Ohrid

June 22 Ohrid

As we sat and enjoyed the early morning sun and the view of tranquil Lake Ohrid, we decided to stay another night in The town. This allowed us to do our laundry and give us a break from traveling.

We had two pieces of leftover pizza and a couple bananas we had bought on the bus, so after consuming them we went directly to the town's sites from our apartment. We began with a  Byzantine church and an icon museum, saw a Roman theater, and then hiked up the road towards the city top fortress. We sat at a cafe and drank coffee and juice and ate packaged croissants and a local dessert before exploring the fortress walls. We climbed very narrow stairs to the top of the ramparts, but the views of the town and lake were expansive.

Hiking down from the fortress we reached a complex with ruins and mosaics from an old basilica and a Byzantine style church restored in 2002. We then continued down the mountain until we reached Macedonia's most photographed Byzantine church. It is tiny and does not look very different from other Orthodox churches, but its perch on a rocky point is what makes it spectacular. After we visited the town's largest basilica and ate lunch in the center, we relaxed and swam at Potspes beach and had a great view of the church.

We lazed about at Potspes until late afternoon and then returned to our apartment to do some internet research for the upcoming legs of our trip. I was not super successful finding accurate transportation information. Thankfully our hosts, whose apartment was below us, invited us for coffee and local cherries and not only provided us with good conversation, but found us sound information. They also offered to take us to the bus station in the morning. They really were super hosts.

Darren was getting hungry, so we said goodnight to our hosts and rambled the main shopping street past the famous cerna tree--it is hugely wide and has a hole where one can walk through it--and found a restaurant for a local salad, baked ziti, and, of course, a Euro Cup game. We had eaten around 10pm, so we were ready to sleep after we returned to the apartment. Unfortunately, Ohrid likes its clubs and loud music, but eventually we drifted to dreamland.