Blogs from Ohrid, Macedonia, Europe

Yes I know, I had to look up on the map where it is too!...east of Albania and North of Greece. It’s a small country, with a population of only 2 million. So why did we head there? Well the roads heading south in Albania were reportedly worse than the ones we had already experienced! Hard to believe! We thought it would be good to visit a new country and had heard that Lake Ohrid was nice, so we went to find out. No problems at the border, only they did not have electricity at the time and had to log all comings and goings manually which took time. We also got stung for 50 Euros for the car insurance. We eventually found a campsite 15 km from Ohrid town alongside the lake. They had recently ... read more

I am going to start off by saying that I think this is the tannest I have been in my entire life. We just got back from five days in Ohrid, a lake town about two and a half hours away from Skopje and the most popular vacation destination in Macedonia. Hotels are rather expensive there, so most people opt to rent rooms in a house, which is what we did; Natalie and Nina stayed with family, but David, Leo, Sean, Filip, Sashka, and I all stayed in a house with rooms for rent. The days we spent at th beach, for the most part, and at night we went out, sometimes until very late. On some days we slept past one and didn't get to the beach until after four! It was a blast, and ... read more

From Albania – we headed east towards another Balkan country … Macedonia! Our journey from Albania was a three-hour bus journey to Elbasan, where we had to walk from the bus station (400 meters down the road, turn left, 150 meters to the post office) which involved two girls with enormous backpacks asking for confirmation by saying ‘Posta?” in our best Albanian accent. There we put our bags in a large van ‘furgon’ – the faster and slightly more expensive way to travel in Albania. Highlights of the trip include me realizing I left my jacket in the toilet near the furgon station – jumping out of the van to go get it, running back to where the van was and having a mild panic attack for a few minutes before some random whistled at me ... read more

Poszukujac komfortu, w Gjirokaster spalismy w bed& breakfast prowadzonym przez urocza pare, ktora zaprosila nas na wieczorna herbatke i pogaduszki. Okazalo sie, ze dom, w ktorym mieszkamy ma 200 lat i byl ich prezentem slubnym - nie 200, ale jakies 30 lat temu, a angielskiego nauczyli sie podczas takich wlasnie pogaduszek z turystami. A napar ktory nam zaserwowali, to albanska gorska herbata - niezidentyfikowanym ziolem. Na sniadanie podali nam najprawdziwsze na swiecie jaja na twardo i caly dzban przepysznej gorskiej herbaty - wiedzieli, ze nam smakuje, a po drodze kupilam sobie cala jej wiazke. Zeby nie wracac ta sama droga na polnoc, chcielismy pojechac bardziej na wschod, nad jezioro Ohrid. W praktyce, oznaczalo to gory, gory, gory... Pierwszy przystanek zrobilismy przy goracym zrodle kolo wsi Benja, ktore tworzy maly basenik, a raczej duza wanne, gdzie z ... read more

Quando decidimos incluir Macedônia e Albânia no roteiro, demos um tiro no escuro. Sem nunca ter ouvido falar de alguém que já tivesse ido para qualquer um desses países, e considerando que as noticias sobre ambos em jornais, revistas ou blogs de qualquer parte do mundo são mais do que escassas, não fazíamos idéia do que viria pela frente. Esperávamos cenário parecido em ambos, com alguma natureza bonita, dificuldade de locomoção e, certamente, desorganização, pobreza e sujeira. Mais uma vez, estávamos errados. Apesar da fronteira comum e do passado comunista, são dois universos paralelos. No primeiro, limpeza, beleza, povo simpático e nada de pobreza à vista; no segundo, o oposto: sujeira e mais sujeira, gente da máfia em todo canto, mais Mercedez por metro quadrado do que é possível imaginar, alguns mendigos (em geral ciganos) e ... read more

I am a couple of weeks behind, but thought I would try and catch up anyway. SO the true start of my travels, and I began jsut 30 minutes from where the general assembly was in Ohrid. We were only there for about a day, but I really liked it. We spent most of our time in the Old Town, and enjoyed walking around the Med style cobbled streets and houses complete with grape vines and cats. We visited a few of the 365 churches Ohrid boasts. They were a contrast of Orthodox Christianity and Catholic, all very ornate with lots of icons. The one that really sticks in my mind was the little church on the cliff over looking the stunning Ohrid lake. We sat by and gazed out to the view for about an ... read more

Welcome back everyone! I had a much needed, quite cozy night of sleep after my arrival in Ohrid, so now I'm ready to conquer the city! I have heard so much about Ohrid and I told myself I would make sure I hit up this town during my next Balkans visit. Ohrid is well known for its famous lake, beautiful old town, and overall gorgeous scenery. I'm so ready to discover what this town has to offer and I only have one day to do it. After having some breakfast, I headed out into town. I decided to head towards the lake. The day started off grey, cloudy with a bit of light rain to top it all off. "Oh well," I thought. Rain or shine I would make the most of my time here ... read more