Prilep

Understand

What is most striking about Prilep is the strange bare scenery with huge rocks scattered around. The city is nestled below a bare hill. On the top of the hill, ruins of a medieval fortress stand. All around the city are tobacco fields, and if one visits the city in late summer or fall, one will see tobacco drying everywhere he turns. What is unique about Prilep is the strange sense of humor its inhabitants have and the way they have preserved their traditional way of life. Near Prilep is the Mariovo region, one of the most untouched regions of Macedonia, with small, half-deserted villages scattered in untouched nature.

Get around

The centre is small and it's easiest to get around on foot.

The bus station is in the centre too.

To get to Varosh village, you can get a taxi for around MKD50 - ask to be dropped at the monastery and then walk down to visit the churches, or walk for about 20 to 30 minutes.

See

thumb|280px|Heading into the Old Bazaar with the Clock Tower in full view thumb|280px|The Mound of the Unbeaten thumb|280px|Marko's Towers thumb|280px|The secluded Treskavec Monastery looks down onto the Pelagonia plain from Mount Zlatovrv Prilep is one of Macedonia's foremost cities. While it perhaps saw its greatest importance in the medieval era, there are monuments from the ancient, Byzantine, Ottoman, neoclassical, communist, and modern eras as well that showcase Prilep's fascinating past. Coupled with the unique landscape in and around the city, Prilep is not to be missed when visiting Macedonia.

Eat

thumb|250px|Širden Prilep is the origin of the traditional Macedonian food Širden. It is prepared with an elastic muscle organ of a sheep or lamb, which is washed and then stuffed with three kinds of chopped meat, onions, and paprika and seasoned with black pepper, pimento, and salt. A little water is added and the opening is sewn with a needle and a thread. It is baked with lard in an earthen casserole.

There are many burek and pastry places and restaurants in the centre but for best grill and local food head for:

Drink

There is a selection of cafes, bars and clubs in Prilep, most of them in and around the old bazaar and in the shopping mall that stands on the main square. Here are some of the popular destinations: In the center of the town there are at least twenty cafe bars offering a variety of fun and you can have a nice time enjoying some very modern or rustique views of architecture.

Go next

Bitola- Visit the “city of consuls”. Cozy Old Town and a very ruined, ancient city remains. Certainly worth stopping off here for a few hours if travelling from Prilep to Ohrid. Kicevo - There is the St. Bogorodica Precista a monastery with the 'flying icon' Ohrid- A couple bus per day (via Bitola). With ancient churches and flower-filled balconies in the hillside old city, and beach life down below on the lake coast, this is no doubt the "Macedonian Riviera" Skopje - around dozen of buses and couple of trains depart to the Capital Veles - 65 km NE. - Visit the nearby Saint Jovan Vetersko monastery