Day #3, Macedonia

It was a plan. In the morning. It said that we will go to see some interesting monasteries on the border of Ohrid Lake, then we will cross the border to Albania to see... well... you'll see tomorrow what. Because the road took us in some very different places.

 

First stop: only 20 meters after the hotel, to shoot the beautiful boats in the reed. Bogdan spotted it from the hotel yesterday. How can I say no?

This is the village on the water from Gradishte. The Museum on Water represents a reconstruction of a part of the pile-dwelling settlement, chronologically belonging to Bronze Age and the beginning of Iron Age, between 1200 and 700 B.C. 

Second stop: Sveti Naum Monastery.  We took a boat trip on the lake, so we could admire better the unbelievable view. It was one of the best ideas of the day, actually we let ourselves convinced by a fisherman, who told us he would like to take us to Sveti Zaum Monastery either, which is reachable only by the water.

The monastery was established in the year 905 by St Naum of Ohrid himself. St Naum is also buried in the church.

The other monastery was far away on the lake, and the funny thing was that our boat driver was the only one who has the keys! How lucky we could be? All the tourists in the area were happy to enter the small monastery of of Holy Mother Zahumska (Mary), as the locals call it. It was built in 1361 and although the painting has been damaged, the preserved parts show the excellent painting talent of the unknown painter, especially his sense of natural expression and coloring.

The locals said that is a unique painting of Santa Anna and Santa Maria as a baby, as you can see above.

The water is unbelievable blue and clear, it reminded me of Thailand islands. 

Except the sand, of course. Here you can find only small pebbles all over the place. Still reminded us of Thai islands.

 

We took the lunch in a common restaurant with the most ever uncommon view I saw: the small river which collected the springs and the water from Prispa lake to fuel the Orhid lake.

The original plan was to go in Albania, instead we decided to see Prispa lake, only 20 kilometers away. Lake Prespa sits about 150 m above Lake Ohrid.  Due to the karstic (porous limestone) bedrock, water from Lake Prespa and its catchment area contributes significantly to the supply of several springs along the shore of Lake Ohrid.

Here we found an incredible place: an almost empty beach with an abandoned restaurant, with the most magnificent views ever.

There would be more... but I fell asleep on my computer already. Good night. I'll be back with Ohrid's Monasteries and some other goodies. Tomorrow.