Ohrid, North Macedonia

Posted on August 16, 2023  •  15 minutes  • 3126 words

Arriving into the bus station, we easily grabbed a taxi. We didn’t have Macedonian denar yet, but they would take euros (bills only, or paper as the guy stated). We were out of paper euros, but Ben had some. Once again, we had to raid Ben’s euro savings for cash.

We got dropped off at the upper gate and followed picture directions (photos with arrows on them) from our Airbnb host. Matching up photos with streets and we made it there. His family lived downstairs and they let us in. A basic place (I knew this from the photos) but it had a balcony with the best view!

Hungry, we didn’t wait too long and headed into town…basically just walk down for about 8 minutes and you are there. I tried to get cash out with my normal ATM card and it told me what it told me in Bosnia and Herzegovina…card expired. I just assumed I pushed the buttons too slow, but Dan said ‘your car is expired.’ I got defensive, as that was impossible, right? But nope, card expired in April! I had sold so much stuff and so I always had cash around. Then we traveled from the US with a lot of euros, so I hadn’t been to an ATM in forever! Quick call to Charles Schwab and a new card will be coming with our friends to Bulgaria for me. Lucky that worked out!

Anyways, we walked down and when I was feeling super nauseous on the bus, I mentioned to Dan that I was going to want pizza for dinner. I NEVER want pizza, but it was needed. We found a place with outdoor seating. We ordered a couple salads and when we asked the waitress what size the pizzas were…aka how many should we order?…she said ‘standard’. Hmmm, okay we’ll get 4 then? We got a variety and when they came we realized we vastly over ordered. I don’t know what got into the kids, but Ben and Sam each ate one more piece than Dan did. So we only had to bring home 1 pizza.

We walked by a wine shop on the way back and I stopped in to get a bottle to bring back as Dan went back with the kids. The owner of the shop (Papa’s food) was so nice and excited to tell me everything about all they had. All local and small companies. AND you could taste every single thing they sold…it wasn’t that big.

I tried 3 wines (I didn’t have to go overboard) and bought a bottle, some garlic spread and a coco/hazelnut spread…aka Nutella minus the palm oil. Dan and I enjoyed our lovely bottle of rose on the balcony as the kids slept.

The next morning, I ran to the market to get the staples and grabbed some cheese pastries the guy was pulling out of the oven. After a breakfast at home, we headed to the (no surprise here) fortress. It was named Samuel’s Fortress so we all kinda loved it a little extra, especially Sam. Can you tell?

As far as fortresses go, I would say it’s one of my favorites. We got to walk along the top of the walls with the stereotypical castle notches with great views…there were even guardrails, even though they would not stand up to US standards. A 4in sphere could for sure fit through there.

The entry was interesting. Seems to be an ‘upgrade’, maybe to take the load off the arch…or to just infill below the arch to make a normal gate work better. I probably talked to the kids a little too long about this. It’s almost a joke at this point…“How is that staying up?!” Eye roll + “compression mom.” :)

We were all just on a little extra cloud 9 in there and I really can’t explain why. We climbed up, we climbed down, we checked out nooks and crannies, we wandered through the courtyard.

I loved the notches in the top of the castle walls, just like my Black Monarch lego castle.

Sam was feeling extra special, as one should if a fortress was named after you. :)

After that, we found a bench in the shade where we ate some bread with the AMAZING hazelnut spread I had bought the night before and the 2 older kids wrote in their field journals.

With a little food in our tummies, we could maybe make it to a restaurant down at the water and wait for food before a kid lost it. The streets were just so cute!

We walked through the Church of St Sofia, old church with an amphitheater. We found art that got covered up during a renovation maybe?

Dan found a great place that was right on the water, with a dock the kids could hang out on as we waited for the food.

It was a little higher end than we had been doing, but so worth it! The food was so delicious. Ben took one bite of Dan’s fish soup and then proceed to take the bowl and finish it himself. The trout in prison (local trout, pasta, potatoes and peppers cooked in parchment) was so perfectly cooked and of course the kids found the name hilarious. We also got truffle pasta and another fish.

It was just amazing…and the drinks didn’t hurt.

We started out walk back and Ben found passion fruit growing. He went to pick on, but I stopped him because they looked like they were on someone’s property. Then we heard a guy talking at the door across from them and motioning to us to pick one. We all had to share the one he picked, but so yummy. Not the same as we are used to, but yummy just the same.

