Macedonia

Lake Ohrid town

Finally our stop at the most beautiful lake in the Balkans, Lake Ohrid. This is a holiday spot for locals, but it’s now October, so not too busy. Lake Ohrid is one of the oldest and deepest lakes in the world. It’s an ancient settlement that is a UNESCO heritage site. It is also famous for being home to 366 churches, one for each day of the year. Most are no longer operational.

Macedonia has been more expensive than Albania or Kosovo, and Lake Ohrid is the most expensive place in Macedonia. But it’s still very affordable.

In the town, we walked along the cobbled streets to see a shop where paper is made and printed the original natural way, since the 16th century.

A museum in the town was once a huge family home from the 15th century. Homes from the ottoman era like this one were built with a smaller bottom floor, and floors bigger as they went up, since taxes were based on the bottom floor.

We also saw world famous ohrid pearls everywhere – but only two families create them the original way, using fish scales and a secret sauce of some kind. Royals and celebrities come for the pearls according to the pictures on the walls of the shops.

We ended our walk along the lake at St. John’s church, the symbol of Lake Ohrid, for some spectacular views.

We went back into town for a drink in the evening, and walked along the fancy shopping street. You could see the turkish influence here, especially with the many shops with turkish delight.

Lake Ohrid boat ride

In the morning, we set out on a small boat. Our captain was very engaging, getting us all to drive the boat and honk the horn.

The captain showed us pictures of Tito of the old Yugoslavia at a balcony above us, from 1966. He loved life under communism, just like the older guy we met in Albania.

We stopped at a shallow spot to jump in. Only four of us, plus Dusan our tour leader, got in. The rest thought it would be way too cold. Well, it wasn’t warm, but it wasn’t that bad. I had to stay in long enough to demonstrate the side stroke, since Josh from Australia and Rob from the UK had never heard of it!

After the swim, we were given a small glass of raki, then another. Then we were told that it’s not cool to have two, you must have three. Well, go on then.

On the way back to shore the clouds and rain came, so were lucky to have had sun for our dip in the lake.

Back in town, I had a seafood lunch surrounded by cats.

I set off for the museum in the ottoman era family home. It contained amazing woodwork, huge rooms and steep long staircases.

I wandered the streets, hoping to find something to buy as a souvenir, but it’s been tough for that in these countries. Any branded goods I saw were knock-offs, and they weren’t very nice anyway.

So, I went back to our cute hotel by the lake, and had a nap before our 5:00 pickup for a wine tasting.

Monastery winery

We drove for half an hour to the Monastery winery, set below an old monastery of course. Along the way, we passed a volcano and the smell of sulfur in the air. That should give the grapes growing there an interesting taste!

The winery was guarded by a sleepy Sharr mountain dog with a spiked collar, who protected the grounds from bears and wolves.

After a tour of the operation, we sat down to our tasting. There were several options for tastings, and Josh was intent on the largest one, the Grand Voyage, so a couple of us went along with him. It was either that or sit there with nothing to do at the end, I figured. We had generous samples of many whites, roses, reds, and rakis, along with charcuterie boards, and desserts. As I had heard, the wines in Macedonia are excellent!

We did the winery tour with a group of guys who turned out to be from Denmark. When I asked they said they were from Aalborg, the only city in Denmark I’ve been, since I have a friend there. I don’t think they believed I’d been there, until I came up with memories of the bar street that stays open until 7 am and the morning bar street that opens after that. Then they believed me.

Back at the hotel, it was still early, so we went to the nearby Irish bar for a beer. Fortunately it closed at midnight.

That’s it for Macedonia, we’re on the road back to Albania tomorrow.