Scenic Lake Ohrid, Macedonia

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After spending 5 days in Kosovo I headed back to Macedonia and visited lake Ohrid.

Apparently Ohrid is the most beautiful part of Macedonia and a local’s favorite since Macedonia is land locked and this lake is the only body of water around.

My first day I spent inside the hostel hoping for the rain to go away but had no luck; thankfully the rest of my time in Ohrid was rain free.

Spent most of my time walking along the cobblestoned roads in the old town, taking in the nice views, and visiting churches and monasteries.

A typical looking church here in Ohrid.

Of course Ohrid had its fortress and of course I went and visited it and of course I took a couple of go pro selfies!

The view was pretty nice, my favorite was seeing the church of St Clement with the blue lake, the mountains, and the nice sky!

There weren't many tourists around so it was really nice to take my time and take it all in. Throughout my journey I have learned that it is better to see less but really enjoy what you see than going from attraction to attraction trying to see it all but being so focused on the sightseeing chase that you actually forget to
live in the moment and appreciate the beauty that is in front of your eyes.

I especially like to sit at viewpoints and admire what I am witnessing. Many times I don't have the words to describe, many times I don't want to describe it because what my retina has processed can't be translated into words. I am always just thankful of the opportunity of being there and not having any worries, or anywhere to be other than seating at peace, looking at the horizon.

After the fortress I just had to go look for the beautiful church... but before I passed by a Roman Amphitheater (not that exciting)

The church was not exciting at all, it wasn't even like all the other orthodox churches with many frescos painted all over the walls. When I entered I was very surprised to see all the walls painted in white!.. strange. From the church I followed the signs to the basilica and to my surprise it was a destroyed basilica displaying some mosaics (made me think of Madaba in Jordan!)

From the church I walked through the woods hoping to be on the right path to find the highlight of Lake Ohrid (and apparently the front cover picture of the Lonely planet)... Church of St. John at Kaneo!

I sat in front of it for a long time, once again taking in the view, enjoying the moment. I put my camera away and sat there in peace.
As I was there, sitting, and probably going through my thousands thought a guy came by and started speaking Italian to me, then he asked if I could take a picture and I said yes but oh surprise! He didn't have a camera! haha It turned out he wanted me to take a picture of the church with my phone, only the church without him, and then he asked for a selfie and asked me to whatsapp it to his daughter! haha it was too funny and I was so confused! Apparently his family is complaining that they don't get any updates and I'm assuming he doesn't have a phone. To give me his daughter's number he grabbed a bunch of stapled white papers and had to find where he wrote her number! The whole exchange was really funny!

The church was beautiful with the lake on the background so the next day I decided to go back to check out the church at sunset time... the lighting although not the most beautiful one in terms of color, gave the church a different feeling and a more spectacular sight.

Sunset over Ohrid!

From the church I went down the stairs and instead of walking on the high path I decided to walk along the water all the way back to town.

Dinning by the water

The old town I felt it was divided into two, one part was the old looking part and then the new looking part of old town. The newish part had the typical clothes shops, ice cream, and more of an ambiance. The old part was quieter and for me, it had a little bit more character.

St. Sophia's church (I think!)

At night I met up with my friend Peter for some dinner but before I stopped to look at the lit up fortress!

The following day I tagged along with Peter (since he had rented a car) to go visit one of the famous monasteries in Lake Ohrid, the Sveti Naum Monastery!

The monastery was full of peacocks, and I think that was my favorite part, just following and seeing the peacocks! haha

How pretty?

From there we drove to the Bay of the bones museum, a museum on water with construction of old settlement blah blah blah!

hahaha this was my favorite part of the museum!

My time in Lake Ohrid was great, such a beautiful place! Now off to Bulgaria!

About Post Author

Andrea

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!