Snakes, Lakes and Belly-Aches

We left the mountains and headed for the the equivalent of the sea in a land-locked country - Lake Ohrid. Lake Ohrid is Macedonia's top tourist destination and we soon found out that we were there in the busiest period of the summer. For people who like peace and quiet this could be a problem!

We arrived on Sunday and the town of Ohrid was pumping. The weather was warm and people flocked to the lake's edge. The water was a wonderful temperature. We had a few swims here during our stay. Our apartment was amazing - right on the waterfront and huge by our usual accommodation standards. There were three apartments stacked on top of a restaurant and all owned by the same guy. We were in the middle apartment.

There was live music on in the open-fronted restaurant downstairs that night. We got there early and got a prime spot at the front where we could watch the lake and the music. It was lovely watching the sun set over a cocktail. 

One of the specialties of the restaurant was their rib dish. It was enormous!

Finally the band turned up in matching shirts and pants. They looked very traditional. We wondered what traditional Macedonian music would be like. After a lot of delays, they finally started playing. Their first song was something like 'Release Me' by Engelbert Humperdinck and this was followed by the likes of Edelweiss, and other crooners from the 50s and 60s. I looked around the room. The average age seemed to be about 30 or 40. Why would they want to listen to this?

As if to prove how wrong I was, the crowd seemed to get into it. We went to bed at about 10pm and could still hear the music reverberating through the walls of the building although it wasn't loud. People in the apartment above us stomped around on the floor and banged doors, waking us regularly. At 1am we were both woken when the music was turned up. By this stage they well into the 'woohoo' stage of the evening and it was so noisy! Needless to say we didn't get a lot of sleep. 

We got up early and, while John slogged up the mountain behind the town on the bike, I explored the old city of Ohrid. I made my way to the famous Church of St John which is perched picturesquely on a craggy point.

There was a viewpoint just above the church and the views over the lake were beautiful. The mountains on the other side of the lake belong to Albania.

I walked back along a boardwalk over the water and saw a couple looking at something in the water. It was a snake! I couldn't work it out - there are land snakes and sea snakes but are there lake snakes? It turns out that there are. They're harmless, fortunately.

John and I explored the old town together later. It was lovely.  Rendered buildings lined cobblestoned streets although there was a pizza shop or restaurant on every second corner and not all the buildings were old. 

The top stories overhung the lower ones and were built close to other buildings to cast shade on the walkways underneath.

Flower boxes seem to make everything prettier!

I was surprised how many buildings were falling down, including ones with significant history.

We passed by a shop that called itself a handmade paper museum - "one of only six in the world!" it declared! Being a papercrafter, I had to visit. The helpful guy talked us through the steps of making handmade paper. I tried to find something to buy to thank him for his time but there was nothing we could use. Just as we realised this, an enormous tour group walked in. He didn't mind at all that we didn't buy anything!

From our apartment's small balcony we could see a group of men in their 60s and 70s who hung out together each day on the water's edge in front of our apartment. We soon nicknamed them "The blue boardies brigade" for their uniform of blue boardshorts and white hats. They all had deep tans except for under their boobs and along the creases of their stomachs, the result of spending all afternoon every day sitting in the sun talking to each other. Occasionally, they'd have a quick dip in the water then it was back to sitting on the low stone wall again. We never saw them eat or drink, just sit and talk. We spoke to a couple of them - one had lived in Australia and one in the US. They all come back to Macedonia each summer. Incredibly, the one from the US would only drink bottled water and had done that for 30 years. What a shocking impact on the planet that guy must have!

A friend of ours, David V from the US, had recommended a certain Macedonian wine and, much to our surprise, we found it! Tired from our lack of sleep the night before we thought we'd get takeaways from the restaurant downstairs and eat in, checking out the wine at the same time. It was all very lovely although when we headed to bed I felt a little queasy. I woke during the night knowing I was in trouble as waves of nausea hit me. The remainder of the night turned into a challenge of trying to make it to bathroom before I threw up and trying to find suitable receptacles for the times when I couldn't make it! Soon after, John went running to the bathroom ......

The next day we were both incredibly tired and I later worked out I slept for about 26 hours out of 32 over the next day or so! It's been a while since we were this sick, thank goodness. It turns out that a staff member in the restaurant downstairs had it and gave it to other staff as well as us. Bugger.

