Travelogues 6 Macedonia We left the fascinating roadside market and drove on to Macedonia. There was a long line of cars at the frontier waiting to

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1 Travelogues 6 Macedonia We left the fascinating roadside market and drove on to Macedonia. There was a long line of cars at the frontier waiting to leave Albania. It took only fifteen minutes to reach the uniformed Albanian border guard and just a few more for him to check our papers. A hundred yards later, the process was repeated for another fifteen minutes on the Macedonian side. The experience was familiar, similar to the process we experienced countess times during the years we lived and motored everywhere around Europe, but something we had not done for more than forty years. The Republic of Macedonia lies to the east of Albania and is roughly the same size but with only two-thirds the population. In Macedonia, 80+% of the population are Orthodox Christian and 15% Muslim, the reverse of the distribution in Albania. Despite the fewer Muslims, we noticed significantly more women wearing traditional head scarves. This may reflect the large numbers of visitors from other Muslim countries who come here to shop. We also noticed that Macedonian people are tall; six-foot plus people were quite common. While we were impressed by the affluence of Albania, Macedonia also impressed us the same way. The larger cities seemed even more modern and well-maintained, particularly the capital, the subject of the next travelogue. Our base for two days was Ohrid, a city of 50,000 located on the shore of Lake Ohrid, a huge body of water only slightly smaller than Lake Tahoe back home, and one of the deepest in Europe. The lake feeds the Black Drin River, which after the Danube, is Europe s longest. We parked and walked across the narrow footbridge over the mouth of the river. There was a curious mechanism of wooden planks on one side of the bridge that regulates the furious flow of exiting lake water. Two fishermen with impossibly long poles caught tiny fish as we watched. Commercial fishing is not allowed in the lake itself, which was overfished to near-extinction.

2 These men were angling for tiny fish were Lake Ohrid pours into the Black Drin River. We drove on to the old town center of Ohrid itself, trekked up the steep, narrow stone road to our hotel, and noted with interest the small winery next door. We unpacked, relaxed a bit, and were soon in the tasting room for our complimentary welcome drink. Budimir, the personable young winemaker and hotelier, described himself as an amateur winemaker explaining that the sensible local regulations, unlike those at home, permit them to produce and sell a limited amount of their wines to friends and guests. We enjoyed a glass of pleasant light-bodied red, made from a Macedonian varietal related to Primitivo, and were invited to visit the small winery itself, which included a 500-liter amphora-like fermenter sunk into to floor.

3 Amateur winemaker Budimir proudly showed off his 500-liter amphora. We ate dinner at a simple establishment near the hotel that grandly called itself a Gasthaus. Dinner for two of tasty sausages, French fries, so-so moussaka, and beers cost about 15 USD including a generous tip. After dinner we took an evening stroll

4 through the most upscale tourist shopping area we ve yet seen in the Balkans. There were many jewelry stores selling manufactured pearls, a local specialty, and several well-patronized ice cream parlors, which we resisted, at least for the time being. We walked the long shopping street in Ohrid, Macedonia. The next morning, we met our local guide, Tatania, and took a taxi up the hill (so Enea would not lose his parking place), where we visited a small modern gallery devoted to Macedonian Icon paintings. Aside from artistic and historical value, the icons, most of which dated form the 11 th to the 13 th centuries, were impressive for the preservation of the wood on which they were painted. There were no visible checking or splitting, which seemed quite unusual for wood of this age. We visited the nearby elaborately-frescoed Holy Mary Peribleptos Church that was originally built in The 800-year-old frescos inside were remarkably vivid despite their antiquity. We are hardly students of Byzantine art but are developing an appreciation for it and its place in culture of this part of the Balkans.

5 These remarkable frescoes were in Holy Mary Peribleptos Church, Ohrid, Macedonia. We hardly paused as we walked on past a small Roman Theater/Amphitheater (could we be becoming jaded?) and on to the Plaoshnik archaeological and holy site. The large area contained the foundations of an ancient Christian basilica, a monastery, and a church originally built by St. Clement in 893. The church, like others in the region, was converted to a mosque by the Ottoman Turks but was switched back and beautifully reconstructed in Old Clement himself was an ancient Bulgarian saint and scholar who, remarkably, was buried here in a tomb which he built with his own hands. The Plaoshnik site was once a center of Slavonic literary and cultural activity which educated more than 3,500 disciples. Passing around a large school and several other buildings that were under construction at the site, we hiked downhill through a pine forest on a steep path to see the Church of Saint John the Theologian at Kaneo. The elegantly reconstructed building was beautifully sited on a cliff overlooking Lake Ohrid. Archaeologists believe that it was originally constructed in the 13 th century before the rise of the Ottoman Empire.

6 The Church of Saint John at Kaneo sits on a cliff above Lake Ohrid. By this point, we had trekked down from the heights to the shore of the lake but were still some distance from the center of Ohrid and were pleased that Tatania had arranged a boat for the return trip to town. As the boatman steered the outboard past the imposing Ohrid cliffs, we were puzzled to hear explosions and see a low hovering helicopter, speed boats, and puffs of colorful smoke. We later learned that the Macedonian military conducts these drills in front of the city seawall regularly. We said goodbye to Tatania and drove with Enea to the south end of the lake where we had a pleasant lunch beside a lagoon in the Crn Drim (Black Dream) natural water spring park. Our meal at the improbably named Cuba Libre Restaurant, included ajvar, a roasted pepper sauce, fried cheese similar to saganaki, and lake trout. We declined the rum and a washed down lunch with excellent local beer.

7 We enjoyed this view of the south end of Lake Ohrid from the Sveti Naum Monastery. The next day we left Ohrid and began the drive toward the Macedonian Capital, Skopje. We traveled generally north and eastward through open countryside of heavily wooded green rolling hills against a backdrop of snowcapped peaks.

8 The road from Ohrid to Skjoke passed through much open country like this. Approaching the town of Bitola, we briefly visited the nearly-deserted and mainly unreconstructed archaeological site of Heraclea Linkestis. The ancient Greek town, named in honor of the mythological hero Heracles, was founded by king Philip II of Macedon in the middle of the 4 th century BC. We walked around the crumbling foundations and the ruins of what may have been an impressive theater. There were nice mosaic floors, but the archeologists were actively working at the site during our visit, and the mosaics were covered with a protective layer of sand.

9 We had the archaeological site of Heraclea Linkestis almost to ourselves. Over the centuries, the ancient city of city of Heraclea Linkestis grew into the modern town of Bitola. Bitola was an important place and the last Ottoman capital in the Balkans during the 500 years of Turkish rule. Today, Bitola is the second largest city in Macedonia with a population of about 74,000, which like the rest of the country, is both religiously and ethnically mixed. We strolled around the newer part of town on the long pedestrian street named Širok Sokak, which means, wide alley. It was lined with modern shops and restaurants, including a Turkish place where we stopped for lunch of gyros and beer. Afterwards, we picked one of several ice cream parlors on the street and tried the local product. While pretty good, it was not quite up to Italian standards. We also ventured into the older part of Bitola, a clean and well-maintained but older area of town.

10 Both churches and mosques are found on Širok Sokak street in Bitola, Macedonia. The area we traversed was sparsely populated and with little or no agriculture. We stopped to have a look at one unnamed village beside a swiftly flowing unnamed stream. There were several interesting rustic buildings with open slatted sides that may have been used for drying tobacco, once an important crop in the region.

11 A rural village between Bitola and Skopje, Macedonia. We returned to the car and continued the drive to Skopje, arriving in the late afternoon.