DATELINE: Ohrid, Macedonia    

Author: Andy      

Greetings from the Macedonian lakeside resort town of Ohrid. Three days ago we'd never heard of this place, and hadn't really considered coming here since it isn't exactly en route to Skopje (or Pristina for that matter). It's just in a corner of the country we'd thought we would bypass. The story of how we got here is kinda fun and goes something like this: We started Monday morning in Durres, Albania, and after breakfast decided to attempt to rent a paddleboat for the afternoon and go out on the Adriatic. We were thwarted, however, by the high winds that morning and a boat rental guy who explained in Albanian (with hand gestures) that it was too windy to go out on the sea with a paddleboat. So we went back to the hotel and prepped for our return train ride to Tirana. While in Tirana previously, Nick and I had found a bus line that went to Skopje and claimed they could do it in four hours. This was a big improvement over the 7 hour estimate we'd gotten for another bus line, and figured the difference was local vs. express. So the plan for Monday was to train it back to Tirana, grab lunch, and then hop on this "miracle bus", arriving in Skopje around 11pm. In the meantime, we'd discovered the town of Ohrid in Lonely Planet, with the phrase "if you haven't seen Ohrid, you haven't seen Macedonia, it's as simple as that." Shame, we thought, that it was out of our way. But we did wonder whether there was a bus to Ohrid from Tirana and eventually decided it was worth going out of our way if there was a bus that would get us there. From our hotel we got a taxi back to the main Durres train/bus station and then took our return train ride back to Tirana. The ride was hot and stuffy and much more crowded than the ride from Tirana the previous day. We were again reminded of why they consider train travel as being for those who could not afford the bus. Once back in the capital, we went to the bus station that Nick and I had scouted out only to discover that there was no "miracle bus" and the bus to Skopje did indeed take 7 hours. We asked about Ohrid, and they said "Oh sure, there's a bus to Ohrid, via Struga. 13 euros, 4-5 hours." So we decided to take that one instead, rather than spending all night on a bus. We hurriedly bought our tickets and food and then we were walked to the bus stop by one of the bus station workers. The actual bus stop was an unlabeled yellow pole about 100m down the boulevard. There's no way we would have found it on our own. The woman who walked us there is a business student at the local Tirana University and had fun practicing her English with us. Sam asked if she'd ever been to America, and she shook her head and half-chuckled, as if the idea of being able to go was completely ridiculous. Apparently she'd never even been to neighboring Macedonia, where we were headed, which made me feel sad. It's not THAT far away, but apparently they have strict limits on letting Albanians into the country. They are gunning for EU membership afterall. We board our bus and discover, to our dismay, that there's no bathroom on it. Well, since it's just a four hour trip, we figured, it's not such a big deal. The bus makes one more stop in Tirana, by the National Museum, then sets off for Macedonia. Within 20 minutes though, Nick and I both noticed the bus was headed towards the setting sun, and simultaneously realized what was happening: we were headed back to Durres. In fact, an hour later, the bus was pulling up right in front of the train station that we'd left from 3 hours prior. To add insult to injury, the bus then headed south down the main highway, and passed right in front of the hotel we'd stayed at the previous night. It was, at this point, 2 hours into the trip and I was having my doubts about this "4 hour" claim from the bus people in Tirana. The bus worked it's way back east (I made sure via my phone's compass and Sam's) and made a few stops along the way, including a lengthy layover at a rest stop. At one point a guy came down the aisle collecting all of our passports, and then an hour later came back and gave them all back to us. After the rest stop we wound our way at about 10mph through the mountains and eventually, at hour 5, made it to the Albania-Macednonia border. There were two stations here: first an Albanian Exit checkpoint, then a 1/4 mile of no-man's land, then the Macedonian Entry checkpoint. The Albanian checkpoint took about an hour, and the Macedonian checkpoint took another brutal 2 hours. It was about 3:30 in the morning by the time we were cleared to enter Macedonia. I knew that Ohrid was very close to the border, so when the bus pulled over to fill up on gas I asked the driver how long until the bus got to Orhid (or at least Struga). He told me, eventually, that the bus was not indeed going to Ohrid at all, but going to Skopje. If we wanted to get to Ohrid we would have to get off the bus right then and have the gas station call us a taxi for the 20km ride. A quick survey of my fellow travelers indicated a strong desire to just get off the bus and see if we could get to Ohrid. So we grabbed our bags and stood at this remote Macedonian gas station as our bus pulled off into the night. There was a guy at the gas station who spoke French, so natalie worked it out with him to call us a cab. We took a cab into Ohrid and found a hotel with rooms, and we've been here since. Yesterday we went for a walk up to the fortress and old basilica. On the way back, an older gentleman with a sailor's cap offered to take us back to the center of town on his motorboat for 300 dinars ($6) so we got a boat ride on the lake as well. We had dinner at this nice outdoor restaurant and ordered monstrous amounts of beef. The nightlife was just picking up around 10pm when we headed back to our hotel to pass out. We noticed at multiple times that the scene here is very much like the Jersey Shore in some ways. This is where wealthy Macedonians go to dine and drink and swim on their vacations. There are tons of tourists, but almost all of them are Macedonian. I think we met one other foreign traveler here in the last two days. One thing in particular I've been amused by both here and in Albania is the t-shirts many people wear here. It's almost like they get the ones that are too cheesy or misspelled for St. Mark's place. My favorites so far include "You're not dreaming, I'm real", "New York Venty Sixty-Third", "Enjoy my love!", and one we saw in a window and would have bought for Natalie if the store had been open: "Come With Me In The Army Of The PACE".