There’s more to discover in Europe than you might think. From historic cities to lush green landscapes, Europe is home to so many beautiful places. Take a slow travel trip to Barcelona, get lost in a maze of streets in Granda, explore magnificent lakes in Macedonia, immerse yourself in Bulgarian history, and go by train across Poland.
Sofia was our first stop in Bulgaria. We’d planned on just passing through on our way to go skiing in Bansko, but as we slowly started to discover more and more historic sights and vegan restaurants, we slowed down.
Sofia isn’t a city like London, Paris or Rome though. It’s history is a cultural mesh of Eastern and Western influence. Churches, mosques and Soviet buildings all share the same small space of the city.
Bitola wasn’t really part of our Macedonia travel plan. Actually, we didn’t really have a proper plan, which is what caused the mess in the first place.
After arriving in Skopje and working our socks off to catch up on freelance work, we jumped straight on a bus to Lake Ohrid – which is known as the place to go for travellers in Macedonia. We had four beautiful days in Ohrid, wiling away hours around the lake and exploring monasteries.
Then it was time to move on, except we had nowhere to go.
Lake Ohrid is truly the jewel in Macedonia’s crown.
When we first made it past the town centre and scaled up the hillside through the old town, we looked out in wonderment over the lake and distant mountains. Lake Ohrid isn’t just any lake, this UNESCO World Heritage site is one of Europe’s oldest and deepest lakes. It is beautiful.
Mavrovo is Macedonia’s oldest national park. It’s an exceptional beauty, a small village around a large lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains – and it’s home to the Zare Lazareski ski resort.
We hadn’t initially planned to go skiing in Macedonia – since we’d already been skiing in Bansko and Charlie didn’t take to it all that well. But there’s not much going on during winter in Macedonia apart from skiing and I love it, so she put on a brave face and we took to the slopes in Mavrovo.
Matka Canyon is the ideal day trip from Skopje for anyone who loves nature, cool rocks and hiking. It’s hard to believe that this incredible canyon is just 15km away from the busy urban streets of Macedonia’s capital city.
Skopje was our first and last stop during our slow travels through Macedonia. We weren’t sure what to expect from Macedonia’s capital city and before arriving all we’d heard was that it was a bit bleak and wasn’t the best for vegan travellers.
We were pleasantly surprised by Skopje.
When we were travelling vegan in Macedonia as part of our vegan travel challenge, we scoured menus for traditional Macedonian dishes that were naturally vegan – and surprisingly there are quite a few vegan options in Macedonian cuisine.
I have to admit though, we were also excited when we reverted to our vegetarian diet at the end of the challenge and were finally able to tuck into some tasty burek – a local breakfast pastry filled with spinach and cheese – that a friend of mine who’d previously travelled around the Balkans enthusiastically recommended to me.
A holiday in Macedonia hadn’t been our travel plan. But when the temperature in neighbouring Bulgaria dropped too low for us to bear, we made an unplanned detour to holiday in Macedonia. It was one of the best travel decisions we’ve ever made.
Macedonia is an incredible holiday destination. From the capital city of Skopje with its towering classical statues and buildings to the beautiful and serene Lake Ohrid and the pretty ski slopes of Mavrovo.
This January, we took up a 31-day vegan travel challenge as part of Veganuary. We kicked off our vegan challenge in Luke’s home town of Brighton before travelling vegan in Bulgaria and then Macedonia.
True to our word, we didn’t change our travel plans to fit in with our new vegan lifestyle, but instead took unplanned trips to wherever we chose. While Bulgaria and Macedonia certainly aren’t the most vegan friendly countries in the world, we learned a lot from our vegan travel experiences there.
There was only one place to eat vegan in Plovdiv listed on HappyCow, but after a less than satisfying time being vegan in Bansko for almost a week, I was so excited to be heading to somewhere where eating vegan just might be even slightly better for our third week of Veganuary.
Travelling vegan in Plovdiv turned out to be quite a delight! After a lot of research and some false leads, it turns out that Plovdiv has not one but three vegan restaurants and a number of places with vegetarian and vegan options and even whole vegan menus.
After a trying week #3 of Veganuary, you might be expecting me to say that week #4 was even more dire. It wasn’t. It was better, because we’ve just got used to it.
It feels like we’ve broken through a wall to a stage of indifference about dairy products this week. We’re not bothered that there’s no cheese, yoghurt, or eggs in our diet. Physically we feel very much the same as we did as when we were vegetarians.
We’re still travelling, hiking, exploring cities and working remotely with just as much energy.
Travelling vegan in Bansko was the most difficult part of our 31-day vegan travel challenge while we were in Bulgaria. We loved our escapades as vegans in Sofia, which turned out to be a much more vegetarian and vegan-friendly city than we had expected, but just 170km away in Bansko things were very different.
Bansko is a Bulgarian mountain town and a popular ski destination. It’s not known for being a veg-friendly travel destination — because it’s just not, but there was no way that our veganism was going to stop us from learning to ski in Bansko this trip. So we braved the cold and snow in search of places to eat vegan in Bansko.
We’re Charlie and Luke — UK travel bloggers, adventurers and storytellers. We travel slow and write about sustainable travel. We want to make responsible travel choices and help you do the same. Get to know us.