There was a lot to see around Ohrid but we didn't see any more. We had to check out and luckily we were just starting to feel a bit better. We could have taken a long route to our next destination and at least driven past the places we missed but we agreed we weren't up to it. We took the easiest route and made our way up into the mountain village of Brascino.

It didn't take me long to realise that I really liked this village. This was authentic 'old Europe' - ancient stone and timber houses and barns were surrounded by well-tended gardens. Elsewhere, rampant greenery hid an abundance of fruit and nut trees. We came across a few mounded haystacks of hand-stooked hay and small tractors rumbled through the village. The locals were friendly and many spoke enough English to hold a basic conversation. Places like this just feel right. It's like this is the way things are meant to be.

A beautiful river running straight from the Pelister National Park above us ran picturesquely through the village.

Enticing laneways meandered between stone walls flanked by that wild greenery.

Most of the old buildings were built in the same style, with layers of wood binding the stones together.

Many of the gorgeous old places were abandoned though.

Some newer buildings were too.

Many of the old barns used to hold livestock on the ground floor and hay on the upper floor. Most people no longer have livestock - it's not worth their while. The old barns are now largely used as storage sheds.

I have to point out that there were many newer houses too - neat, rendered places still built in the traditional style. I wonder if the old buildings simply get too hard to maintain. 

Many old ones, like this one, are being taken over by the jungle of greenery.

This is actually a photo of a house! If you look closely you can see a few tiles at the top of the greenery. That's the only part that hasn't been covered by vines!

John still wasn't 100% but he was able to drive so we explored the area by car. We were very close to the Greek border here and there's a 'beach' on Lake Prespa nearby. The lake is shared by Macedonia, Greece and Albania and it was weird standing on the shore looking at mountains in three different countries. The day was cooler though so we didn't swim although the water was incredibly warm.

The village below ours, called Ljubojno (no, we can't pronounce it either!) is similar to Brascino and has a stunning central square with a cafe so we dropped in for lunch. The cafe was full of a group of teenagers with American accents and the red-faced and obviously flustered owner made it clear that he was too busy to serve us! The group of local men sitting outside started talking to us. Of course, one was from the US and one was from Melbourne, although it took us a while to work out that "Keyordo" was Keilor Downs! We think they were a bit embarrassed that the owner wouldn't get us anything. We ended up sitting and talking to them for a while. They bought us cold drinks (they helped themselves from the shop fridge) and we learned a lot.

Over the half-hour or so that we were there, the group grew. One man arrived on a Red Fergie tractor. He was 'Albanian' even though he was born in Macedonia. The beekeeper from our village rolled up on his motorbike. He had lived in 'Thomaston' (Thomastown in Melbourne) for a while. The man from the US buys honey from this man, two litres at a time! At the next table were a couple of guys from Canada. Everyone comes 'home' to Macedonia for the summer to just hang out and unwind. 

There's one question that I haven't learnt the answer yet to though - where are all the women?

There were plenty of abandoned houses in this village too. This one was very grand in its day.

The men recommended we drive up to a nearby church. It was lovely!

There was a very steep climb up rickety steps to the top of the belltower.

There were great views back over the village and the lake.

The place we're staying at in Brascino is a well-known country restaurant that has four rooms to rent. When we first arrived, google maps brought us to a stone building but there were no signs saying if this was the right place, there was just a big gate. We cautiously opened the gate and peeked inside a door but it was someone's shed. We wandered down the road and bit and found some people sitting outside. We walked across the lawn to them and sure enough, this was the place! Weird.

The rooms were simple but ok. As it's peak season we expected it to be busy but we were the only guests most of the time. This was just as well as the wooden floors were so noisy!. The owners - a fluent-English speaking guy and his mum (the cook) were great but the mum was one out of the box. Her daughter and grandsons live in Australia of course. She spent five months in Melbourne ('Thomaston' again!) helping with the boys when they were little. She hated our 'plastic' food and lost heaps of weight.

In this part of the world, they don't trust food if they don't know where it has come from, and by that I mean they like to know who has grown it if it isn't from their own garden. The season here is late this year due to heavy rain and the tomatoes in 'our' family's garden weren't ripe yet but the cucumbers and peppers were delicious and potatoes, garlic and onions were all well on the way.

