Wednesday 1st September

 

1/09/04 (the end of summer + the final month...)

(aka Day 60)

A ten hour sleep should have been enough really, but I still woke up exhausted. Breakfast in bed was followed by a half-baked attempt at a shower and finally at around 10:30 we felt ready to discover Ohrid. With our trusty LP in our hands we headed up the main pedestrian street tired with clothes shop and pretty much everything else up to the 900 year old 'traveler's' plane tree. As helpful as the LP is, it doesn't quite get the order right so we walked back down the street up another street with having over the 2nd floor hangs over the pavement (nice in York), in the style of...? We don't know - Tudors? Stuarts/Edwardian/Victorian (we would look this up when we get home). Yet another old town but not as quaint as nice others. The museum was archaeological so we gave that a miss. Instead we saw 4 and a bit churches and didn't go in any of them. The outsides were probably the most exciting aspect - in Byzantine style, dark you know... we wandered into a hand-made paper museum where a hermit of a guy demonstrated the making of a sheet using tea and oak pulp. We wandered passed the restored amphitheatre (which was small) and up tothe citadel for new over the lake but nothing we hadn't seen before. Then down through a park to the ruins of a basilica where archaeologists were painstakingly restoring the mosaic floor with pebbles. We ventured further down the hill to the smallest church in Ohrid which had a clear view of the lake and mountains as its backdrop. Roman risked death to take a photo from a rock while I got excited by lizards running across the pavement. We walked back along the promenade and to an internet cafe and then stopped for lunch on a bench at the lakeside. We decided decisions had to be made for the journey out of Ohrid and so paid a visit to the bus station to mongoose!! Once in the house we formulated plans for Skopje and beyond. As the afternoon was young we wandered out and got our from the world's smallest) McDonalds (don't quote me on that) where there is no seating and the cola was served from a bottle. This was crowned as a way overlooking a handful of total Sunbathers, playing on the water seemed to be the only bit of flat land (concrete) near enough to the lake for swimming. We never found the 'imported sand' which the tourist guide spoke of and wondered how during the busy season there is enough space in McDonald's 'only tourist mecca (LP) for all of the tourists. After a spot of window shopping (oh, and an earlier good (some looking for a cash machine) we retreated home for another one of Brian's kitchen masterpieces (lamb steaks - we think - pots + veg for 65p) (cheap). So, Ohrid when we visited, was really rather sleepy and not busy at all - (ooh, we stopped at a great photo exhibitionshowing very good shots of Macedonia). The town is nothing special but the lake definitely makes up for it, as it is empty of boats (apart from the odd local chinese-style junk) and generally anything that shouldn't be there, which was nice to see. The people have been very friendly and although not long or 'showy' were glad we made the attention to do many to see Macedonia.

There is absolutely nothing left for me to say - oh, except that I looked at my watch just after taking the photo. Heather would like to add, though, that the annoying yappy dog outside our window both nights turned out to be a gorgeously cute, big eyed, white fluffy, Fur ball, of the name (according to Heather) Sheeba - (a musical joke apparently) - no. Wait. It really was called Sheeba (with one 'e'), I stand corrected. anyway, we got engaged, briefly, and that was that.