Brajčino

Note- After reading this post, if you are interested in visiting this charming village, I provide at the end some tips on how to best and cheaply travel to Brajčino.

Sometimes I do not believe my own luck while I am traveling.  First of all, for the longest time I have wanted to visit a small village named Brajčino, located on up the mountainside near Prespa and on the other side of Pelister from Bitola.  If you do a quick Google search about Brajčino, you will find that it is famous for its eco-tourism.  However, my first encounter with Brajčino came when I was studying for Macedonian through the Professor Kramer's textbook, which is basically the only book available (or at least most thorough) online for purchase in preparing for the Macedonian language. 

At first I assumed that maybe the professor had studied there or randomly decided the village to be the backdrop of her stories, but when I randomly encountered her about 2 years ago at Struga during our Language and Cultural IST, she divulged her connection with a writer who was living in the village, and she insisted that I visit it at least once before returning to the States.  Thus, as a previous post mentions, visiting Brajčino has always been at the back of my mind, and I was even contemplating until just before this weekend whether or not to take the long bus ride south to visit the village. 

In the end, I decided to use my last free weekend in Macedonia to travel to Brajčino on my own because it would possibly provide me with the most opportune in-country vacation I could hope for.  While until recently Chicago has been wavering with winter-like conditions (through at least the early part of April), Macedonia has been warm and beautiful, and I want to take advantage of as many hiking or outdoor activities here before I depart.  Thus, Brajčino's infamous forests and mountains would offer me my own existentialist escape within Macedonia.  Accompanying my individual saga into the wild would be the Macedonian hospitality that I did not doubt Brajčino would offer.  City-living often deprives us of the Macedonian hospitality so common in villages, and so I took a risk that, even if I would spend the weekend in Brajčino alone, people across the village would take me in and offer me coffee, rakija, and hours of conversation.

Not only were my presumptions founded, but I stumbled across the luckiest thing I could of asked for (and hinted at in the beginning of this post).  As soon as I arrived at the guest house at which I was staying the weekend, I was informed that Brajčino's only serving Peace Corps volunteer (who had been in Brajčino from 2007-2008) was making her first visit this weekend!  The owner of the villa called to send the volunteer our way, and that is how I was able to meet Debbie.

Debbie was a middle-aged volunteer who was first assigned to Resen, a town just north of Brajčino.  However, work for her was slow at the first site, so someone in Peace Corps recommended that she check out Brajčino and try to make a switch there.  After her visit, she was determined to make Brajčino her site, and she found a counterpart in the village who would take her own to help with business development in tourism and English education.  By observing her interactions with the villagers, it was clear that Brajčino quickly became her home within Macedonia, and she had made lifelong connections with the villagers there.  When Debbie and I were introducing each other, an elderly woman named Minka, who was formerly her neighbor, immediately embraced Debbie and broke into tears.  Debbie had not visited her Peace Corps site for 8 years, and yet she returned to Brajčino as if nothing had changed between her and the villagers.

Debbie helped me to make connections with the villagers in Brajčino, and she insisted that, even if I had just arrived, that I spend the evening drinking beers and eating dinner at her friend's (Milka) place at her restaurant, Raskrsnica.  Debbie and the owner of the restaurant were supposedly very good friends during her service, and they would spend many winter evenings hanging out and watching television.  We drank a beer as we watched the sun set, and then we entered the house to eat Milka's tavče gravče and homemade sausage.  Well, everything was homemade (the rakija, wine, pickled salad, ajvar) and was GLORIOUSLY delicious.  Supposedly, people come far and wide from Macedonia to try her unique sausage.  Only hours after arriving in Brajčino, I was already welcomed with hearty food and the best of company.  I made the right decision to visit Brajčino that weekend.

Arriving in Brajčino

My accommodations

The delicious homemade food at Raskrsnica!

Milka and her visitors

Debbie and me, MAK11 and MAK18

I awoke the morning at around 5.30, just as the sun was rising, to hike the circuit that connected the 4-5 churches surrounding Brajčino.  I first visited the Sveta Petka monastery, which also hosts groups of campers who wish to lodge for cheap in Brajčino.  As the sun was rising over the nearby mountains, the scenery stunningly transformed with the changing light.  April was the best time to visit this region since the area is famous for its apple orchards, and many of these were in bloom.  I was even able to catch a glimpse of a wild deer run off as I was exiting the monastery!  Words will not do justice to the hike I enjoyed, so I will let the pictures I took at least try to portray how stunning the nature was.

After returning from my hike and taking a brief nap, I had the whole afternoon to kill, so I decided to descend to the town below.  There I could bide my time reading a book while drinking a beer at one of their kafanas (Brajčino lacks a kafana).  However, I did not walk even 50 meters before one of the neighbors, Ile (the son of Minka), called me over from the road and invited me for a rakija.  Thus I spent a couple of hours sitting in front of his house, drinking rakija, then coffee, then joining them for some lunch.  After, I offered to give back somehow for their hospitality, yet Minka insisted that they would not accept anything.  Even though Ile often complained how difficult it was to stay afloat while living and farming in Brajčino, these lovely people offered me food and drink without any compensation in mind.

I spent the rest of the weekend either hiking or hanging out with Debbie and some of the villagers in the local cafe.  On Sunday, we departed early from the village for the long trek back to Skopje.

Starting my morning hike

At the local monastery

Sun finally beginning to peek over the mountains

Lake Prespa

Old wood bridge

Apple orchards

Brajčino from a distance

Ultimately, I could not be happier to have traveled to Brajčino on one of the remaining weekends of my Peace Corps service.  I was able to enjoy two of my favorite facets of Macedonia in such a short time (Macedonian nature/ hiking and Macedonian hospitality). 

Also, I feel that because I was able to observe much about Debbie's return to her former site, I gained somewhat of a portend into any future visit I hope to take to Macedonia.  It was comforting to see that she was able to connect with former neighbors and slip into the Macedonia lifestyle so easily after 8 years of separation.  Visiting Brajčino provided me a sense of serenity as well as a rush of awe towards all that I was able to experience through my Peace Corps experience.  In many ways, I feel more ready to leave Macedonia than maybe I otherwise would have if I had not visited Brajčino.

Visiting Brajčino

The easiest way to reach Brajčino is by catching a bus to Resen (direct buses are available from Skopje, and more frequently, from Bitola.  The village's official website is also located here.

Kombis seem to leave every weekday for Brajčino at 14:30 and 16:30.  The trip costs 110MKD, and the travel lasts about 40 minutes, with Brajčino as the last stop.  One can pick up the kombi (which is typically a minivan) from in front of the restaurant "Vita", which is located around the corner from the bus station (when facing the bus station, follow the street that is to the right of it, and one should reach the restaurant in 5-10 minutes).

Kombis on Sundays return from Brajčino at 6:40 or 15:10 from the center of the town (near the fountain).  I am not sure when they return on weekdays.  A one-way ticket costs 110MKD.  One can also call the kombi driver at 070 237 525.

There are plenty of places to stay in Brajčino.  I stayed at the Kostovski's place, which has 4 doubles, and Divna can be reached at 070 507 367.  It cost me 600MKD per night without breakfast, or 800MKD with breakfast.

The other option is to stay by Milka at Raskrsnica, and it can be booked through Booking.com here.

One can also find more from a blog post of another visitor, focusing on cuisine and cooking, here.