Can't believe we are on day 18 already. Today we saw a little of Albania before heading to Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. We saw lots of what seems to be a very pretty part of Albania, and then ended up in nice cool Ohrid.
Our breakfast at the hotel. Again great breakfast from a great hotel (well could use something besides nescafe coffee machine, but great otherwise)
After breakfast (and getting our heavy bags carted around) we took a small walk in Berat. In the light you can really see why it is called the white city. We saw the Bachelor mosque and walked over to the Orthodox part of the town and the old bridge. It was already quite hot even at 9 am.
Us on one of the rebuilt old bridges
The same donkey from last night seemed to have move right in front of some Ottoman ruins to help cut the grass
Looking up our street from the hotel.
Our guide then drove us up to the castle (although walking might have been faster, but hotter). The first thing we saw was the icon museum to Onufri who is a famous 16th century painter. At one point this castle had 20 churches in it, but the icon museum is in one of the few remaining churches.
View from the castle walls
White city from the castle walls
Inside the castle. Lots of people still live there, but it is protected by UNESCO
Zach really wanted a picture of the Kastrati gas station with the strange goat mascot.
Just another person/horse we shared the highway with
We made a brief stop at Elbasan to see the old ruins. There is a roman fort and this town was on the Via Egnatia (which Zach was very excited about, but not having had world history this didn't mean much to me)
Albanian countryside on the way to lunch
Lunch was at a roadside restaurant not so far from Elbasan. It started pouring right when we got inside so it was a good choice to get off the road at that point. I had stuffed peppers. Zach had some liver dish that was not that great.
Dinky at the first sight of Lake Ohrid on the Albanian side
Sveti Naum monestary just after the boarder with Albania. This was started sometime in the 10th century.
Zach listening for Naum's heartbeat at his grave
For some reason there was peacocks there. They were loud but beautiful
After our very quick visit we were driven to our hotel for the night Villa Kale. We got a choice of rooms and it was huge! We had an extra bed, a seating area and a view of the water from our room. All this including breakfast for about $50/night!
Our hotel/guesthouse
After relaxing for a few minutes we took a walk to see some of town as the sun was setting
Dinky and the Kaneo church.
After our walk we stopped along the water for wine and apps. The goat cheese and apples were wonderful. My wine (sauvingone blanc) was way better than Zach's local moscato
Birds on the lake
Dinner was at the St. Sophia restaurant. There was a band the first played a bunch of American and British pop and then eventually Macedonian music. This is Zach's cabbage rolls.
After dinner we walked around again, got some ice cream and eventually meandered back to our hotel
The finale for the night was watching some sort of Macedonian dance night from the our hotel windows. Not entirely sure what was going on, but we had a pretty good view that was free.
In the morning we are going hiking and seeing more of Ohrid in the afternoon.
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