The meals here are so casual. Milka (yes, like the chocolate) is the mum and the cook and she just asks what we would like that night. Usually she doesn't make lunches but when we first arrived and hadn't eaten for a day and a half she was more than willing to cook up some vegetables and rice for us. We told her we only wanted a small serve but we got a huge serve of the vegetable rice plus cheese, cucumbers, bread and ayvar (the delicious capsicum spread they have everywhere here). We have asked for small serves ever since and are still getting too much food!

Breakfast one morning was this amazing filo pastry and egg pie. It was wonderful!

We only went for a couple of walks and rides as we were still getting better but a gorgeous track led up into the National Park from our accommodation. We followed the beautiful river upwards and walked and rode past apple orchards, vegetable gardens then lush green forest.

On our last night, five Danish people (a family with three kids) booked in for dinner so Milka spent all afternoon cooking. The smells coming out of her tiny kitchen were sensational!

Dinner was outstanding - I counted eight dishes. The sausages that Milka made herself were the best sausages I've ever had! There was a traditional layered crepe dish that had about 20 layers in it. It was all amazing plus the Danes were fluent English speakers so we all had a good night.

We finished our stay here with a last walk and bike ride. John's in the bottom right of this photo leaving our accommodation for a bike ride. The windows on the top right were in our room. The room was quite basic but the food and location more than made up for it!

'Til next time.

Heather and John

On the Road Macedonian Style

Welcome back!
We are meeting many Aussies in Macedonia but they're all of Macedonian descent. A typical conversation goes like this:
"Oh you're Aussies!"
"Yes."
"You have relatives here?"
"No."
Then there's always a pause and a puzzled look. "Then why are you here?" Clearly Macedonia isn't seen as a tourist destination in its own right!

The explanation as to why we are here goes back a long way. We were travelling in Turkey and met a young Macedonian woman. Jana joined us on a tram ride into town then later we had drinks, then there were more drinks and dinner and more drinks and a very late night and she crashed in a room in our hotel at some ungodly hour of the morning. It was a very memorable night. Now who wouldn't want to go to Macedonia after that?

We kept in touch with Jana and when we started to think about this part of the world we contacted her. We were having trouble finding a rental car company that would let us take the car through four countries, keeping in mind that some of those countries don't even recognise each other let alone talk to each other. Jana's brother, Igor, came to our rescue and got us the perfect car for a good price. We were a bit worried that it all might not work out but the car rental people were great and we soon had our cool Skoda SUV. We loaded John's new bike in the back and headed off.

First stop was Canyon Matka, a long, spectacular gorge that we thought would have good walks and bike rides. As we approached the canyon, the road got busier and busier. The instructions were to park at the car park and walk the 350 metres to the hotel (the only one in the canyon) as the road doesn't go all the way. It was crazily busy though and the only park we could get was in the car park below. Wearing packs and wheeling one bag and a bike, we slogged up the canyon in sweltering heat. We were so grateful when they let us into our room early. That was when we found there was no air-conditioning. Noooo!!!!

The thing to do here is take a boat up the canyon and visit a cave. It was too hot in the room so we opted for the boat. It was hard to appreciate the canyon though when an Aussie (of Macedonian descent of course) yabbered to us the whole way. He was a lovely guy but we really didn't need to hear what he bought at the supermarket that day - yep, every single item - when we were surrounded by all this beautiful nature. It was also hard to appreciate the canyon when there was an endless stream of these tourist boats racing up and down. It was all a bit disappointing really.

Inside the cave.

The river was beautiful though.

We later splurged on ice-creams in an attempt to cool down. Facebook flavour anyone?

We dangled our feet in the water and were horrified at how cold it was. The canyon had been dammed and a hydro-electricity plant sat beneath the dam wall nearby. Apparently, when they let water in, it comes from the bottom of a huge dam upstream. The water was so cold that it actually hurt to put our feet in it. Plenty of people braved it though but I notice they didn't hang around in there for long.

We realised by now that it was too hot to walk or cycle here and the water was too cold to swim but I think the thing that annoyed us the most was the crowds. The canyon is only 30 minutes out of the capital and there were hordes of people there. At one stage we moved the car, thinking things had quietened down. The tiny road was chaos! People were trying to back out of car parks but there was no room. Cars tried to go both up and down the narrow road and there was simply not enough room for everyone. This was all way too busy for us. We decided to cut our losses and leave the next morning, even though we had paid for two nights.

The next morning we were awake at 4.30 or so (the broken louvres let the light in and it starts getting light at 4am) so we went for a walk along the canyon. It was wonderful - there were no boats and not even another person. The gorge was amazingly lush and green and the sun was still a couple of hours away from sliding down the canyon walls so it was a comfortable temperature too. 

