Filled with savory ingredients like cheese and spinach, twisted into a spiral shape, and baked to flaky perfection, pita is one of Macedonia's favorite traditional dishes. One Sunday morning, we visited the popular restaurant Oreov Lad in order to learn how it's made.
The tiny town of Krklino is on the tourist map of Macedonia for exactly one reason: the private automotive and ethnographic museum run by Boris Tanevski and his family. Their eccentric collection of traditional costumes, antique radios and vintage cars has been luring people away from nearby Bitola since opening about a decade ago.
Founded by Philip II of Macedon, the ancient city of Heraclea Lyncestis is located just south of Bitola. With its location along the Via Egnatia, the Roman highway which once ran from the Adriatic Sea to Istanbul, the city was an important and prosperous center of commerce until a devastating earthquake led to its abandonment in the 6th century AD.
"New York. Australia. Toronto. Ohio. Australia. Australia. New York." We were taking an impromptu tour of Bukovo, guided by a man who had recently returned after fifteen years abroad. As we walked past home after abandoned home, he was listing off the faraway places to which their former occupants had emigrated.
Before leading the nation of Turkey into the modern day, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk attended military high school in Macedonia. Today, his former educational institute has been converted into the Bitola Museum, a special wing of which celebrates the great man and his legacy.
While Bitola was under Ottoman control, there was a law that new Christian churches could not be built higher than mosques, nor designed with any unnecessary flourishes. So the St. Demetrius was built low to the ground, with an utterly unremarkable facade. No passerby could possibly hold this squat, plain building in higher regard than Bitola's fabulous mosques. But the law didn't say anything about the interior of new churches...
Bitola may lag behind Skopje in terms of population and influence, but with its turn-of-the-century architecture, compact Turkish quarter, lovely churches and ancient mosques, it competes in terms of style. We spent a few days exploring the city, and enjoyed ourselves immensely.
Situated in Skopje's Old Bazaar near the Kale Fortress, the Museum of Macedonia is one of the country's oldest and largest museums. Originally established in 1924, it covers three separate disciplines: archaeology, ethnology and history.
The Skopsko Brewing Company has been providing Macedonia with its favorite beer since its establishment in 1924. We had the opportunity to tour the plant, see how Skopsko is brewed, and learn about the country's beer market.
