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

Macedonia, part III – Skopje (iii): Archaeological Museum of Macedonia

This is my first entry of the New Year. All the bad stuff I've left behind in 2018, and taking only the good things forward.

I visited a rather depressing and creepy museum that was the Archaeological Museum of Macedonia. It took me about an hour to see everything in detail since it wasn't very big. I walked through it mostly wondering why everything looked so scary, and was glad to get out by the time I had finished seeing everything.

Went off to the restaurant and deliberated there for a long time, lost in thought, and also getting through loads of food. I headed back to the hostel at about 8ish - I was the only person staying in the hostel that evening, which was perfect as I wanted a quiet night to myself like I've been doing ever since I got to Macedonia - and made myself an espresso and sat there and peddled my thoughts, and hoped that Ohrid would be slightly more livelier. (Spoiler: it wasn't.) But at least I was done with this depressing city, and it's always nice to have a little bit of hope. Probably.