Macedonia, part V – Ohrid (ii): Samuel's Fortress

Samuel's Fortress, or in Macedonian, Самуилова тврдина

The only good thing about Ohrid was that I met Kanoko, a Japanese girl 5 years (or 6? I forget) my senior. I absolutely loved Kanoko and thought that she was a girl after my own heart. After being thoroughly bored by Ohrid during the day, it was nice to come back to the hostel to someone interesting and warm, who could hold up a good conversation. Kanoko was one of those people who'd been on the road for more than a year, and she'd been all over EMEA, more or less; in India, Egypt and several other places I wouldn't even dream of visiting by myself, but Kanoko had done them all.

There isn't really much to say about Ohrid. I was there for three nights, and the day I arrived, I climbed up to the fortress that overlooks the city and the lake, called Samuel's Fortress, which was supposedly built upon the fortifications of an earlier fortress that had been built by Philip II of Macedon, most famous for having being the assassinated father of Alexander the Great. And just like that I've also opened a can of worms regarding the political issues surrounding that region. That's where it all goes back to, well partly, at least. Samuel's Fortress is in the same neighbourhood as the rather picturesque Orthodox church overlooking the lake, called St. John the Theologian. If you google it there are some very good pictures, however I was unable to find all the amazing angles that the pictures had been taken from, and ended up having to take undignified pictures from back streets. I was too tired to walk around the front looking for the optimal photoshoot, and in all honesty was looking far more forward to climbing up to the fortress and enjoying the views from there, which is much more up my alley anyway. Which was what I did.

My hilariously bad photo of the famous church

Going down from the fortress and back into city centre was a surprisingly long walk, or maybe I was just exhausted, but it was still a good 40 mins in the sweltering heat which I didn't particularly appreciate. I went into the nearest mini mart I could find the moment I reached city centre and got myself a bottle of sparkling water, which somehow did not taste wet at all, and drank that, and then went back to the hostel where I met a Dutchwoman who was well into her thirties, the outdoorsy camper sort, and an Aussie a few years older than me, in his late twenties, whom I ended up getting very well with, but then again I get along with most people, Aussies in particular. They both left the next day, to be replaced by Kanoko and two other Japanese guys who were in their mid thirties. And you know the rest.

I was glad to be going back to Skopje on the fourth day. The bus back was infinitely better than the tiny cramped van I had arrived on - it was a normal sized bus, so there was that. I went back to the hostel I'd stayed at in Skopje, said hi to the hostel owners there, and had the entire room to myself and actually the whole hostel too. Skopje seems to be so thoroughly off the beaten track that it's dead, or maybe it's that time of the year, but all the other people I met in that region agreed with me that Skopje as a whole was not really a good place for meeting people as it was just so empty.

Onwards to Prishtina and Kosovo, which I'd been looking forward to for ages. And it didn't disappoint, but at the same time - I don't really think I will be going back; I've had more than enough of it. You know what they say about a good thing.

A view from one of the restaurants I frequented

This reminded me a lot of Split. Ah, Split!

My first burek in the Balkans this time round

Beef broth, which was similar to the one I had in Slovenia

Pork rolls with cheese stuffing inside

A rather well preserved amphitheatre, as is fairly commonly seen in this part of the world

The entrance to the fortress

Macedonia, part IV – Ohrid (i)

As you can probably tell, I'm not enamoured of Macedonia. And I somehow thought that Ohrid, or Okrid as it is alternately known as, would be better than Skopje, which it wasn't. After half a day there I was already seriously considering going back to Skopje, where the restaurants were a bit cheaper and the people were slightly livelier, though only slightly.

Ohrid, according to Wikitravel, is the pearl of Macedonia, and for a landlocked country like themselves it creates the illusion of having a seaside as they have a fairly large lake there called Lake Ohrid that does kind of look like the sea. It was nice to look at but if I want the real sea I'll go to Split, thank you. Or Kotor. All that this trip did for me, really, was to reaffirm that if I want proper mountains I need to go to Montenegro, and if I want a good sea I should visit Split or somewhere along the southern Croatian coast. Spoiler, but I wasn't that impressed with the Istrian coast either, and was seriously wondering why my experience in Croatia was so much better last year than it was this year round. The weather might have had something to do with it - it was too hot in Macedonia and Kosovo, and rained almost nonstop whilst I was in Croatia.

The bus from Skopje to Ohrid was very uncomfortable. It was an ancient minivan with peeling seats and no air conditioning, and we rattled around it like beans in a tin can. Thankfully the journey only lasted 3 hours or so though it felt like much longer, and I think I got mild sunstroke as I was sitting beneath the skylight, through which strong rays of Macedonian sun shone through relentlessly. By the time I staggered off the bus I was pretty fed up with Macedonia and seriously considering going somewhere else, just to get away from the sun and the broken streets and the perpetually gloomy people, but I was deep in southeastern Europe and it was hot everywhere, and would continue to be baking until mid November, upon which the weather would make its sudden transition from sweltering hot to snow and freeze. Charming.

In any case I had a lot of time on my hands in Ohrid and spent a lot of that just chilling in restaurants and talking to various people, and drinking rakia here and there.

This ice cream did not taste good at all

The surprisingly nice bus terminal

On the fortress which is very much worth a look

One of many Orthodox churches