We woke up a little after 06:00, and both went out walking at different times.  Crystal went up and down the main drag between our hotel and the middle of town, and Justin went down the coast all the way to the Church of Saint John the Theologian, which we’d seen a couple times yesterday, but didn’t see any obvious way to get there.  It turns out there was a wooden boardwalk out over the water at the base of some cliffs.  From the church, the lake opened up to almost double the size, as there was a large portion of the lake to the west that wasn’t visible from town because of the hillside the church resided on. 

The lake was really quiet and peaceful, with just the sounds of birds and the occasional barking dog in the distance.  The lake was almost completely still, and the surface turned into a huge mirror.  Snow was visible on some of the mountains above the lake.  Justin saw a small crab out on the promenade near the water’s edge, and hoped it would return home before more people were out and about.  There were a handful of locals setting up shop or going fishing, but that was about it.  There were probably as many stray dogs out as people, with a few of them playing with each other in the lake.  All in all, it was one of the better morning walks ever.

We ran into one another on the walk back to the hotel.  We decided to get breakfast for the first time on the trip, as we hadn’t had dinner last night.  In the dining room we saw Martin, Joyce, and Andy.  It sounded like they had a nice dinner together the night before, and that it had ended up being a coursed meal rather than a buffet.  At dinner, Peter told the group that we were watching the Arsenal match, so thankfully no one was waiting on us.  But they unfortunately all missed the sunset, as they were in the middle of dinner when everything got colorful.

At 09:00 we boarded the van to head south along east coast of Lake Ohrid towards St Naum, immediately prior to the border with Albania.  The entire lake is UNESCO protected on the Macedonian side, but not (yet) on the Albanian side, and Albania isn’t as careful in terms of waste or fishing, which obviously creates issues on both sides of the lake.  There are about 200 species in the lake that are found nowhere else on the planet, and one of the most famous is the Ohrid trout, which is kind of a mix of trout and salmon.  Lyubtcho also told us that there is an albino trout that lives in deeper water – the lake is almost 300 meters deep at its deepest.  It’s 358 square kilometers in size, and fed by 27 rivers, snow melt, and natural springs.  Interestingly, the lake level hasn’t really changed for over 2000 years.

On the drive we made a brief stop at the Bay of Bones museum, an archaeological complex along the lake’s edge.  The museum is a reconstruction of an old settlement (about 3000 years old), and is intended to give visitors an idea of how people lived way back when.  Excavated remains were found underwater in the late 1990s, as 3000 years ago the lake was lower than it is now, so the settlement was covered by water between 3000 and 2000 years ago.  Based on what was found underwater, people reconstructed the same sort of village above the water.  We saw it only from afar, however, as the museum was closed since it was a Monday.  [Why we didn’t come yesterday, no one explained.]

In the parking lot we saw 4 poi dogs, and ever since we arrived in Berat we’d been seeing an increasingly larger number of stray pups.  Like a couple other places we’ve visited, however, the strays seemed to be fixed and tagged, as many had tags on one of their ears.  Lyubtcho told us that just to the east of Lake Ohrid, over a mountain pass, there is another lake, Lake Prespa, around the same size as Lake Ohrid.  That lake is shared by Albania, Macedonia, and Greece.  [We had no idea we were so close to the Greece border.]  In the middle of Lake Prespa there is a snake island that one can visit – we aren’t sure if we’d be interested.  The region around Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa is known for apple production.  We had seen some cherry and apricot trees already this morning.  As for animal life, apparently there are European Lynx in the area, but they are extremely rare to ever see. 

In a bit of current events, Lyubtcho told us that the day before the North Macedonian President, in her swearing-in ceremony, kept referring to country just as Macedonia, and the Greek Ambassador walked out and Greece issued a public announcement denouncing the actions as “a flagrant violation of the Prespa Agreement.”  Hopefully everything just stays a war of words, and nothing more.  We arrived at St Naum monastery around 10:00.  On the walk from the parking lot, we passed over a small stream from a tiny lake that was emptying into Lake Ohrid – it was very cold and very clear.

