On August 19th, we arrived at Ohrid, after a longer stop at the Matka Canyon, where we did a beautiful boat ride along the canyon and visited “Vrelo Cave”. The exact depth of the cave is still unknown, but it is believed that it’s one of the deepest caves in Europe. It felt good to be out in nature again, after a few days in Skopje. Hence, we were all looking forward to our 6 day stay in Ohrid, a place we heard many positive things about. And we weren’t disappointed, once we arrived.

We found a cozy little apartment in the old town of Ohrid, and once we found someone to let us (and the car..) through the gate, we arrived at another small apartment. The view from the balcony (see the picture in the header) makes up for a lot!

Ohrid is really beautiful and a very welcomed change after the days in Skopje. It’s the largest city around Lake Ohrid and the 8th biggest city in North Macedonia, home to around 42.000 inhabitants and temporary home to many more tourists. It is also one of only 40 sites that are part of UNESCO's World Heritage that are Cultural as well as Natural sites. During our first walk through the old town after arrival, we saw a lot of ancient buildings, many churches and an old amphitheater that already suggested a very rich history.
Known in antiquity as “Lychnidos”, “The City of Light”, it became a very important town for the Romans, lying on the “Via Egnatia” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_Egnatia) trade route between the Adriatic and Byzantium. By the 9th and 10th century, Ohrid became a major Slavic cultural and religious center.

Since the kids were desperate for some time in the water, we started our first day earlier and already had a swim at around 08:00 in the morning, enjoying the calmness of the lake and the lack of other tourists. A good swim later, we had breakfast in our apartment and decided to walk to the Ohrid Fortress. Actually, it’s called Samuel’s Fortress, named after Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria, who ordered the fortress to be built at the turn of the 11th century. However, it was built on the site of an earlier fortification the Romans had erected around the 4th century BCE. It was very nice to see that this historical site is being taken care of, especially after we saw the fortress in Skopje being left to sheer endless amounts of rubbish. In fact, we saw archeologists still gridding up new findings and the fortress had been thoroughly restored some 20 years ago. In general, Ohrid comes across much cleaner and much more looked after than what we had previously seen from North Macedonia. After a break “at home”, we spent the afternoon at and in the lake. Seeing how much the kids had enjoyed the lake in the morning, we already knew that our 6 days in Ohrid will get a lot of “lake time”. Some homework and a big pot of home-cooked pasta concluded a very nice first day!

As anticipated, the lake theme continued on our next days. We went to Labido Beach, a remote beach outside of the main tourist beaches which was fairly empty when we arrived around 09:30. Beforehand, we did a quick stop at the Church of Saint Jovan the Theologian at Kaneo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St._John_at_Kaneo). The main postcard image of Ohrid and it’s absolutely beautiful, situated on the cliff overlooking Lake Ohrid. Ohrid is also considered the “City of 365 Churches”, but this particular one is special! The church, built around 1447, is dedicated to “John of Patmos”, writer of the Revelation, who is considered to be the same person as “John the Apostle”. As it was already visited by quite a few tourists, we decided to come back the next day at an earlier hour and continued our way to Labido Beach and enjoyed some time in the water. The kids counted various animals they saw, including a snake, frogs and lots of lizards. Again, we decided to come back even earlier the next day. In the afternoon, we took a long walk along the beach promenade, and finished the evening with a nice waterfront dinner. Not exactly in line with our budget, but since we managed the budget really well in the previous weeks, we could enjoy it without a bad conscience.

As agreed the previous day, we set an earlier alarm, packed a few more things and went back to Labido Beach with a photo stop at the picturesque church of Saint Jovan. Labido Beach was great again, as it was fully ours when we arrived pre 8. A proper relaxation! Not that the previous weeks had been as exhausting as the regular day to day hustle we experienced during our working days, but after jumping from location to location in the previous weeks, we really enjoyed the days around Lake Ohrid with not much on the agenda and spending lots of time at and in the lake. We built a nice stone tower, saw another snake, turtles, splashed in the water and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Until a thunderstorm rolled over the lake, causing a dramatic scenery over the water. We headed back to the apartment, soaking wet and took a hot shower to warm up again, as the temperature had been relatively fresh in the morning. In the afternoon, we further discovered the old town of Ohrid and another one of the allegedly 365 churches. “The Church of Saints Clement and Panteleimon” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Saints_Clement_and_Panteleimon), which also sits on a high point overlooking Lake Ohrid. A Byzantine church that is attributed to Saint Clement of Ohrid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_of_Ohrid), and archaeologists believe that on this site the first students learned the Glagolitic alphabet, which was used to translate the bible into old church Slavonic. Clement, who is the patron of North Macedonia and Ohrid, was buried here in 916 and his tomb still is in the church to this very day. The church has gone through many reconstructions and the area surrounding the church is still a massive excavation site. In 2007, a collection of over 2.000 Venetian coins was discovered which proved the early commercial link between Ohrid and Venice. Afterwards, we enjoyed the spectacular view from our balcony and after dinner, Sarah and Leni went to see a concert of traditional Macedonian music in another magnificent church nearby.

Today is the 23rd of August, our last full day in Ohrid and we once more enjoyed an empty beach during the first half of the day. This time without thunderstorms and with decent temperatures around 27 degrees. The kids looked out for frogs, we built another stone tower and flipped stones over a calm lake. Not much more to write about it, but the days at the beach were really enjoyable. We took another afternoon walk through the old town and through a very busy beach promenade. As our son had voiced massive cravings for Döner Kebab (..his guilty pleasure..) over the past days (..weeks, actually…), we couldn’t say “no” when we walked past a decent looking Kebab stall and had a quick dinner on the go. Not as good as the one from home, but I guess it was sufficiently satisfying!

We’re off to Albania tomorrow. We’ll be spending 2 nights in Tirana and then continue to the Albanian seaside for some more bathing.