Blogs from Macedonia, Europe - page 8

Today we have done a whistlestop tour through Macedonian history. We started off at the Roman ruins at Heraklea - this was a large town in its heyday, and only a small proportion has been excavated. However, there's an amphitheatre, religious buildings and some baths that you can wander around and some really impressively preserved mosaics. It would have been really quiet without a Japanese tour group there! Tickets, in contrast to the prices in our guidebook, we're just 100MKD per person, plus 300 for photos. We then walked back to the town of Bitola - about 15 minutes away, via the station where we found out that there is indeed a train to Skopje, despite the appearance of the station from outside. Our plan is to take the train in a couple of days' time, ... read more

I'm writing this from our balcony, overlooking the lake, with a nice glass of Macedonian rose. Or 'roze' in Macedonian. It's really very pleasant. It's a good job the pronunciation of Ohrid isn't something like the English 'horrid', because it'd be a terrible description (it's more like 'ohkrid' if you were wondering). If you're trying to locate the place on a map, don't use Apple maps as the entire lake seemingly doesn't exist... Last night we ate dinner by the lake, trying Macedonian meze, including ajvar, made from red peppers, and a local trout dish. The meal was delicious, and the cuvée wine we tried really very nice, with a beautiful view out over the lake and to the floodlit little church above us. After dinner we strolled back, and found ourselves watching the last night ... read more

After a long day of travelling, involving a very slow train, an enormous queue at Luton airport and then an unexplained delay to our flight, we made it to Ohrid airport. On the approach, we flew over the lake, getting a great view of the town of Ohrid. After finding that the only ATM at the airport didn't work (you can't buy Macedonian currency abroad) we managed to get into town by paying twice the usual bus fare in euros! We located our room, and were shown all its features by a nice elderly man who had waited past the usual check in time for us to arrive. There's a balcony with a lake view, although it was dark by the time we got here, so it'll be a nice surprise to see over the lake ... read more

Early start. The road started flat but then went up for an eternity. It was quite amusing really and as though Macedonia was saying "cop this" for your last day. The road later descended and went alongside a lake. We stopped at 1000 am at a small shop for a drink. A group of four locals were already in to their second beer. It was a steady ride in to the capital and fairly uneventful. Gus was nearly taken out by a random driver when he turned right but generally it was a quiet day. We arrived at the hostel which had stored our bike cases and booked in. The riding in this country has finished. Macedonia is a place of beauty and hills but it's spoiled by rubbish everywhere. The people are friendly and the ... read more

The ride out of town was over a mountain range which locals stated was unridable on a bike. It wasn't that bad. 10 kms long and uphill. The ride down the otherwise was lengthy. At one stage a small orange Zavstava car (variable noise ... constant speed) was along side of me and I thought he wanted a chat. He didn't! He was flat out and couldn't get enough speed up to overtake lol. I put the brakes on so he could get past. We past a number of locals riding various modes of transport. All more than willing for a photo. Lol. We met a goat herder taking his herd for a walk. His dog wasn't much use but looked cute so it got my vote. On arrival at Kavadarci the reviews of the hotels ... read more