Highlights From Strumica, Macedonia

I never planned on spending a week in the tiny town of Strumica, Macedonia, but that’s exactly what I did. Here are some highlights from my stay:

My Hotel Room

First of all, my hotel room was great. The people were nice enough to let me lock up my bike in the back of the hotel and charge me only 20 Euros per night for my stay. The room was nice and clean and in an excellent location – just east of the center of town. Best of all, the room came with wireless Internet access, which was the main reason I decided to stay in Strumica for five nights instead of just one.

Climbing In The Mountains

For someone who likes the outdoors, Strumica is an excellent place to be. The city is situated at the base of some tall hills (I’ll call them mountains, but they aren’t quite that big), and these mountains were where I spent most of my time while I was in the city. During the day, when it was 100+ degress outside, I’d march up into the mountains through a network of hiking paths and rocky ravines.

It was a long walk from the city center up to the top of the mountain, but it was worth it. I carried two bottles of water on me at all times and discovered all sorts of amazing things situated in the mountains high above the city.

Where the city met the hillside there were a number of small valleys where the city’s poor have nestled. In houses no more advanced than the forts I built in my backyard when I was just a child, there were hundreds of people living on top of one another with what looked like little running water and no electricity. Women were washing their clothes and dishes in dirty water running down the middle of the street and children hosed off in the nude as their brothers, sisters, and neighbors watched on. Never before had I seen a place quite like this (except on TV). I could have taken a hundred or more photos, but I didn’t manage to take a single one. It just didn’t feel right to be snapping photos of these people whose lives are obviously so much harder than my own.

Once I was up and out of the city, I hooked up with a large hiking trail that carried me over a series of small green bridges and into the courtyard of a wilderness church. There were houses/apartments situated around the church and there appeared to be people living here, way up high in the mountains.

Higher up the trail I found a baby bird that had fallen out of a tree.

And at the top of the mountain the trail opened up to a wide road where cattle roamed freely. Off in the distance I was sure I could see the border of Greece.

The Czar’s Tower

One of Strumica’s most famous landmarks is the Czar’s Tower, a dilapidated fortress of yesteryear that sits high above the city. On my last day in Strumica I climbed up to the fortress and walked around. There wasn’t much there, but you could tell they had big plans for the fortress at one time. A crane was parked outside the entrance to the fort and histrionic excavations seemed to be underway – although there were no actual workers at the site when I was there. There was, however, a guard of some sort, who sat inside a small wooden shack situated in the middle of the fortress. I could hear him inside his small wooden box as he sang and danced around to music he was listening to on the radio, but he never came out to see who I was or what I was doing there. Besides the mystery man inside the guard box, I had the place completely to myself.

On the west side of the tower there was a small area where restoration of the fortress had most definitely taken place. New, modern rock had been placed on top of the old, ancient stones that once made up the fortress. From what I could tell, there are plans to one day restore the fortress to its former glory. But at the moment, the construction is at a stand still, likely due to the lack of funds needed to make such a monumental project come to fruition.

Strumica’s City Center

When I wasn’t in my hotel room working, or climbing in the mountains and exploring the nearby towns, I would walk around Strumica’s city center. With a population of approximately 55,000, the city is about the same size as the city I grew up in back in California.

One of my favorite areas of downtown Strumica was the indoor shopping mall, which was at least four stories tall, but only had about 2 or 3 stories in use. There was a huge indoor farmer’s market on the first floor of the mall and another large area where stacks and stacks of discount shoes were being sold. It was a shopping mall unlike any I’d ever seen before. It wasn’t really all that interesting of a place, but it was one of the few public air conditioned buildings in the city, so I’d roll through the mall almost every day on my way to or from my hotel room.

The streets of Strumica were also quite unique. Because the city is situated right up against the mountains, many of the homes are perched on steep and narrow inclines. I walked up just about every one of these narrow streets while I was in Strumica and I marveled at the way the simple houses were built on such slopes, and so incredibly close to one another.

The City Park & The Pizza Parlor

My favorite place in all of Strumica was the city park. In the evening, right around 7 PM, I’d leave my hotel room, walk through the city center shopping mall, and then amble my way to the city park. By this time of night the place was a buzz. Children would gather to ride PowerWheels up and down the park’s main drag; teenage girls would zip about on roller-blades and bicycles; and teenage boys could be found zipping around the city’s outdoor go-cart track.

After walking through the park and people-watching for an hour or more, I’d walk to a nearby pizzeria called “Elizabet Pizzeria.” If you are ever in Strumica, Macedonia, this is the place to go! During my entire nine months in Europe I ate a ton of pizza, but the pizza at Elizabet’s was the absolute best. It was about $5 USD for 1 large vegetarian pizza and it was absolutely incredible. I’d order the pizza to go and sit at a table reading or writing in my journal while my pie was prepared. Then, when the pizza was ready, I’d have it put in a box and I’d carry it back to my hotel room and devour it in peace, which watching TV on the web.

For a place I had never heard of and never planned on visiting, Strumica, Macedonia is one incredible place. If you ever get a chance to go there, I highly recommend it. Just make sure you get out of town and spend some time in the mountains. And when you come down out of the hillside, head over to Elizabet’s and grab yourself some pizza. You won’t be disappointed.