Living by the Lake in Ohrid

After catching a fairly unbearable night bus from Kotor we finally arrived at Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. Unfortunately, due to time restraints and that dreaded thing called work, we were only able to make one stop in Macedonia so we felt like we barely scratched the surface.

Fortunately though, our one stop was on the incredible Lake Ohrid, pictured above. 

Our first morning consisted of getting about 5 hours sleep, to semi make up for the sleep deprivation of the night bus, before we headed out to explore. 

We have been happy to discover that so far on this trip we have pretty much escaped the tourist throng and have plenty of space to ourselves to explore and get acquainted with the Balkans and Lake Ohird was no exception. 

Above are some photos of us exploring the old town of Ohird - as you can see, there is not a single other tourist in sight! I was amazed! It was sooo lovely and quiet! Michael is standing in front of the Ancient Theatre of Ohrid - you don't have to pay to see this, it's just a big free for all!

From here we wandered up hill (a lot) to Samuil Fortress - this is at the very centre of the old town and is a huge structure that sits on top of the highest point of Ohrid and can be seen from almost anywhere else in the town. I think we paid approx 60 pence to get in and have a look around (we were among probably about 8 other tourists haha)

Due to it's strategic location Samuil Fortress, named after one of the former rulers of this region, is a perfect place to take beautiful panoramic photos of the Lake as it provides an incredible 360 degree view of the entire city. 

Ohrid Lake is just beautiful! 

I kept saying this to Michael pretty much the whole time we were here. 

Michael and I mucking around at Samuil Fortress.

From here we made our way slightly downhill to Church St. Jovan Kaneo. This is the most photographed church (and monument) in all of Macedonia and provides an absolutely amazing view of the beautiful Lake Ohrid!

From this point you can expect a short overload of photos of us near this amazing view point!

After a long day of wandering around the cliffs of Lake Ohrid it was time for a drink.

Lake Ohrid is lined with cute little restaurants and bars that provide an amazing view of the lake, this was perfect for us seeing as Michael can be amused for hours by just looking out to sea. We ordered a long island ice tea each - I had become quite a fan of these in Portugal but WOW do they make them strong in Ohrid. It took me about an hour to get this drink down, I swear it was 90% alcohol!

We decided to return to a nearby restaurant for dinner but this time we ordered a bottle of wine and I was rewarded with a lovely little quote by Michael after ordering said bottle: "it feels pretty boss to order a whole bottle of wine" - YES it does!

We had some delicious wine and cheese and great food (as well as great service by some lovely Macedonian's - another Balkan country full of completely lovely people!).

Coincidentally there happened to be a wine and cheese festival in Ohrid - for those who know me well you will know that these are MY FAVOURITE THINGS! It turned out to be a pretty small wine and cheese festival but it was very festive and a lot of people had turned out to sample the local produce. Above is some photos of the wines and cheeses available for tasting and to buy. Bottom left is some kind of traditional Macedonian pastry thing, honestly, I don't really know what it is but it was free so I tried some and it went down alright haha!

A nice little closing shot of Michael with the wine and cheese festival happening in the background!

The next day it rained. 

When I say rained, what I really mean is that it POURED! We took shelter in our apartment, we finally had a private room and working WIFI so we made the most of it and hibernated away from the rain for the majority of the day. 

The rain finally eased off so we headed to Church St. Jovan Kaneo to (almost) catch a nice sunset.

Also, as a nice little bonus, look who I ran into in Macedonia! The lovely Abi!!!!!

I have rarely, if ever, ran into a single person I know in the street since leaving Australia so to run into someone I actually know in the streets of Macedonia was huge! We caught up for breakfast before she had to head off to Istanbul - massive shout out to Abi for the fun Ohrid catch up!

Aside from having a big beach day that about sums up our time in Ohrid and in Macedonia, I would have loved to seen and explored more of this country as the taste I had was very sweet and the people were welcoming and lovely again - seems to be a trend in the Balkans. 

With not many places left before we head back to London and back to work (blehhh), our next destination is the Albanian coast!