Hotel Royal Pogradec

Hallo zusammen,

anbei noch einige Nachtaufnahmen aus Ohrid. Endlich weiss ich, dass ich mein Trauma vom Raubueberfall ueberwunden habe, wenn ich durch eine dunkle osteuropaeische Stadt wandere:-)

Gruss
Ralf

Hallo zusammen,

viele Gruesse aus Ohrid in Mazedonien, meinem 123 Land. Der Bus ist morgens um 2 Uhr in Ohrid angekommen, das war mir zu frueh um auf den Sonnenaufgang zu warten (oder ich werde allmaehlich alt, take your pick:-)), also habe ich mir noch ein Zimmer genommen (Hostels gibt es hier keine, aber Privatunterkuenfte, einer hat mich sogar um diese Uhrzeit am Busbahnhof abgefangen). Endlich eine ...

I opt to chill out for the day and stay in Ohrid. Pretty, peaceful, good hostel, friendly people … The girls, recovering Celine and I explore the town. The highlights are the tiny, Orthodox churches from a half century ago. Lots of personality, interesting frescoes with a backdrop of the mountains and lake. The views as we ...

... The staff was excellent. Highly recommended. With 8 guests, it was about 25% full. They take our passports. Hotels are required to submit the names of guests to the police for tracking.

We run into Celine, one of our drinking buddies from Tirana. She has had food poisoning and sleeps for the next 18 hours. I spend the afternoon catching up on my blog (WiFi – yeah!) while enjoying the amazing view.

That night, the hostel sponsors a ...

... highways. It never got invited to the best parties. A gentle, sixteen-year-old boy in Greece was the only Albunny I'd ever met. My only inspiration for going there was "tiagorelvao" on travelpod.com, a hitchhiker who wrote of the Albundi's: "Pessoas 5 estrelas" (5-star people). I expected to find a country of one-and-a-half million people, people who'd never heard of expressways or international companies, gentle people who farmed and cooked and sat around.

Lin, Lake Ohr, Korçë, Albania modernoddyseus

... and Vlado. They are friends as well as business partners of his company dealing with thermo-technical installations. After Marija and I finished up our dinner, we joined her father and his Bulgarian guests for drinks out on the balony. They were really interesting and seem like they were having fun. Marija told me that, if they talked slow then she could understand them even though their language is different. She can speak a few words in their ...

... as there's talk of discontinuing the trains to our destination. However, we manage to catch that train and have been reassured that the trip is still on! The train to Pogradec leaves once a day, at 5.55 am in the morning, so it's an early wake up call for us! The train ride will cost us 295 LEK each (less than € 2,50 each), and the maximum speed will be 50 km/hr at the most. We follow some of the locals into the trainstation, which has 4 dead-end tracks and a few old ...

... careers. They were also really curious about America and about me travelling alone, whether it was dangerous to travel by myself. And they kept treating me, for coffee and for ice cream, I didn't protest too much since I know in their culture it verges on an insult if you refuse. It was 1 pm when I got back to the house and Lelya was still nowhere to be seen. She came back at 2 with Anjela's little brother and said, how about we stay in Pogradec tonight, and then ...

... know the local deal. I ended up paying 100 MKD, about 1.50 euro. During the ride to Pogradec we talked more and when Sanije found out I was planning to spend the night there, to find a private room, she got really excited and invited me to stay with them. I thought, why not. We went to her sister-in-law's house and had Turkish style coffee, the same as they drink in Bulgaria, with the grounds still in the bottom. When we were finished we turned over our cups and once the ...

... back at just the right moment and notice the town proper that had been hidden by the glaring sun on my way up. Set into the hillside, I only had time for the briefest exploration of the jumbled mass of houses. Once again, I could have spent far more time discovering the hidden back streets here if only it weren't for the hostel booking! As it was, I'm glad I had even the briefest opportunity to explore, even if it did make the rest of the journey to Tirana a bit problematic.