Macedonia

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We had another slightly stressful trip on our way to Ohrid, Macedonia. Thanks to another inaccurate Lonely Planet map, we were unable to find the tourist agency in Tirana where we were supposed to buy our bus tickets. No one told us that you can just buy them on the bus! We ran around looking for this place while also trying to exchange our money, as Albanian Leke is virtually worthless outstide of the country. In the end, we were reassured by a couple americans waiting for the same bus that tickets were sold on board.

We got in to Ohrid in the afternoon and found our guesthouse. We went out for food but it was starting to get dark so we retired to our room to spend the rest of the night watching Animal Planet (our new favourite channel). Ohrid is set on the shores of the massive Lake Ohrid. The lake is supposedly ancient so there's a lot of really unique fish in it, including the Ohrid Trout. This almost-extinct fish is now officially illegal to catch but can still be found at local markets. We were told not to buy it for ethical reasons, but the 30 euro/kilo price tag scared us away anyway.

After Ohrid we moved on to the capital city, Skopje. There really wasn't much to see there. We walked around one day but didn't see anything of great interest. We did see an older gentleman pushing a wheelbarrow down the sidewalk with a bloodied, dead sheep inside. That was pretty surprising. We spent a lot of our time relaxing at the hostel which had a nice wood stove (perfect for the Eastern Europe autumn). The women's European Handball Championships were happening in Skopje at the time but, sadly, the tickets were Olympic-priced.

We're pretty excited to move on to Istanbul soon. We've been in the Balkan countries for a long time now and it's time to see something different. Next stop is Sofia, Bulgaria where we'll stay for a couple days before taking an overnight bus to Istanbul.

Later

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Photos

Ohrid
A mosque at dusk

Skopje
A mosque in the afternoon. This one was from the 16th century

Skopje
Walking around the 'beautiful' city of Skopje

Skopje
This is a horse just hanging out under the train overpass next to the station (Right in the middle of the city). 2 days later, it was in the same spot. I hope somebody's feeding this guy.

Comments

[Nicole]

I just saw your blog Looks like your having fun. Thanks for Sharing Nicole ,EA from Adss

[Steven]

DECEIVERS
I think Jay and Alex were ignorant in saying a village in Macedonia was Skopje even adding "beautiful" city. This is the beautiful city of Skopje http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Skopje,_FYR_Macedonia.jpg , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skopje , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Skopje_1.JPG To the people please check these links and anyone with a sense of knowledge will see how ignorant and one sided this blog is. And again to Jay and Alex please tell me (email) what your reason was for LYING! about Macedonia, and deceiving people about Macedonia.

[Jay and Alex]

Not deceivers ... just travellers
Don't know what this guy's problem is. We found Skopje to be a fascinating old city with a sense of renewal in the aftermath of the Yugoslavia break-up. It was one of the poorest capital cities we visited in Europe but the people seemed to get on reasonably well. If this is about the country calling itself Macedonia then this is indeed ridiculous. I fully support their right to identify themselves with the ancient Macedonians of the region and do not believe they have any ulterior motives of domination over the Macedonia regions of Greece and Bulgaria.