July 13-14
Hello everyone!
Macedonia has what I would describe as a dormant tourist
industry. Not many people visit because they can’t locate it on a map, let
alone know much about it. When the country starts advertising itself as an
amazing destination, it will lead with one place of stunning natural beauty:
Lake Ohrid. Pronounced OCH-rid, rather than ‘horrid’ in a Cockney accent.
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| Lake Ohrid, Macedonia |
The lake is a three-and-a-half hour bus ride from the
capital, Skopje. It is a world away from the statue-laden concrete jungle of
the north. That’s not to say that statues don’t exist…there just aren’t
hundreds of them on every street.
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| Not close to as many statues as in Skopje... |
The lake is one of the oldest tectonic lakes in the world
and has been an important location for centuries. It is also rumoured to be
where the Cyrillic alphabet – the one used across much of Eastern Europe and
the old USSR, even Mongolia – was formulated. That particular part of history
happened in one of the many churches dotted around the lake.
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| St. Sophia church |
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| St. John Kaneo church |
Of course, some people will visit to see the pretty
churches. There are many of them. Most, however, come for the natural
attraction: the shimmering lake. The lake is vast, covering 358 km2.
It hosts a marathon of sorts; people/nutters (delete as applicable) swim 30
KILOMETRES in a summer race. In winter, when temperatures can drop to -10˚C, a
cross is thrown into the lake and young lads try their very best to retrieve it
without freezing.
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| Lake Ohrid, with the mountains rising on its eastern side |
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| A poster showing the brave swimmers |
It is breathtaking when the sun shines onto the water of
this lake, which sits on the border of Macedonia and Albania. You are treated
to a light show, with stars twinkling intermittently on the surface of the aqua
blue.
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| Lake Ohrid |
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| Lake Ohrid |
Being a lake formed from volcanic and tectonic activity,
sandy beaches are few and far between. Flatter areas of rock have instead been
identified as sunning spots and places in which to dip your toes into the
surprisingly chilly water.
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| A 'beach' at Lake Ohrid |
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| Our sunbathing spot |
One morning we decided to venture into deeper waters by
hiring a kayak. We were able to see the clifftop church and lakeside cafes from
an entirely new perspective. If only we’d remembered to put the battery into
the waterproof camera…
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| Our kayak |
The lake is home to many types of fish, amphibian…and water
snake. We saw one of these when swimming one morning. It’s safe to assume that
we didn’t stay in the water much longer as it slithered and bobbed towards us.
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| Spot the snake? It wasn't in this shot. As if I would stop to take a photo of a snake bearing down on us! |
We were surprised by how few people were around,
particularly in the mornings. We almost had our ‘beach’ spot to ourselves at
that time. Very few boats were moving through the water. Though this situation
transformed in the afternoon, when it became a challenge to find a place to lie
on the rocks, it struck me as odd that there were seemingly so few people
around in the peak tourist destination during their peak tourist season.
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| A Macedonian flag-waving show by a Belgian troupe during the Ohrid Summer Festival |
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| The sign was in the grounds of a church... |
The flipside of this is that everything is relatively cheap
here. Macedonia uses the dinar, 55 of which equal a euro and 84 equate to £1.
Lavish servings of Ice-cream on the shore were available for 25 dinars. We put
a lot of money into their ice-cream industry over the 48 hours we spent in
Ohrid. We also sampled one of their staple foods: burek. Think of a pasty from
Greggs and you’ll know exactly what it is.
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| Blueberry ice-cream: our favourite from the dozen or so flavours we sampled |
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| Enjoying our breakfast burek |
We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Lake Ohrid. We loved
spending time by the lake, strolling the cobbled streets and chatting with our
host, Maria. She told me very entertaining stories about Macedonian men going
to Prague to work, meeting a Czech lady whilst there and then keeping silent
about it to their wives upon their return…only for the Czech women to follow
them south.
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| St. Sophia church in Ohrid |
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| Maria - a kind and fascinating lady |
Lake Ohrid: not at all horrid. The place is ready for a
tourism influx – as soon as the government here become active in promoting it
as a must-see destination – so be sure to visit soon whilst it still retains
its calm and charm.
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| The view of Lake Ohrid from our apartment |
Love you all
Matt
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