Why yes, we HAVE been to Ohrid!

We are finally able to saw that WE HAVE BEEN TO OHRID!!!!

Everyone asks us “Oh where have you been besides Skopje?” And I list off a few towns, but they ALWAYS follow this up with “What about Ohrid? You HAVE to get to Ohrid!” It’s gotten to the point where I always go in my head “ ohasgpoihasgfj8! I know!” but publicly say “I know! I can’t wait!” But now I can say, I have been. It was only for a day, but I saw basically the whole town (minus museums). We also only saw the outside of the churches, and didn’t go into any actually church. We also walked the whole town, but that would be pretty easy, the streets were pretty small.

Jen and I were able to go down with Vesna, Jen’s friend and co-worker at the university. She offered to drive us there because she needed a break. The trip takes about 2 hours from Tetovo through the mountains. The mountains on this side of Macedonia are not as rocky as the other side. They were filled with more trees and less “Caution rocks falling signs!” It was a bit cloudy and rainy the whole way down (and actually the whole day) but I still should have gotten more pictures! I actually didn’t get any on the way down (STUPID!).

When we got to Ohrid, we met up with Vesna’s friend (Emilija) at a café for a coffee. We all sat and talked for a bit, but then Jen and I wanted to give them some alone time, so we went to take pictures at this little old dock. This commenced….

 followed by this:

When we went back, they were done with their coffee and started wandered towards the mountain. We passed through most of the town taking lots of pictures!

I translated this, and went, wait, WHAT...did I translate that correctly? Yup, yup I did: Men know why

Traditional Ohrid architecture



We made it up to this Old Amphitheater, which according to WikiTravel (because they are the only real source about history of the tourist stuff (even the guides don’t tell you about all of the sights)), was from Ancient Greek times. The only Ancient Greek theater in Macedonia, all others are from Roman times.

We then walked towards the Fortifications with a Upper Gate. The whole old town is encircled by a stone wall.

Then we headed to the main church, St. Bogorodica Perivlepta (I think).

We also passed along the First Archbishopric/school of Macedonian.

Also, some GREAT views. The beauty of this city is almost indescribable.  We walked up to Samuel’s Fortress and then down to St. Jovan church along the edge of the lake.

We also encountered this:

It is meant to say “sign” as in your astrological sign:

Then Emilija had to leave us, but Vesna, Jen and I then wandered back to this little pizza joint where we all enjoyed  a different kind of pizza before heading back to the car and driving home.

Ohrid was AMAZING and I can’t wait to go back to see some of the museums and inside some of the churches!