In the lands of St. Clement
Trip Start
Apr 08, 2007
1
77
144
Trip End
Oct 01, 2007
Ohrid,
Macedonia
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Getting here from Tirana involves a little bit of a trek by bus and a couple changes, but it isn't a terrible ordeal. I caught a Tetovo-bound bus out front of Tirana's rundown train station at 9am yesterday, along with another Minnesota-native by the name of Joe that happened to be heading in the same direction. It doesn't look like an extremely long distance on a map, but the ride worked out to be six hours total. Blame the Albanian roads, a 30-minute stop for lunch and an hour long pause at the border, I s'pose. The nice thing was that the bus was comparatively cool by Balkan standards, with semi-functional AC. That's a switch!
Arriving in Macedonia then, the first stop is the predominantly Muslim city of Struga, where it's necessary to change for Ohrid. It never works out as simply as that. We arrived without a single coin of Macedonian currency to our name (naturally), and the bus station was out in the middle of nowhere. Not a single ATM to be found, and the woman behind the counter inside quickly confirmed that was the case. For some strange reason, the buses between Struga and Ohrid don't go from the bus station - we were told to walk into town. Then she suddenly stops us with a "wait, wait . . . one moment" and somehow manages to get us on the next outbound bus to elsewhere for a few Euros, telling the driver to stop in Ohrid. An awkward problem quickly solved. Ah, the Balkans . . . things never make perfect sense here.
I booked the two of us into what is apparently Ohrid's only youth hostel. As a matter of fact, it seems to be one of only three hostels in the country. Few people seem to be aware of it either, as there isn't a single rating for the place on the online booking sites. Perhaps understandable for a place that's just a few months old, but interesting still considering this is supposed to be the country's biggest tourist destination. Anyhow, the flyer said a taxi ride from the bus station should cost only two Euros, which took a bit of convincing on our part upon our mobbed arrival. Five drivers barking different figures (though mostly around €5) while an old lady hawking a private room repeatedly refuses to take "no, we already have a reservation!" for an answer. Finally some young dude offers to give us a lift for €2, and the other drivers start yelling that the guy isn't reliable for some odd reason. Joe decides to settle it all by just walking there, which of course pleases no one (but saves us from throwing away our few remaining Euro coins in a non-emergency).
The walk turned out to be longer than I'd like with a fully-loaded pack, but we got there without too much difficulty. There was a little confusion over the odd local method of street numbering, but it was only one wrong before we found the hostel itself. Rather than being
Macedonian-owned, the place is run by a friendly Finnish guy that's decided to set up his own enterprise and see how it goes. It's still a bit of a work in progress, but we were able to get a quiet, comfy double room for just €22 a night (€11 each). Better still, it's on the edge of the old town, so getting to and fro is a cinch. Probably in a year's time, it's going to be a killer place to stay for a few days, as the plans call for a sauna, a pool and a fully-rigged common room. Sampo (the owner) has big things in mind for it.
Funnily enough, we managed to take it the lion's share of the town's sights in one late-afternoon/evening. The city's an attractive place - certainly amazingly situated with splendid views of the lake - but I was a little surprised by how few historic houses remain. Not that it's all bland concrete, but the primary attractions are its churches and a hilltop fortress. The latter isn't much of an architectural marvel, but it offers the best panoramas in town. All that for only 30MKD (about $0.60) a head! Joe and I happened to stumble upon some assembling folk dance competition beside the main cathedral afterwards; unfortunately hunger pangs took priority over patience, so we opted for pizza and a bottle of the national "Skopsko" beer.
Joe made off for a day in nearby Bitola today (I'll head there in the morrow) and I did a daytrip to wee little Sveti Naum, 30km to the south beside the Albanian border. I just about missed the bus, after spending the morning doing a little more sightseeing and photo-snapping around town. I kind of underbudgeted the time needed to hoof it to the suburban bus station and had to really hustle it to get there on time. By a seeming miracle, I hopped on - the last to do so - purchased a ticket and then sat down just as the bus pulled away. At Sveti Naum itself, the only notable sight is a small church, strangely surrounded by a modern hotel, that's been built upon a 10th century basilica. Its apparently a big pilgrimage site for Orthodox believers, who come to pay homage to the tomb of St. Naum and put their ear to the top of his burial marker (for what reason, I have no clue). The interior is thoroughly decked out in frescoes, so it makes for an interesting wander. More intriguing to me though was the procession going on outside - traditional musicians marching behind a family whose father was carrying a lamb to offer to the church. Again, not sure what the significance of the ritual was, but it certainly was interesting to watch.
Overall, Ohrid is a pleasant place to while away, if not overwhelming in its historical attractions. It's a bit different than I expected and certainly not the architectural preserve I thought it might be. Somewhat more confusing is how few fellow backpackers and foreign tourists there seem to be around (apart from Russians here with a tour group). For the most significant tourism spot in the country, it's sure quiet - most everyone around seems to be Macedonian or, perhaps, Serbian. I can't help but wonder how the rest of the country is going to be. I'll go to Bitola (the 2nd largest city in Macedonia) tomorrow and then Skopje the day after that. It'll be interesting to see if I can spot any other travelers around while I'm there.