Breakfast is usually included with hotels here and by 7.30 we were hungry. The problem is that they didn't serve breakfast until 9am! The restaurant was open to serve coffees etc. though so John asked if he could have a coffee while he waited for breakfast. He was told he'd have to pay for it. John asked if it's the same coffee that comes with his breakfast. It was. It wasn't about the money but it was just so ridiculous. We finished packing and left, not only losing the nights accommodation but two breakfasts each as well. It was hardly a tragedy but it was frustrating.

We are very grateful to travel the way we can but some places are simply not for us and we'd rather not sugar-coat our experiences. Travel isn't always what we hope for or expect. People's recommendations and guidebook suggestions are often wonderful, but they're never right 100% of the time for us. Some people are fine with crowds. We're not those people.

We drove south-west through a pretty valley. They've had lots of rain here and scenic villages dotted the lush green hills. Many of these are Muslim settlements and tall mosque spires added exclamation marks to the neat-looking villages. It's hard for us to imagine it at the moment but they get a lot of snow here in winter. At one stage we saw a few patches on snow on nearby mountains.

We filled up with fuel at this place. Would you like a bed with your petrol?

At one village, juvenile storks stood patiently on huge nests waiting for mum and dad to come home.

We had found a place to stay in Mavrovo National Park that was up in the hills where it would be a bit cooler. We were too early to check in when we arrived so we stopped at a cafe in a village on Mavrovo Lake. It was wonderful! The temperature was in the high 20's and the view over the water was beautiful. Friendly, but skinny, local dogs fell asleep under our table and we watched as a fire-fighting plane practiced scooping up water from the lake and dropping it.

Our small apartment in Mavrovo village seemed like luxury after the last place and had a great view over the town and the lake. 

This is a ski village in winter and the houses all have steeply-pitched rooves. John took his bike for its first ride and it was great. He found a partly-drowned church where the damming of the lake had raised the water level. A new church was built on higher ground nearby.

We had a wonderful dinner at a small restaurant then staggered back for another short sleep. Our little apartment had no curtains at all so we were awake at 4am again!

The dogs in Macedonia seem to be a bit like the ones in Georgia - they're not owned by anyone but they're extremely friendly. At least I hoped they were! I stepped out of our building to go for a walk and these two huge dogs came rushing at me. The male - the lighter coloured one - was a bit over-enthusiastic and kept nipping at me. The photo doesn't show it but he was built like a bear! You can just see by the look on his face that he's friendly though. They walked with me for quite a while until they got distracted by another dog.

The village was very scenic with stone and wooden houses and colourful flower boxes. It was also neater than some other villages we've been through.

Most houses had huge amounts of cut wood stacked up ready for winter. This cute little shed was used for wood storage. Nearly all the wood I saw was birch. I realised later that the forests here were mostly birch.

How much fun would this be in winter?

Still staying in the National Park, we drove to a traditional village called Galicnik. (I don't have the right punctuation marks on my keyboard to write these names correctly so you'll have to put up with my Anglicised versions!) As we climbed up we suddenly found ourselves above the tree line. The landscape became arid and eerie in a cool way.

The old village clung to the side of a steep hill.

This tiny and very new orthodox church was gorgeous but was locked sadly.

The famous church here is named after St John the Baptist so John had to visit of course. An old guy sitting outside the church followed us in an showed us a few things. He grabbed my arm to guide me around and wouldn't let go. With a vice-like grip he showed us very old icons and soon and insisted on a photo. This was his chance to put his arm around me and squeeze really tight. The weird look on my face is me telling John through gritted teeth to hurry up and take the bloody photo! He looked so harmless but he was creepy and he definitely got his thrills from me that day! It was also a lesson to me that I'll need to be careful when I'm on my own.

I honestly thought that by my age I'd be perfectly safe when travelling but what I've learned is that the creepy guys just get older!

We moved on to another traditional village, called Jance, still within the National Park. The drive there was spectacular. The road wound through a long, deep canyon with lush greenery all around.

