Good evening.

“Manageable in scale but crammed with history and nature, North Macedonia is a perfect introduction to the underexplored west Balkans,” says author Fiona Sampson who returns to this “beautiful and varied” country regularly.

New train links via Budapest and Belgrade will shrink the overland journey next year, but Fiona spent days travelling by rail and bus to Skopje, enjoying the changing scenery and encounters along the way. “We share strangers’ slivovitz – a fruit spirit – and flaky homemade burek stuffed with white mountain cheese, ground meat or apple, and fall into surprising conversations,” she says.

In Skopje, an intimate city with a rich mix of architectural styles, Fiona is welcomed by the muezzin’s call to prayer, with the floodlit silhouette of Kale fortress on its rocky outcrop beyond the river. She visits the Archaeological Museum - a reminder of the overlapping national identities and territories continually at play in the Balkans - and seeks out the vintage curios and crafts of the left bank, catching up with friends over “innumerable silty coffees” and delving into the city’s vibrant contemporary cultural life.

Tetovo, a city 30 miles to the west, and heart of the Albanian community, charms with its Painted Mosque and 16th-century walled monastery, before she travels on 100 miles south to Ohrid, home to one of the oldest lakes in the world. Back home it’s the view of water and mountains she remembers and longs for. “T’ga za jug, indeed. See you next year.”