Hiking Mt. Zlato to Visit the Treskavec Monastery

July 19, 2008

Prelip, Macedonia

(Matt)

Prelip is a tiny town, but we immediately could see that it was more lively than the capital city, Skopje. There was a town square with a fountain and bars and restaurants, though most did not serve food, only beer and coffee.

The people of Prelip brought their children to the town center--some kids rode rented electric vehicles in the square--and all played and ran around. It seemed like a very wholesome and positive community right off the bat. I was in charge of finding the hotel. I left Amber at a bar in the center of town and, within about an hour (and the help of a nice cab driver), found one of three hotels in Prelip.

The room was huge compared to our stinky room in Skopje, and it had English TV channels. The only rub was that it was a pretty long walk back to the center of town. This was a good warm up for our next day hiking through the neighboring mountain ranges of Prelip.

We had a decent pizza at a place called Leone's and, after walking around a bit, took it to the room to watch an English movie.

The next day was a blast. In the morning we had to eat really nasty banana crepes drenched in whipped cream and chocolate sauce because it was all we could find. Breakfast food is difficult, if not impossible, to come by here. There are tons of places that look like great restaurants, but most just serve drinks.

After breakfast, we set off to find the Treskavec Monastery on top on Mt. Zlato about 10 km from Prelip. Of course, we had no information about how to get there. Our guide book covers so many countries in one edition, called Europe, that it provides very little guidance beyond mentioning that there is an off-the-beaten-track climb up to the top of Mt. Zlato to see the Treskavec Monastery 10 km from Prelip, Macedonia. That's it.

There is no information about Prelip and no explanation of how to find the trailhead. So we just started walking towards one of the numerous mountains near town, which lies in a valley surrounded by mountains. Interestingly, though the mountain we headed toward was not Mt. Zlato, the direction that we chose to walk in turned out to be the right direction. We had no idea what we were in for in our quest for Mt. Zlato, however.

The truth is that this scenario, having to reinvent the wheel, is one of my favorites...I enjoy it as a personal challenge. The corresponding truth is that Amber hates having to figure all of this out like some sort of pioneers when a comprehensive and up-to-date travel guide, one that's already been written and published, would explain exactly how to do it. The thing is, I like to know that, even without a travel guide, I can still do the trip...even though doing it that way ultimately wastes much more time and a lot money than the price of a guidebook.

Anyway, we walked up and up through the town towards a large cross. Amber insisted that we stop and get a water. (This is Amber - I am clearly spoiled. A whole bottle of water for an all day hike. I need to regain some focus...get my feet back on the ground. I'm too needy:)

I asked a woman sitting outside a closed restaurant on the outskirts of town if we could buy water, all with hand signals of course. She refused payment and filled up our water bottle. This was not the end of her assistance, however. We communicated our goal, and she began leading us to the trailhead, at least that's what we thought.

After a few blocks uphill in the sun, we arrived at some of her elderly neighbors' houses. They were hanging outside. Before we got there, they appeared bored. Our arrival ended that. Almost immediately, our best route up the mountain to get to Treskavec Monastery became everyone's biggest concern. They all began arguing intensely in Macedonian and continued to do so for some time.

Now that we have done it, we know what the source of the debate was: there are really no signs along the beginning of the route, and they were concerned that we would get lost in the mountains. I think they, all elderly, would have had trouble climbing up the hill and locating the trail, and we had no common language for them to communicate the directions to it even if they did know.

Finally, they decided to send us around to the backside of the mountain to go up the road the Orthodox monk who lives at the Treskavec Monastery uses for his car.

(Amber)

This is one of the best experiences we've had. They all spoke to us as if we were their kids. They really thought we understood. I got some great incognito video of the conversations.

Picture us on a back road, surrounded by anywhere between 3 and 6 people, all speaking in an animated way to us and to each other in Macedonian...about how to get us up the hill...for more than half an hour. They were awesome. It was really a great experience.

So about an hour later (after the much debated cab arrived, had a flat, and changed his tire), after hugs, handshakes, and goodbyes.....we were finally at the trailhead...well actually it was a dirt road on the opposite side of the mountain. The woman filling up our water, walking through town, and then getting the neighborhood involved to help us....it was what Macedonia was for me. And it made it a clear highlight of our trip. You don't get that in places where more tourists go and even in many where they don't go. This is an incredibly hospitable people.

(Matt)

After probably one half hour of discussion between mainly 5 people, they called us a cab and arranged for it to take us to the backside of Mt.Zlato and drop us off at the road. After a happy farewell, a cab came for us and took us to a dirt road by a cemetery and dropped us off just off the main paved road.

We could see Treskavec Monastery on the top of the mountain, and it looked really far away and small. The cab driver indicated that if we continued up the dirt road, we would arrive at the monastery. It was high. We hiked up to the top along the dirt road, stopping a few times to eat Amber's snacks that she brought. (This is Amber again - Matt thought I was crazy for packing 2 peaches, a chocolate bar, and crackers for the hike. He's forgotten about me and hiking. I need food and water. He is really odd and doesn't. He can hike and hike without food. Though come to think of it...he did down far more than his share of the loot!)

Finally we arrived at a really amazing Orthodox Monastery on the top of the mountain and met the resident monk, who was really nice and welcoming. He let us fill up our water, allowed us to show ourselves around and take pictures, and he made us promise to stay overnight on our next trip to Macedonia. He then showed us the real trail back to Prelip though the mountains. He explained that the people in town had been concerned about us getting lost and had sent us up the back way.

It was a great hike back to town with really great views of the Macedonian mountains and countryside. We saw no other people on the trail. In all we hiked probably 20 km. It took most of the day, and by the time we arrived back in our room, we were thoroughly exhausted. It was really cool.

(Amber)

The monastery was gorgeous, and we had it all to ourselves. I absolutely loved it. It made the long, hot hike up the mountain and back to town more than worth it.

(Matt)

We had another pizza at Leone's, one of the only places serving food in Prelip, and went to bed pretty early that night.

For photos, click here: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AatmbZk0ZtFIUw