It’s adventure day today!

Matka Canyon is about 20km southwest of the city, and according to everything I’ve read, it’s a must do when you’re visiting Skopje.

So, who am I to buck the trend?

Bus #60

To get to the canyon is relatively easy.   The local bus #60 will take you there in about an hour and only costs 40mkd ($1).

There are only a handful of buses each day run basically hourly with some gaps in between.

Luckily, the hostel had a posting of the bus schedule since it was pretty hard to find up to date info on the internet.

I walked up to the bus station and arrived early for the 10:30 bus.   I was surrounded by other tourists and you could accurately say this was the most touristy I felt in awhile.   It was literally all tourists.

By 11:30 we arrived at Matka Canyon.

Fill ma belly

From where the bus drops you off, there is a 10 minute walk to the starting part of the canyon where the restaurants and boat tours are.

My first plan of the day was, obviously, getting some breakfast.

I walked into the restaurant with 5 minutes to spare as their breakfast ended at noon.

Ah, perfect timing!

I had a nice chicken and cheese omelet with a garden salad.   Just what a wanted.   A nice, light, breakfast with some substance to it.

Boat and cave tour

There are a handful of companies offering boat tours but there’s only one that has the additional addon of stopping at the Vrelo caves.

Our tour guide from the other day instructed us to walk past all the boat tour companies and find the last one.    That one was the one offering cave tours.

Sure enough, right next tot he restaurant, I saw the big sign for cave tours.

Sign me up!

As it turns out I, once again, had perfect timing and was the last one to walk on the boat and a minute later we were off.

The motor boat was a 20 seater and there were 13 of us on it.   After a half hour of motoring down the river, and taking God knows how many photos and videos, we arrived at the caves.

Now, I’ve been in caves two times on my travels.   One ended with a gash in my head and the other was a 4 hour marathon spelunking through different caves.

This cave tour was tame in comparison.

It was one cave with steps to walk down and various colored lights lighting up the rocks.   We were in and out of there in 20 minutes.

I mean, it was cool to see especially if you’ve never gone in caves before but, for me, it was kind of underwhelming and small.

But, hey, the boat ride down the canyon was spectacular!

We arrived back at the start point at 1:30 and I had a decision to make.

The next bus left in just over an hour from now and, ideally, I’d grab some lunch and take the 2:40 bus back.

Problem was, I wasn’t hungry yet.

So, I was left with the decision of just hanging around doing nothing for an hour or going on a little adventure and taking the later bus at 4:40 back.

Well, obviously, I chose the adventure…

A crazy hike

On the other side of the river, at the very top of the mountain, sits St Nikola Monastery.

To get there, a guy in a little boat with take you for the two minute ride across the river for 50mkd ($1.25).

I paid him and soon I was on the trail up the mountain.

This was not an easy trail.

It was quite steep and ragged.   No stairs or railings anywhere, just you, the rocks, and trees.

Of course there was a carved out path but it was hard to navigate and I had to stop a few times just to catch my breath.

Mind you, I’m kind of out of shape, so that didn’t help.

I won’t lie, there were a few times I considered going back down and calling it quits but I’d look up my position on the map and justify that “hey I’m almost halfway through, let’s try a little more”.

That’s all it took to get me through the 40 minute hike to the top.

The monastery was deserted and I had only passed 2 other people on their way down the entire time I was going up.

Here I was, alone and secluded, atop the mountain overlooking the Matka Canyon.   It was so peaceful and tranquil.

The monastery itself was pretty basic and actually looked more like an abandoned summer camp but this was one of those “the journey is the adventure” kind of things.

The fact that I was able to push through and persevere to get to the top was my adventure.

The trip down the mountain had its’ own challenges as the path was made mostly of loose rocks and mud that you had to be careful navigating.

You certainly didn’t want to trip and slide down the path or, even worse, sprain your ankle.

But, I made it.

The guy in his little ferry boat took me back across the river and now, I was definitely hungry.

A light lunch

I was back in the restaurant at 3:30 and I had a good hour to have some lunch.

Still feeling like doing something lighter, I ordered one of their salads along with a strawberry and banana smoothie.

The salad arrived shortly and I quickly realized I didn’t fully read all the ingredients on the menu.

It was the Portofino salad and it had salmon, lettuce, cheddar, tomato, egg, pasta, and dressing.

Can you see where I messed up?

Yeah, it had pieces of cold rotini noodles scattered throughout and I can’t eat gluten.

Oops.

No big deal though, I just picked them out and ate the salad otherwise.

If I had a severe case of gluten I wouldn’t be able to have it like that but I figure I could get away with this makeshift solution.

After lunch I walked back down the road to the bus stop and waiting, again along with a dozen or so other tourists, for the bus back to Skopje.

Dinner

By 5:30 I was back at the hostel and after a nice, long shower, I was all refreshed.

Nothing adventurous on tap for tonight, just relaxing at the hostel before heading out to dinner around 8:00.

I headed to this little restaurant down the street that the hostel manager Ivo had recommended.

After a light meal for both breakfast and lunch, I was in the hankering for a glutenous meaty meal.

For dinner I had Sharska Pljeskavica which is a huge cheese stuffed hamburger patty along with some little sausages (kebabs), some baked potatoes, and a cucumber salad.

Damn, that was good!

Might have to have that again when I’m in Ohrid the next 3 days.

Speaking of which, I’ll be heading on an 11am bus tomorrow morning to the beach town of Ohrid after 3 hours to the west.

It’s going to be a few relaxing days and I won’t lie, that sounds kinda nice…

Balkan Trip 2023, Trip Journal, Skopje, North Macedonia
Balkans 2023
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