Today was the being a tourist day that was supposed to happen the day before. After a nice European style breakfast of meat and cheese, bread and yoghurt, we walked to the local museum.
It had two main displays: 1) the history of Bitola from prehistoric pots to memorials to resistance fighters over the centuries (there were so many ‘overlords’ in Macedonia’s past that uprisings and resistance fighters are an important part of the story of many towns); 2) Atatürk!
For at least a few years during his teens as a trainee soldier, Atatürk had been a student at the Ottoman military school located in Bitola (at the time and for hundreds of years prior, a part of the Ottoman empire). The Turkish government now pay for this to be a memorial museum to him…
After taking our fill of Atatürk, we walked the length of Širok Sokak (it's Turkisk name, but also known as Marshall Tito Street as every town needs one), the kilometre long pedestrian street running through the centre of town, stopping at some cafes for a drink and eventually lunch.
Funky cafe on Širok Sokak - the pedestrian street in Bitola
Back on Širok Sokak 3. BTW - this town (many towns in Macedonia actually) seem to have an arts or folk festival every week in summer. We had just missed the Bitola Shakespeare Festival!
After waiting out the quick late afternoon rainstorm, we headed back to Grne – it was an awesome restaurant – and had vine leaves, fresh backed pita bread, mushrooms and a totally awesome baked cheese thing (once again the feta style) with dried chilli and garlic. Macedonia = awesome FOOD.