A restaurant with a great reputation and an attached hotel have been built in Jance and it was an obvious choice for us. It was hot when we arrived. An incredible afternoon of crossed wires and miscommunication then began. In a nutshell:

• They showed us to a room that looked a lot better than what we had booked. Just as we got excited we realised there was no air-con. (We had booked a room with air-con.) They then showed us the air-con rooms. They were awful! We finally decided to stay in the nicer room, figuring we could cool it down overnight.
• We asked for a fan. There was no fan.
• They had a queen sheet on a king bed which didn't tuck in at all, a common thing in this part of the world and it drives us mad. We hate waking up on a bare mattress. We asked for a larger bottom sheet plus a top sheet as they only supplied a doona which was too hot. What we got was another doona. 
• We tried again - we wanted a large bottom sheet and a top sheet. This time we got a doona cover and they took away both doonas and the only pillow that suited me.
• We tried again and got there, although they took away the pillow John had been happy with. Most pillows so far have been way too high for us.
• Just before we went to bed we asked again for a fan. This time we got a fan.

The thing is that the staff were fantastic. They went out of their way to make sure we were happy. It made all the difference.

We tried the local cheese pie for lunch. It was huge but was full of air so it was fine. Yum!

Walks and bike rides in the area were beautiful. We were still waking very early and it was wonderful to walk in the cooler air. The village of Jance looked beautiful. We were really worried about the mosque but it didn't amplify its call to prayer at all. We've never heard of this before but we were so grateful!

While John slogged up and down hills on his bike one day I cruised around the village. It's known for its historical buildings and was lovely. A little dog followed me around and hung around our hotel all afternoon waiting for me to walk with it again!

Other villages were just as pretty.

We visited a large Orthodox monastery nearby. For a small fee, people are allowed to come in and look. It was renovated not long ago and it was amazing. It reminded me of Nepalese buildings with its overhanging timber balconies.

They had baskets of pull-on and wrap-around skirts for women tourists to put on to be respectable in the Monastery.  This girl clearly picked a smaller sized wrap-around skirt and missed the point of what wearing the skirt was about......

An old slate roof with a cross on it and a mosque in the distance. It's certainly a multi-cultural country!

Our last stop for the day was Duf Waterfall. We scrambled up a beautiful track that ran along a river with many small waterfalls. The lush greenery and the water kept the temperatures a little cooler here. Rickety wooden bridges crossed the water and it was all so pretty.

The track finished at a huge waterfall that poured through a hole in the rocks. The cool spray was a welcome relief.

We kept passing park rangers along the path. They were carrying loads of timber in to build seats at the very end of the long, narrow and tricky track. The timber was in long lengths and some of it looked heavy. The men were working hard in the heat. Some of them didn't look that much younger than us! They were all lovely and very polite. We finished the walk just as they were taking the final load from the truck.

Along the track we encountered a number of languages. People said hello to us in Macedonian, English and Serbo-Croatian. People here seem to come from so many different backgrounds. 

We found a cafe for lunch but learned that cafes only serve drinks. We had to go to a tiny shop above the town square where mangy dogs howled when the call to prayer happened. The call to prayer was amplified here. The village was lovely but I don't want to sleep here!

We ordered sandwiches and, much to our surprise, we got burgers! "Sandwich" = "Burger" - another lesson learned.

One of the waiters at our hotel offered to take me on a village to village walk (for a fee) and I took the lovely young guy up on his offer. I drove to his village up steep, narrow switchback roads (this was the better route option - I'd hate to see the road on the worse option!) The 15 year-old waiter and his twin sister met me and we headed off. The start of the track was so overgrown that we had trouble hacking our way through!

We walked along paths with long drops off to one side and through beautiful birch forests. They must look amazing in autumn. The views of the surrounding mountains were wonderful.

The boy spent the whole trip telling me how brave, clever and good at everything he was! He was a nice kid but, according to him, this boy who works part time as a waiter and is still at school owns 15 properties and has numerous investments. He even offered to give me investment advice if I would like it! Anyway, all that talking meant we ran out of time to actually look at the village we were going to but it was all good fun. His sister was really sweet.

Ah - the tooth story had to come up at some stage! I have this rare thing where my own body attacks my teeth. Actually I think everyone's bodies do this except we have a barrier that protects our teeth. I have two teeth where the barriers are damaged. I had this tooth out a month before I left home and had complications from it. I have to let it heal before I can have an implant, and I hate wearing the denture, so be prepared to see me with that lovely missing tooth for a while yet!

By the end of our stay here we were starting to feel human again. Jetlag was dissipating and we were working our sleeping times around the early mornings better. Thank goodness!

Heather and John :)