Journal / Balkans / 2014-05-07

Ohrid Lake

Monday was definitely the highlight of the trip so far, so I was a little concerned as to how the rest of the trip was going to compare. But Tuesday was really great as well.

The hotel is about three miles or so away from the city center, so after breakfast at the hotel, our tour bus dropped us off near the city center, and we had free time for most of the day until about 4pm. The city of Ohrid is incredible — mostly because it is surrounded by a lake, but also because the city itself I so scenic.

We started our day walking uphill towards the castle/fortress-like structure overlooking the city. There were pretty high walls that we were able to walk around. A beautiful city in front of a huge lake with snowcapped mountains made for an incredible sight. Hopefully some of the pictures will do it justice.

After exploring the castle, we made our back down through the city in search for somewhere to grab food for lunch. We ended up at a restaurant right on the water, and I had a great mushroom pizza. (Again, they seem to be pretty into Italian food here, but I suppose Italy is relatively close, so that makes sense.) I also got a lemonade, which was really really strong — and sour. Good stuff though.

After lunch, Kevin and I found a guy with a row boat and spent a couple hours rowing out on the lake. Most of the others were out shopping, but I figured that actual experiences would last longer than physical merchandise and whatnot. It was totally worth it.

After rowing, we had some more free time before heading back to the hotel. The concert tonight was in an orthodox church in the town. It turned out to be pretty busy actually — there were a fair amount of teenagers there (I’m guessing from a local school or something of the sorts).