Macedonia – Ohrid and St. Naum
Day One in Macedonia
We finally reached our hotel, Park Hotel. It’s the best hotel yet we stayed in, right in front of Lake Ohrid the fourth largest lake in the world. Our room was huge, with two sections, a king bed, and two twins, with a porch. Unfortunately, the wi-fi was no better.
Opted to take it easy and skipped the traditional dinner and show. For 3 euros (200 dinar) cab got us to the port. There were folklore dancers performing onstage. Very festive!
From there, walked through the marble stoned streets and alleyways, past St. Sophia church, then through the boardwalk by the crystal clear lake where you could see through the bottom. I thought it would be nice to go for a swim but it was way colder in town than I expected. Made our way through finally to St. John’s temple up the hill, which has the best view of Lake Ohrid, just after sunset. It felt so serene with the calming lake and the sacred atmosphere of the temple built in the 13th century. They were about to close the temple when we got there, but the guard was kind enough to let us in, even take photos when it’s typically not allowed. He also said we didn’t need to pay the usual 2 Euro entrance.
From there we walked back to the boardwalk and looked for place to eat. The first was a bar with food catering mainly for English tourists. I saw a Kaneo Restaurant by the lake, with dining area extended on top of the water. The menu was primarily seafood, exactly what we were looking for. The service was great! We got sitted right by the water with a view of the temple up the hill lit up.
The waiter said “Our menu is prepared by the best chef in Macedonia. And we have the best wines in Macedonia.” Started off with seafood soup and freshly baked bread that was still warm. I sprayed it with their virgin olive oil that I couldn’t get enough of. The stuffed zucchini was one of the best vegetarian dish I’ve ever had. The intriguing “Salmon in Prison” cooked with Macedonian pasta was probably the best pasta I’ve had in recent memory. It came wrapped and the pasta tasted smoked.
This was the best evening and dinner I’ve had throughout this Balkan trip!
Day Two in Macedonia
Breakfast following day was at 7:30 am, and we all left around 8 am. Had time to do some shirt shopping for the Cowboy as we opted out of the boat tour. We had an hour to ourselves.
The walking tour was from 9:30-12 pm. Aside from what we already saw last night, we visited a papermaking workshop, with the only working Guttenberg press in Europe (or maybe even the world). Also got the chance to climb the fortress walls up the hill.
St. Naum’s Monastery was our next stop for the day. It was built in the 14th century. According to local folklore, if you put your ear on the sarcophagus in St. Naum’s and hear his heartbeat, your wish will come true…. when I put my ear to the tomb, I immediately heard the heartbeat it freaked me out. I had goosebumps! I wasn’t sure it was true, and maybe I was hearing my own heartbeat so I tried again when everybody else had their turn and left… and I heard the heartbeat again although it was a more steady pace this time.
The spring water by the monastery feeds Lake Ohrid according to Tanya our guide. We had a lunch of mushrooms and Macedonian pie on a small island restaurant on top of the spring water.
It was a relaxing day.
