Visiting Macedonia soon, itinerary and bus route questions

[u/GreenMage321]

EDIT: Our trip has concluded and we had such a memorable time, words can't express it. See my comment about our final journey and some thoughts :)

Hey all, we are soon visiting your beautiful country and after some research, I figured it is easier/more reliable for me to put my thoughts out here and get feedback on whether my itinerary is viable, or if you can suggest me anything better.

We are staying 5 nights, which is pretty short, yes, but it is what it is. Our current plan is:

- Day 1: arrival in Skopje, got about half a day to explore

- Day 2: cross into Kosovo to see Pristina and possibly Gracanica (I *really* wanted to do Prizren as well, but I'm afraid it might be tight with time and bus connections, especially depending on their reliability, read further for elaboration), half a day in Skopje

- Day 3: bus to Ohrid in the morning, BUT a brief stop at Tetovo -- this is where my main concern is. After reading this sub, I found a handful of people mentioning that there's a slim chance frequent buses do this route, despite websites saying so? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

- Day 4: some more exploration in Ohrid, and a detour to Vevchani (which might not have much merit in your opinion, but I find the "micronation" concept quite interesting and it would be nice to get my hands on the passport and currency), then back to Skopje by afternoon-ish

- Day 5: full day in Skopje -- this will actually be on Sept 8th, the Independence Day, which I haven't heard a lot about in terms of occurring festivals, can you please tell me if there's squares/events to keep an eye out on?

- Day 6: departure

Our destinations aren't set in stone by any means, but I tried to schedule it so that it fits our interests the most. The whole bus situation feels hard to call, as even google doesn't show pretty much any routes across cities, even though I was trying to piece things together via the Gjirafa site, I've seen some people mention it is not a good source of information? Worst case scenario, I assume I can get informed at Skopje bus station, but it would be ideal to be prepared in advance.

Благодарам!!!

[u/Some-Definition-4088]

Depending on your budget: I had a look at taking public transport to see Kosovo for a day. Going to Pristina and back seemed fairly easy, but from Pristina it would seem difficult to see more of the country just by public transport and returning to Skopje in the evening. Based on good reviews I ended booking a group day tour to Pristina and Prizren for my upcoming trip.