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30th July 2014 - Lake side
Didn't sleep much last night. It was hot and muggy. I was woken several times by different causes. Either drunk revellers walking past the window, the Asian guy in the room shouting in his sleep or the early pray call from the local mosque.
We have had a few lay ins so wanted to get up early for the 8.30 bus to Ohrid. I was finally drifting off when Stevie woke me to get up. I left it until the last minute. Opting for the pack and dash method. Skipping breakfast and power walking to the bus station. We made the 8.30am bus by 30 seconds.
It was really busy and full off young teens. Obviously Ohrid was the happening place in the summer where scores of locals would flock to for a summer break. I heard one of the young guys say in broken English 'what happens in Ohrid, stays in Ohrid' it made me chuckle.
The journey felt so long especially as we were accompanied by all the young guys singing the whole way. I'm sure the driver told them to shut up at one point which they gladly ignored.
3 hours later we arrived in Ohrid. The bus didn't stop at the station so we had to guess the route to the hostel we planned to stay at. Taking the wrong route we found another hostel in a better location, however they were full, but they has an apartment opposite which was only 25 euros. Perfect!!! We dropped off our bags and headed out to make the most of our day.
The hostel was 100m from Ohrid Lake, this lake borders Albania and I think is the reason for all the tourists. As the country is land locked it's the only place really for a kind of coastal holiday. Our first stop was to see the famous church of Sveti Jovan at Kaneo, apparently one of Macedonia's most photographed sites. We made our way around the lake, taking in the views of the old town. Cobbled streets and terracotta roofed buildings covered the hill side. The place wasn't well sign posted so got lost, but managed to get back on track. We finally arrived at the Sveti Jovan church. It was very picturesque. You could see why it was the most photograph place. This small old church sat on the tip of the cliff, the Ohrid lake and mountains topped off the backdrop. We did the usual tourist thing and took any photos of us posing. Hungry we decided to stop off for lunch at the restaurant below the church. It was such a nice, relaxing place sitting on the lake edge. After lunch we decided to head to the Samuel fortress.
On he way up we saw a tortoise. So cool seeing so many of these in the wild. It was a long walk to the top of the hill. Like most fortresses the inside was nothing but ruins, but the fortified walls still stood proud. Walking along the walls we took in the view of the town. These places are perfect for that overview. On the way down we stopped off at the Amphitheatre. Several churches later we were back in the square. We decided to head back to the room for a bit, but both of us managed to fall a sleep.... ....we finally ventured out in the evening for a stroll, a cheeky beer and some average pasta.
Clearly still tied from the afternoon nap, we headed back to the hostel for the rest of the evening and ended up watching the end of the polish version of Jersey Shore appropriately named Warsaw Shore. Lol...
31st July 14 - Bus, Train, Insane
We planned to head out to Bitola for the day. As it's is meant to be a very beautiful old town. However we woke up and couldn't be bothered to get out of bed... We ended up laying there until about 10.30am only getting up because check out was at 11am.
The 2k-ish walk to the bus station was easier than expected. 45 minutes later we were on the bus and heading back to Skopje. It was an uneventful 3 hour ride. As soon as we entered Skopje the heavens opened and the thunder kicked in. It was absolutely hammering it down. Even the locals were taking photos.
We hunted around for a bus to Sofia. The next one was at 10pm arriving at 5am the next day. This was too late for us as we needed to get to Sofia for tonight as we had pre-booked a hostel. Unable to find a bus we opted for the train!! Our first train... It leaves at 8pm and arrives at 8am with a stop over in Nis, Serbia for an hour at 1.20am. Not ideal for our first train journey. Now we had to cancel our hostel reservation. We couldn't find wifi anywhere and the rain was to heavy to leave the station. We opted for the only pick up we know and headed for food. On the way there we saw a bus that leaves for Sofia at 5.30pm, we almost got excited then they said the bus was full. Looks like we will be sticking to the train.
Filing our bellies with burgers we saw Luke an English guy we met in the hostel a few days back. He booked the bus we wanted, but the 3pm was cancelled, the 5.30pm was full so was waiting to the 10pm. It looks like the train might be the best option. Luckily Luke had wifi and was heading to the same hostel so we gave him our reservation details to inform the hostel. Another thing done...
2 more hours until the train.....
.....30 minutes after it's estimated arrival time our graffitied train pulled in. We were standing in the wrong place so made a dash down to the 2nd class cabins. As we were walking down the isle all the compartments were either locked or full. Luckily we managed to find our own compartment. I wanted it to ourselves so quickly locked the door and shut the curtain. Stevie relaxed and read her book while I was bored. I ended up adjusting all the seats, opening and closing the curtains, walking up and down the cabin and looking out the window. I was so restless.... I couldn't sleep as we had to cross the border into Serbia to get to Nis, for the train change. So this was two immigrations stops. Another mode of transport crossing the border done. The border stops swould take ages as you can imagine a packed train, even at this hour, Immigration still need to check every passport. We finally drifted off after turning all the seats into a double bed. We woke up later than planned and thought we had missed our stop. Luckily the train was 30 minutes behind schedule. The change of train at 2.05am in Nis was alot quicker and easier than we expected. We must of only been waiting 10 minutes instead of the informed 1hr 20. As always we were on the wrong platform. So it was a mad dash across the railway lines to board the second train. This train was not a luxurious as the previous one. It was seats only, most were taken and the ones that were free were taken up by people laying out a sleep. Finding nowhere to sit down, we ended up in the gab at the end of the train. Improvising we used our bags as a pillow and put down a sheet and tried to grab some sleep.........
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