, we want to make the best of every moment, and we always do loads of things during our 2-3 weeks’ journey, and still stay relaxed.  

Do not hesitate to travel adventurously even if you have special needs. Indeed, the food can be challenging, but with some extra planning we rarely encounter any significant difficulties although Frida and I have Celiac disease and Lynn is a pescetarian. Not even that I only have 20% of a normal balance function, Frida has arthritis, and Lynn has asthma are significant obstacles.

This book is the third in the book series about my journeys with my daughters. Traveling with children, with parents, or with other loved ones is an excellent opportunity to build your relationships and get to know each other. The way we travel we cannot avoid collaborating and doing things together. We have never had a single dispute worth mentioning during our travels. Obviously, three-year-olds can get sick, eight-year-olds can get tired of carrying their backpacks and do not always eat the food, and teens can get very emotional. However, you will improve your ability to handle challenges and each other no matter what problems you might have in your relationship when you have to find ways to cooperate and sort out conflicts. During a journey in unknown areas, you can’t just run away when you face problems. I recommend making a trip together where you go outside your comfort zones, learn new things, and get mutual memories you can talk about for a long time. Follow the tips in the book, and I promise that the next trip you make will be one of your best.

The book’s layout and background

Everything gets easier when you have less to carry! You become more flexible and can say yes to exciting suggestions and recommendations. During this trip, we could easily plan where to head next based on our experiences and recommendations, could hike in the most beautiful national parks, and swim in the most amazing crystal clear lakes we have ever seen. My philosophy in life and work is that fewer things lead to more focus and most things simply become better. Why be jammed is not surprisingly, the name of my company. Many studies show that our brain is unable to keep track of more than a few things at the time, but develops by learning new things and managing new environments. You have everything to win – just your comfort zone to challenge!

Me and my daughters have traveled to many different countries, and I will occasionally mention experiences and lessons from other trips. I like to make you interested in other destinations that are dear to me, and I also want to tell you more about how some destinations are more challenging than others.

You can choose to read the book in the order that suits you. The first part of the book is about what we always start with; deciding destinations, overall planning, and summarised tips on packing. Further on in the book, you will find more extensive information about accommodation and packing. You will find lists of the things we recommend for you to have only 7-9 kilos of packing and still be well dressed at restaurants, be able to hike in the mountains, stay in simple housing if needed, snorkel, and of course, have books to read and amusement. We also bring tea lights to make an evening in a gloomy room cozy. Traveling alone, or with my daughters, and have ended up in a few less pleasant situations have taught me a lot about safety. I tell you more in the chapter about traveling alone, being security aware, or having special needs. The food is always exciting in new countries, so there is a separate chapter about local food and drinks. The last chapter in the book is about communication to help you to avoid unnecessary conflicts.

When I'm not traveling, I work with, and write about leadership, change, personal development, and am a certified coach so I can’t help handing out some of my advice. I want your next journey to be so incredibly good that you almost did not think was possible and you can’t help laughing while thinking about the journey when you are walking the dog a cold day in November. If you are mainly interested in reading the travel story, just dive into it.

The book is supposed to be read primarily as an e-book since books are heavy. If you have chosen to read the printed book, you can find all images in color on the website www.ybj.se, and Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/motheranddaughtertravelling/

If you want to get in touch, contact me on social media or email me at [email protected].

Our journey began in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia on July 11. Once again we started our trip in the middle of a steamy heat wave. We went to Prilep for a short stop at the music festival before continuing with the train to Bitola. There we stayed less nicely and escaped with the smallest margin from ending up in deep trouble. We made our first real mountain hike in amazing Pelister National Park! We were thrilled, so we continued to the other side of the mountains to the sleepy and beautiful village of Brajchino at Lake Prespa. In the next village, Slivnica, we finally had a swim. Of course, you must visit Ohrid when in Macedonia, but except the fortress, it was not our favorite. So we took a boat across Lake Ohrid to St Naum at the Albanian border to see the famous crystal clear springs. From there we continued to the charming village of Trpejca to make the hike we, and most others, are lyrical about, Magaro! We had another stop at Lake Ohrid before we continued to the next national park, Mavrovo. Also here we made a fantastic hike, and we stayed for the first and last time during the trip luxuriously with a spa and an excellent breakfast buffet. Another must in Macedonia is to kayak in Matka Canyon, and we squeezed in a hike before we took the less good decision to go to Pristina in Kosovo. Besides the visit to the beautiful library, it was an entirely wrong decision. Luckily we had a good finale in Skopje with many good memories and new shoes to bring back home.

Why Macedonia?

We usually look for new places to visit and get inspiration and ideas from our own and others' travels. Last summer we traveled in Bosnia and Croatia with the finale in Venice. If you want to know more about that trip, you can read the book Travel Light in Bosnia, Croatia, and Venice. We liked the green and mountainous nature of Bosnia and Croatia, so we looked at destinations with a similar landscape. The decision was to travel in Montenegro and Albania. We have been curious about those countries for a while, and both countries have sea and mountains. However, it was not more than a loose plan. Both me and my daughter Lynn had too much to do during spring to plan and make bookings. Rarely have we done so little planning before a journey.

On June 25, we finally sat down with the plan to go to Montenegro and Albania. We had one day to plan before we were both going traveling. I was visiting friends in Spain, and Lynn was leaving for the country house with her dad. Lynn took the responsibility to find flights, but we had not much room in our calendars to fit a 14-day trip. She found only expensive tickets with long transfers to Montenegro and Albania. The travel time would be 12-30 hours, which felt quite crazy for a trip within Europe.

She started searching for short travel time on the applicable dates to countries in former Yugoslavia and found several countries that seemed interesting. After a couple of hours googling we decided to focus on Serbia, Kosovo, and Macedonia. The more we read, the more interesting Macedonia seemed to be. Before this afternoon we knew nothing about the country, barely where it was located. Now we found out that it is a small country with about 2 million inhabitants, has lots of mountainous national parks, and large lakes with crystal clear waters. The pictures we saw fascinated us! When it also turned out to be a low-priced country to which we could find cheap tickets in Premium Class with good flight times, the choice was easy. Within a few hours we had booked tickets for this beautiful and exciting country, booked accommodation in Skopje the first and last day, had decided to kayak in Canyon Matka, to go to the Great Lakes (Lake Prespa and Lake Ohrid) and visit some of the national parks. The plan was to also go to Albania and perhaps to Kosovo or Serbia. We would have a few hours to plan more carefully the day before departure, but not more time than that. Fortunately, we have traveled this way so many times that we did not worry. We felt convinced that it would work out and that it would become an enjoyable journey. Also, if it would not be fine, we know that there will always become a fun story to tell!

Why travel in Macedonia? Here are some of the things we learned before departure, complemented by our on-site experiences. 80% of Macedonia is defined as mountainous, which means that there are only small parts of flat landscapes where you will find vineyards, the rest is hilly and extremely beautiful. Wherever you travel and whatever way you look, you'll see stunning views. A good reason to travel to Macedonia! In such a mountainous country, the train is a good means of transportation, you do not get motion sickness, and the trains go through beautiful areas where there are no major roads. E.g., the line between Veles and Prilep is one of the most beautiful.

The highest point in Macedonia is 2753 meters, and there are a large number of peaks that are over 2000 meters high, which means that there are countless hikes in