Back at the place Ben and Sam did school work while Max took a much-needed nap. Easy afternoon and then packed up a picnic dinner for the beach. Kids dressed, bag 90% packed when a kid came back upstairs with a diarrhea situation. :( We decided that dinner at home made a lot more sense in case they needed the bathroom regularly. Fortunately (probably due to the help of Imodium) it wasn’t needed. Unfortunately, we had 3 bummed kids that were expecting beach and got dining room table instead. Dinner at home ended up being amazing. It was one of those dinners where everyone was included in the conversations and we were all joking, making fun of each other and no one got upset. It’s the little things sometimes that just make the day. :)

The next morning, kids did their school work for just a bit and I read pamphlets about the area. MAx LOVES his work book.

After, as we were heading to the old bazaar we passed a fig tree. This in itself is not surprising as they are everywhere, but it was flurishing and was growing from a crack in the ground. Remides me of the time my best tomato plant was growing out of the small gap between our concrete patio and our house foundation.

The kids were a bit annoying, if I dare say, so Dan went to the park with the kids while I walked around a bit. I came back with mini pastries, did some reading with Sammy while Dan went for coffee. Another amazing park.

I had met a woman through my traveling group on Facebook that I knew was going to be in town for a few months, so as I was watching the kids play I decided to message her. She wrote back and she was right where we were. Dan came back, kids needed real food, went to get gyros, ate said gyros along the water and met up with Katerina, her mom and her 2 kids.

It was so great to have a fellow mom traveler to chat with and have our kids play together. Well for the next 3 days, we hung out a ton!

Kids played at the park, we walked out along an old pier, Max, Sam and Sully jumped in the water, Dan went home to get work done.

After enough playing we went to the bazaar to get fresh juices and I caved when the kids asked for fishing nets. I told them under 1 condition…we leave them with our new friends when we leave Ohrid. Eventually went home to regroup with plans to meet up for dinner at a beach in a couple hours. Cool old buildings every direction on our walk home.

At home, chilled for a bit, packed a picnic dinner and headed to the beach. All the beaches in the area are rocky…which isn’t great on the feet, but amazing to not deal with sand. Kids played and caught a ton of fish. Note: fish are about 2 inches long at the max.

As we sat there, we saw a ‘submarine’ go back and forth a few times. Yes, a gimmick, but I wanted to do it and clearly the kids did too. We were going to try for the 11am the next morning, but when we got there at 10:30 the 11am was sold out. Kids were happy enough playing in the water, then the park. I didn’t notice it the day before, but a planter made of logs to look like a train? Adorable!

Dan came back caffeinated with food. The best was the rolled thing with olives.

We boarded the ‘submarine’ and the kids were ecstatic! It was basically a boat with windows below, so you could sit below and look out. I’m not going to lie, I really enjoyed it. You couldn’t’ see a ton, but any 2in fish that was seen was a celebration…or tire…or anchor…or when the lakeweed touched the window. So worth it! Dan did see a sea (lake) snake and Ben saw a big fish.

After we got back, we took a boat taxi (plus short tour of the city) over to a different part of the lake that Katerina suggested.

She and her family had been there 2 months and they knew the lay of the land…also her mom was from Skopje originally and had been before. The beach was great, mainly because it had shade. :) The adults sat in chairs as we had a view of the kids playing around in the water. There was a pier they could jump off and attempt to catch fish from.

It looked like a storm was rolling in and as we stayed for hours, finally, around 6pm, as we dragged kids from the water and took a water taxi back.

The driver said he would come right away as he was a little concerned about the storm. We walked up to our place as we had fun pointing out all the different letters on the license plates. Max had a blast reporting every NMK or MK he found. And of course cute little walkways to get us home. Beautiful stone work and gardens everywhere.

I thought they had had enough food at the beach, but we came home to having a full dinner with no storm yet, but a beautiful sky and then put some very tired kids to bed.

Dan and I then enjoyed some Radlers he had picked up from the store and enjoyed quite a show put on my mother nature.

We woke up to another beautiful day and Max felt the urge to get naked.

Dan and Sam headed out to get us a treat for breakfast. Macedonian ‘donuts’ as we called them. Part raised donut, part cake donut. Paired with some bready croissants and we were very happy.

We were out of milk for my coffee and I didn’t feel like getting street approved clothes on, so I asked Ben if he wanted to go to the store by himself…it’s maybe 1.5 blocks away with 1 turn. He was so excited but of course Sam and Max wanted to join. I let Sam. I explained what I wanted (it needs to have 3,5 on the front) but they came back empty handed, too shy to ask the shop owner for help. Sam had the idea of bringing the empty carton. A few minutes later I had milk.

