Macedonia: Part 1

Only a week ago I was still in Macedonia. I'm glad I spent my last weekend in Kosovo taking a trip around Macedonia. My destination was Lake Ohrid, a lake located in the southwest of the country. I'd been to Lake Ohrid before, but I'd never driven around it and I wanted to check out some of the churches spotting its shores.

Friday, June 26

I woke up, gathered my things, stopped by Princ to buy some of their yummy cheese-filled breakfast pastries, and headed over to the bus station. There are two busses that leave Prizren for Skopje during the week: the first is 5:30 am and the second is 9:00 am. I opted for the latter. A bus ride that used to take about 2.5 hours, stretched into 4 on that day. I don't know why it took so long, but I thought it would never end. As the crow flies, Skopje is a measly 40km or so from Prizren: it's just on the other side of the mountains. However, the road doesn't take the most direct route. By the time the Kosovo-Durres road to the Albanian coast is totally finished, going to the Adriatic will be a much quicker drive.

On Thursday night, I reserved a car from Avis (there are two Avis's in Skopje, one at the airport and one at the Ramstor). It was much cheaper to reserve the car through Avis's UK site than it was to go through the US Avis website (by about $70).

This is the car, a Chevy Spark.

I drove from Skopje down through Tetovo, stopping at the Pasha Djamija, or Prince's Mosque. The outside of the mosque is quite colorful and, at a glance, looks like the backs of playing cards.

The Pasha Djamija of Tetovo.

From Tetovo, I drove down to the Mavrovo National Park (an alternative way of driving between Skope and Ohrid that bypasses Kicevo). The park was lovely: small towns, mountains, greenery. I wish I'd had longer to stay and check out the hiking options, but I was headed towards Debar (outside of the park) to look at the Monastery of Sveti Jovan Bigorski (Saint John the Baptist) and the Nunnery of St. George. At both places, I had to put on a skirt (provided free of charge) and photos weren't allowed. The monastery had beautiful icons and frescos which reminded me a lot of Rila Monastery in Bulgaria. The nunnery had a beautiful garden and several nuns running around mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, and trimming up the bushes.

After leaving Debar, I headed onwards towards Ohrid. I made a wrong turn at Struga (which is a town on the lake) and ended up driving along a lake-side road that took me into Radozda. It was starting to get dark, so I decided to stop and find a place to spend the night. I stayed at the Villa Radozda, who had rooms with a great lake view for 20 Euros ($28). I thought that was fine. The place was quiet and I had a fine night's sleep.

Saturday, June 27

After a not-very-satisfying breakfast at the Villa Radozda (crepe with oily cheese and oily ham fried in oil and covered with sesame seeds), I grabbed a banana out of the car and walked down to Dva Biseri, a small restaurant in town. Above Dva Biseri, in the cliff walls, there is a cave church dedicated to the Archangel Michael. The door to the cave is locked but there is a key at Dva Biseri. Of course, when I walked in, no one spoke English, so I just pointed towards the cave and said, "Key?" while making a gesture like I was unlocking a door. It worked, and I walked up to the cave.

To get to the church, one has to walk up a substantial series of stairs. However, it's worth it. Some of the frescoes inside date back to the 13th century.

...to be continued (experiencing computer troubles at the moment)...