World Macedonia Ohrid

The Big Adventure 2005

Orhid Aug 3, 2005

It was a 3.5 hr bus ride through lovely mountains to Orhid - right on the edge of a very old lake (how can they tell?). It feels a bit like the Mount at Christmastime - 40000 people all here for the country's biggest public holiday. We were extremely lucky to find a room for two nights in a hostel and our room has a balcony overlooking the lake - how lucky can you get, and all for 11 Euros - much cheaper than 40 euros we paid in Skopje. The heat is quite oppressive as there is no wind whatsoever - the lake is like glass. We blobbed out during the day and in the evening , after dinner, we strolled with the masses along the promenade and then up the walking street, got back to the hostel about 2230 and the streets were still jam packed with everyone from old folks to young families. In fact it stayed noisy until the early hours of the morning- Merilynn even had earplugs in as well as Brian! Thursday 02 August. We decided to take the boat trip to Svet Naum monastary - 1.5 hrs boatride down the lake. It was built in 900 and is a beautiful monastary filled with old painted biblical scenes, on a promontory overlooking the lake. Along further is a beach of sorts but to make it more appealing is a very icy cold stream that enters the lake from springs - looks very like Hamurana springs in Rotorua. The place was absolutely crowded but we managed to find a wee patch under a tree and lazed away the day until the boat took us back to Orhid. The Turkey tummy is still affecting us, mostly Brian even with all his pills, so eating the right food has becom a bit of an issue. Tonight we managed to find some lovely soup, and vegetables, which was as light as we could get (and not fried). Wednesday 03 August. Visited the supermarket and bought breakfast food such as bananas, water, bread, and the delicious yoghurt drink that everyone seems to have, and then headed off through cobbled streets and houses around the point until we reachd a very old church where we sat and ate our meal. Best "restaurant" in town. Some young people had been camping there - they said it was the most beautiful lakefront "apartment" in the world! We have spoken to many young Macedonians who are here on holiday from Australia - they come about every second year to catch up with aunts and grandparnets who conveniently have houses at Orhid. At 1100 we taxied a few miles to Struga where we caught a bus headed for Tirana, Albania.

Advertisement