Many places and 3 countries - Part I: Ohrid, Macedonia

                                                             Fija in action in the city center
 

                                                                          The fortress

                                                             Church of St John at Kaneo

I took my 3 weeks hollidays in September, when Cipriano came to visit me in Vranje. My initial idea was a bit too idealistic, as if I had forgotten the length of the Balkan trips by bus or train. In fact I had planned to make a tour of Serbia, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia in less than 3 weeks, which could have been possible if we only wanted to spend one day in each place we wanted to visit. In the end we unfortunatly couldn't go neither to Bosnia nor to Montenegro.

A long week-end in Macedonia - Skopje and Ohrid

Ohrid is one of the places I've heard the most about during the summer. All my colleagues were constantly talking about how beautiful and nice Ohrid was. The truth is that it is in fact a beautiful place but, let's be honest, too perfect for tourists! I decided to keep this place for my vacation in September when that city wouldn't be so crowded and it was a good idea.
Once we arrived at the main bus station it was not hard to find taxi drivers waiting for you and appartment owners to offer the tourists a place to stay for more or less reasonable price.

In my case, I always tend to avoid taking a taxi. But that time was an exception and we accepted to be driven by a man who was shouting at potential customers just like the others. We were actually lucky because he was a honest taxi driver and moreover he was renting nice appartments for the tourists. I was quite sceptic about accepting to visit the appartment and I must confess I was scared of being cheated. Besides I knew that it shouldn't be difficult to find a room in a pension for less than 10 euros.
We were actually very surprised when we saw the nicely decorated and furnished little appartment for a very reasonable price. Our nice taxi driver succeeded in convincing us to accept his offer and stay there. The appartment was located 5 minutes walking from the center and 3 minutes from the walking zone by the river.

Ohrid is a perfect place for those who are looking for a nice and quite week-end under the sun, with beautiful nature, lake with clean and pure water, and an interesting past and history as it is visible by its monuments.
In order to know more about geography and history of Ohrid follow this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohrid

                                                                   St. Panteleimon