The awesome Ohrid
After a three day visit of Skopje we took a taxi for a two hour (170km long) trip to the town of Ohrid. Ohrid is a harbour town that will fascinate even the most demanding tourist. Instead of the silly bling of Skopje, here you will find the beauty of architecture, nature, history and the pearls of Ohrid.
The coastal town of Ohrid fascinates
Through the old part of the city (čaršija) we walk towards one of the oldest lakes in Europe – the Ohrid Lake. On a sunny day you get a feeling that the blueness of the lake and the sky are joining into one. The gulls, fishermen with nets full of fish, old barques with paint scraping off… everything is indicating that the summer is in town. The terraces are already inviting tourists, which massively visit Ohrid in the summertime. On the main square the visitors are greeted by the statue of St. Kliment and St. Naum – the pupils of Ciril and Metod (who were the most important missionaries, spreading the Orthodox church throughout the south-eastern, central and eastern Europe [note by translator]). The town is slowly rising out of the lake surface towards the top of the hill, with the mighty fortress of Samuel dominating the landscape!
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Along the way, paved with granite cubes, we stopped at a museum pa handmade paper. The kind printer showed us, how the paper is being made and explained he learned the craft of paper making from master Janez from Bled (in Slovenia). Bled and Ohrid are also the only two towns in Europe, which do have such homemade paper printers. A few meters forth is the orthodox church of St. Sophia, which the Turks – right after the invasion – converted into a mosque. The walls, which were covered with frescos, had been painted over and the steeple was torn down in order to give way to a minaret. The church has thus changed its appearance for several centuries, until a few years ago its original purpose was discovered and 60% of the frescos were already reconstructed. The old part of the town also features the amphitheatre, which I recommend you to visit and the University of Kliment, which was built on the slope of the hill and has a great view of the lake Ohrid.
The fascinating museum on the water and the mystical spring of the Črni Drim River
While visiting, you simply must go to the somewhat further away monastery of St. Nauma. As we were pressed for time, we decided not to take the romantic trip via a tourist boat and took taxi instead. Our disappointment was quickly forgotten as we stopped to see the museum on the water along the way. The museum is a reconstruction of a fishing village on the water that reminds me of our UNESCO candidate in the bogs of Ljubljana. It’s a fishing village dating back to prehistoric times that was flooded, doe to the expansion of the lake. Some years ago they’ve found the fundaments of a village, jewellery and skeletons in the area. They’ve prepared the scaled down reconstruction of the village. All the houses were made from natural materials as in the old days.
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Along the narrow roads we drove up and down and arrived to the magical corner away from the concrete jungle and the human noise. It’s a green mystical world where the river of Črni Drim begins. The river is the source of life of Lake Ohrid. On the hill you’ll see the monastery of St. Neum dominating the area. It was built in 895 and is today mostly a tourist point, but in the past it was among the most important sacral sights. Along the monastery, where St. Naum spent the last days of his life, there’s also the orthodox church featuring the grave of the saint.
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In the five days we’ve spent in Macedonia, all the negative feeling from arriving have disappeared. Over and over again, while spending time in Skopje and Ohrid, the country proved it’s a unique place with friendly people of warm temperament and very open – like the true people of the Balkans. It also justified its fame of being the country of great cuisine. Macedonia is definitely worth a visit and I recommend it to every tourist, who knows how to enjoy the simple pleasures, good food and has an open mind toward all races and religions.
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