Day 13 – Ohrid

This morning Nade came to pick me up and show me where to take the bus to the monastery of Svati Naum. Vladimir joined me and finally we took a taxi with two other locals which took us to the place, about 30 minutes further south, still on the lakes shore. The monastery, as majestuous as the others I had seen so far, stood on a rock above the lakes shore, surrounded by a garden full of colorful peacocks and with stunning views over the lake and the mountains surrounding it. The interior of the church was dominated by the typical orthodox fresco paintings which I find much more appealing than the ostentatious, golden, 3D decorations that can be usually found in catholic churches.

Starting at the monastery, I followed a footpath connecting the springs of St. Naum and different smaller chapels at each one of them. I came by small lakes full of aquatic plants and of a deep, bright, turquoise color where the fresh and cold spring-water poured out of the ground towards the surface.

As the taxi driver with which we had come, was slightly getting on our nerves, we decided to take the public bus back, which was also the more authentic choice. This “sardine-can” bus took us, jiggling and shaking, over a much longer and chuckholier mountain road back towards Ohrid. On the first stop it filled up with very talkative elderly women, on the next stop 10 more people got in, and when it was completely packed, another 5 persons joined us on the third stop. I got off after 45 minutes, sleepy and confused and with the feeling of the ground still moving beneath my feet. We had missed the correct stop but by a coincidence, this other stop turned out to be right next to a shop for organic food I had wanted to visit anyway because it was supposed to have some gluten-free stuff. I bought “monkey-sticks”, the strangest item I could find. They tasted exactly how they look like and I’m still not entirely sure if they’re really designed for human consumption.

After a late lunch, I headed towards the center by bike – Nade had insisted on leaving me hers when I had mentioned that I wanted to rent one. The call for prayer sounded out of the mosques loudspeakers as the clock struck six. I went back to the fish-lady in the bazar-area, ordered a new trout for dinner and stopped by the close-by vegetable market. This really authentic place consisted of about three dozens of vegetable stands, crammed together under a low, provisional-looking plastic roof (I didn’t want to take any pictures). I talked to a farmer who spoke very good German and told me he had worked in Austria for 8 years. He told me that the money was not very good anymore in Austria and that he was earning a lot more with his self-grown vegetables in Ohrid – about 2000-3000 € per month (maybe I should do that too!! :-O ).

All this – going by bike through the narrow streets of the center, determinately turning into the bazar-streets, ordering a fish with the familiar trout-lady and getting an answer in 100% Macedonian (which I understood perfectly), and doing my grocery shopping on the market – felt a little like I had been doing this every day in the last 5 years.

I rode a few times around the center and the adjacent residential areas and then further on along the shore until the newly built beach promenade ended. I returned back home through the evening light, the magic mountains in the distance backlighted by the Albanian sunset.

I spent the evening doing some planning for tomorrow, when I will be leaving Ohrid and crossing the Albanian border, and trying to prepare dinner on my heater, as the gas bottle emptied half way through cooking.