A trip to Lake Prespa

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There was no power when we woke up this morning so we had to skip the morning coffee. About 10:15 Tashos showed up to take us on a trip to Lake Prespa, about 15 km away. He told us there was no power in Kastoria either, which was a reassuring as we were not sure if we had messed up something in the flat and that was the cause of the power outage.

With a bit of a tight fit, we managed to all get into Tashos's car, and drove off past Koromilia and up towards the mountains. A short distance outside of town Tashos pulled over to a road side snack truck, and I got out, not quite sure what were were up to. When I got up to the truck window, it turned out to be Louis, Tashos's father and our host from last night, running the roadside stop. He fixed Evy and I a much need coffee (and refused to take money for it) before we headed off again with Tashos.

Shortly after leaving the coffee stand, we passed by the Albania border crossing. I knew that Albania was close, but I didn't quite know how close. After this, the highway climbed steeply in a series of curves and switchbacks, up the mountain. After rounding the crest, we headed down and caught our first glimpse of Lake Prespa, a massive blue lake glittering beneath huge snowy peaks. Tashos stopped the car a bit way down, and we got some great photos. Lake Prespa is bordered by three countries. Tashos pointed out Albania, to the East and in the distance, former Yugoslavia, to the North. From this vantage point you can actually see two lakes: Mikri Prespa (the smaller lake) and Magali Prespa (the larger lake).
The two lakes are divided by a narrow strip of land.

We followed the mountain road down to the level of the lakes and then across the strip of land that divides them to a causeway on Mikri Prespa. This 800 meter floating dock cuts across the waters of a reedy marsh to an island called Angios Archillios, with its 11 house village. The marshlands that line the shores of the lake of home to an enormous amount of water birds and are the nesting ground for the rare dalmatian pelicans. These birds, with their massive wing span, make nests just a few hundreds meters from the causeway.

The island has a series of barns and small buildings along with a church at its highest point. Cows wander around gracing the slopes. Working our way along the east side of the island, we came across the ruins of a basilica, built in 980 AD. The roof of this building is gone, part of the dome remains along with the lower part of the walls, windows, and foundations. The structure perfectly frames the mountains that line the shore. Like the church on Mount Sinai in Egypt, you can easily see how there would be a spiritual connection with this place.

After visiting the ruins of the basilica, we wandered around a bit more of the island (the cows all stared blankly at us) before heading back across the causeway.

After this, Tashos drove us up the the mountain on the other side of the lake and over to the town of Psarades, which sits on the shore of Lake Prespa. The town is compact beautifully situated on the edge of the lake with snowy mountains in the background. Apparently, it is totally packed in the summer month but in March is fairly deserted of people, with just a few pelicans swimming off the pier. As it was getting on to early after noon, we decided to head back to Koromilia and the apartment.

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