Motourama Part 26: Why We Fell In Love With Macedonia
Hello family, friends and followers! On the way to Lake Ohrid, Macedonia completely stole our hearts. Pure and simple.
You can see just why in our pictures, even though they do not do the country justice. You really have to experience it yourself.
A quick break south of Skopje to have a drink of water…
…while enjoying the stunning scenery of the rolling mountains.
Muuuh…
From Skopje, we made our way to Kozjak Lake, situated in a national park.
The road leading down to the lake was narrow and exciting!
And very curvy.
With stunning views behind each turn.
The gently rolling, green, hilly mountain sides were spectacular. Just look at the trees!
The vistas stretched on and on.
A view of the road we were going to encounter later on.
Esben in front…
…but not for long.
Let’s play “Spot Denise” again! She is quick.
The road took us past recent rock slides. Quite a display of erosion.
The winding road with a seldom stretch of good, free tarmac.
After 20 minutes of mad curves on ever changing surface quality, the lake revealed itself to us. Time to get some more practice on a loose surface.
Standing up really helps.
Looking in the direction you want to go helps as well. Something Esben should keep in mind.
The road was gravel for about 30 km. A good distance to find the rhythm.
We even set up the camera from a different point of view.
Bye, bye, camera!
And hello again! Coming back to pick it up.
Locals enjoying a bit of fishing at the shore of the lake.
Seeing so much nature and landscape had worked up an appetite. We found a small road side restaurant, where they served fresh caught trout from the lake. Two meals incl. drinks and salads for the equivalent of 8 €. Not bad at all.
We saw quite a few tortoises on the road. This one was wandering in the middle just after the restaurant.
We decided to give the fella a helping hand. He was surprisingly heavy.
Making our way further down towards Ohrid Lake, we came across a newly build mosque, gleaming in the sun.
As it got almost a tradition, we arrived at our destination for the day as the sun was getting ready to set.
As we approached the centre of the city of Ohrid and the lake itself, we were swarmed by a small mob of people with hungry looks in their eyes. We were tourists, and they had hotel rooms to offer us. “We have the best view!”, “We have clean rooms!”, “We have wi-fi!”, “We give you a good price!”, they yelled, individually trying their hardest to convince us that they had just the thing we wanted. We ended up negotiating a fair price for a clean room with an okay view and wi-fi. That was indeed just the thing we wanted.
The view from the room.
We located the hotel, unpacked the bikes, got the room key, dropped our luggage off in the room, changed to regular clothes, found the last scraps of food, and set out to enjoy the setting sun and exploring the city.
Seaside dinner picnic in the light of the setting sun.
The mountains across the lake.
Saint Sophia. One of many very old churches of the city.
The city was old, with narrow alleyways running up and down the mountain. Tired, but very, very pleased with the day, we returned to the hotel, settled into the room, and took our time to process all of the impressions and sense inputs from the day. And then we felt it. Macedonia had stolen our hearts.
Until next time, keep your hearts safe.