With still hot temperatures, and kids that play so well in the water, we met Katerina and family at another beach after a lazy morning at home. Sam and I did run out to get him replacement sandals. His Birkenstocks, that he loves, were so small on him but he kept loosening the straps claiming that they still fit. They were size 29 and his new ones were 32. So yeah, they were a bit small. Back to our place for a quick lunch, giant peppers included.

Max was having a moment during lunch, so he stayed back with Dan to take a nap and the rest of us took a taxi over to an area by 2 restaurants. It was the perfect setting…so much shade from huge trees, kids’ playgrounds, trampoline, floating dock and 2 restaurants that you could sit at watch the kids play for hours in the water.

The floating dock had a ladder, but it was broken so I had to pull the kids out each time…and they just kept jumping in. It was so fun and hot that I even jumped in with the kids. It’s amazing how much fun jumping off a dock over and over and over can be. Maybe the 10 second running start helped? But I get it, I know I did that as a kid and each jump was even more fun than the last one.

Dan and Max showed up a few hours later and the jumping continued.

We had been talking about kayaking on the lake, but this place only had SUPS, so we rented one and Dan took turns taking all the kids (all as in 5!) on the paddleboard one at a time. The rest were completely entertained splashing around and continue with the jumping off the non-floating dock, where they could swim back to shore and I could watch from the comfort of a chair.

A snack of 2 giant plates of fries and some beers and we packed up to walk back. Katerina’s kids each had a scooter so it was a lot of arguing over whose turn it was. We survived somehow. Back at the center it was time to say bye to our new friends. It was an amazing 3 days with them. I had another adult to talk to (besides Dan) and to talk about so much stuff we had in common with kids and travel. And the kids had new friends that they played with SO well. Minimal fighting, new games made up, fun on boats, everything was great. I think we needed this. We are about 7 weeks in and besides a random person we chat with over a drink or the kids playing soccer with at the park, it’s really just been us. The kids don’t say it, but I know they miss their friends and having a fun friend for a few days always helps with all the feelings.

Back at home we finished up some left overs, ate whole peppers and tomatoes. Kids in bed and Dan and I drank a sub-par beer Dan had purchased. Maybe the plastic 1 liter bottle should have been a sign?

As we were about to go to bed, we heard the loudest fireworks that felt like they were on our street…and they were, sort of. The Ohrid Festival had been going on and that was the last night with the final show being a play at the amphitheater just at the end of our street. They seemed to be celebrating the end in style! I can’t believe the kids didn’t wake up…SO loud.

The next morning I went for a run to a monastery we didn’t make it to. Beautifully perched on a cliff above the water.

When I got back, we had a typical egg breakfast with extra huggy kids and then Dan and Ben when to print our bus tickets.

We planned ahead this time and he printed the next ones too. They took their time, went to a café and came back to an early lunch. It was 10:15 as we had food all over the table when we realized check out was 10am, not 11am! We messaged the host and he said no problem, but we then felt we had to race out of there. Either way we had to be heading to the bus stop by 10:45am. We scarfed the food, grabbed the bags and as we were saying bye (yes again with hugs) the host’s family gifted us magnets with the Macedonia flag and then insisted on helping us to the upper gate with our bags. I’m 100% sure he thought we were getting in a cab there and that’s the only reason he didn’t’ walk another 10 minutes with us to the bus stop. We thumped our way down a lot of stairs on a path and made it with plenty of time. When we were in Poland we ate a lot of these circular breads that you could buy on any street corner. We tried to recreate one my favorite photos of Max in Krakow eating one.

Real name: obwarzanek krakowski. As we were nearing the bus stop we say a lady selling very similar breads. We got to the ‘bus stop’…the side of the road and I let Ben and Sam walk the block back to buy 2 by themselves. They were feeling super cool. Due to my fear of having to pee on a bus, or a kid having to poop, we walked to a café to buy a coffee (for Dan, not me!) and walked past the woman. She gave the kids a big smile and waved…they explained to me that was the woman that sold them the bread. Thanks captain obvious. :)

Our first non-delayed bus (maybe because no boarder crossing) and we had a 15 minute stop at a gas station for food and bathroom. I was miserable with more winding roads, but we did have nice views for a lot of it.

Dan had each kid read for 30 minutes with him while the other 2 listened to their book on tape.

They are loving it and Dan solely picked it because it’s narrated by , a Scottish actor. With a lot of imitating Professor McGonagall, they are really into the Scottish accent right now.

Then an easy taxi ride to our place for 5 days in Skopje.