Godspeed to Olympos, Sun, 17 Sep 2023 | written by Simon
Simon at a City, Lake, Temple, UNESCO site in Europe, North Macedonia

I spent two days by the Ohrid lake. On both, I spent the morning hanging out in or around the van, writing, catching up on things, and generally just taking things slow. I feel I’m running out of steam a bit, to be honest. I’ve been on the road for nearly three weeks now and the initial enthusiasm has worn off a bit. Especially since I have more plans and ideas now that I kind of want to get on with.

On Saturday, I went to the Ohrid old town via the fortress hill and saw most main attractions. I only missed the fortress itself – because it closed at a ridiculous 4pm, and the St Sophia church, because it had non-stop weddings. The town itself is gorgeous, the Roman theatre in the middle creates space that allows for great views of all the little buildings scattered around the hillside.

It’s the busiest tourist spot I’ve been to in Macedonia so far. Lots of languages, many Polish people, too. I was very happy I parked the van away from it all and could spend the evening just chilling there and swimming in the lake away from the crowds.

On Sunday, I checked out the St Sophia church, but decided to skip on the fortress. It’s just walls with a view, from what I saw on the plates in front of it, and I could see all the views from the hill anyway.

Then, I drove towards St Naum in the South of the lake, visiting the Museum on Water on the way. It’s a reconstructed prehistoric village built on the lake, on a big platform standing on wooden poles. It used to have a draw bridge, now it’s just a regular one. It was kind of interesting, but also a bit lazily done – all the huts were essentially the same, there was no historical explanations or attempt at reconstruct the village life.

St Naum itself is another big tourist centre. It’s a tiny village with a beautiful beach and a stunning monastery. By the way, the busiest monastery I’ve seen so far – I guess people do get bored of sitting on the beach and it’s just there, whereas the others you need to actually make an effort to get to.

The highlight, however, were the springs which feed the lake from just above the village. There are a couple cute little churches around them – one literally is built on top of the spring, with a little well in the middle. The other stands near the most beautiful little ponds with the cleanest water and most verdant flora. And, sadly, really annoying little flies which very efficiently prevented me from actually staying there for longer to enjoy the view.

On the way back, I picked up a couple hitchhikers who turned out to be Polish (obviously), and to know my Berlin friend Marcin. The world is small! They are staying in Ohrid for a month and had a flat, so I took the opportunity to take a proper shower. We went out for food, too, and experienced the annoying Macedonian tendency to dilate time on pointless who knows what. We waited an hour for our food, at which point they still couldn’t tell us when it will be ready, so we said goodbye and went for a kebab. Which was double disappointing, because it was actually a fair bit worse than what I’d expect in Berlin.

I set off late to drive North towards Mavrovo, but didn’t get there. I ended up sleeping on a supermarket carpark on the way.