Inside the monastery there were some small windows that created very conspicuous beams of light to enter.  The painting inside wasn’t that great, and Lyubtcho told us that the painter was much more of a devout believer than an accomplished painter, and pointed out a “bear” that looked like a dog.  There was more carved wood, but unlike some of the other places we’d seen, the wood here hadn’t been aged long enough and/or treated well enough, and there were wood worms accordingly.  We saw a sarcophagus where you could theoretically hear the heartbeat of a saint by placing your ear against it, but in actuality you would just hear your own heartbeat since the sarcophagus was hollow.  Outside there were several peacocks, including a young albino peacock, the first we could remember having seen.  Near the breakwater there was a sunken rowboat with tons of little fishes around.  The whole area had a good amount of little kids, maybe on some sort of school trip.  We left at 11:15, heading back the way we came. 

We had a group lunch at Dalga, right on the water in Ohrid.  We had a great view, but it was a bit cold and there was some construction noises next door that killed the ambience.  We each got a giant salad, which was big enough for 4 people each.  Then we got some bread and spreads, one of which was garlic spread, one of which was red pepper, and one of which was a combination of was red pepper, carrot, and something else.  Then they brought out zucchini and eggplant, and everyone was shocked.  Then we all got a giant bowl of fish soup.  And for the main course itself, everyone (except Justin) got the Ohrid trout.  Many people were giving hunks of the fish to the many stray cats that were hovering around us.  We got dessert as well, but many people turned it down, as they were already way past stuffed.  The women helped each other out in the WC, as the light in the toilet area didn’t work, so they held the outer door open for each other so that they could see.

After lunch, for the first time on the trip, we had an entire free afternoon.  We walked with Peter to the Church of St John the Theologian, to check out the excellent views.  Then we walked through the forest up to the fortress, only for it to be closed again.  Apparently it is closed on Mondays.  So two of the main tourist attractions in the area – the Bay of Bones and the Fortress – had been open the day before, but we didn’t go there.  We don’t understand why they didn’t take us to them the day before, or at least let us have yesterday afternoon free, and then take us to other stuff today.  It seems like this would have been an easy enough thing for someone at the MIR office to check.

While standing at the front gates of the closed fortress, Joyce and Andy walked up as well, and we shared the news of the closed fortress, and they said the same thing we’d just said.  At this point Crystal and Peter walked for a bit back towards town, then split up.  Crystal walked straight back to the hotel from there, then did her yoga.  Justin walked with Joyce and Andy back down through the forest to make sure they got to the Church of the Theologian without getting lost (as the path wasn’t remotely straight).  In the forest, Joyce mentioned how Bill (her brother, not sure if we already mentioned that) was a huge fan of squirrels, and that they should be on the lookout for some in the forest.  There were no squirrels today, however.  Both Joyce and Andy were big fans of the view above the church, and also the boardwalk leading back into town. 

When Justin got back to the hotel, Crystal was in the middle of yoga.  He drank two bottles of water whilst he offloaded photos onto the computer.  Then he headed off south (the other direction from where we’d walked literally every other time) to Cuba Libre.  Crystal had bad internet so her Hungarian class was cut short, and she joined Justin at Cuba Libre a little before 17:30.  He’d been sitting right out over the water, but he came inside whilst she was walking over, as the waves and wind had picked up.  Justin ordered a Mai Tai, then a Summer in Ohrid (gin, raspberry purée, lemon juice, coconut syrup), and then a Ticket to Havana (dark rum, aperol, pineapple juice, passion fruit purée).  Crystal got two French martinis (vodka, raspberry purée, pineapple juice).  Everything was good, and the view was amazing, even with the dour weather.  We wondered how the place could afford to be so large, however, as there was seating for well over 100 people, and there were as many servers as patrons this afternoon.

Thankfully it was not raining on the walk back, and also the wind had died down a bit.  We chilled in the room for a little bit, then met everyone at 19:45 for a short ride to dinner.  We didn’t catch the name of the place, but it wasn’t far from our hotel, and was kind of off on its own, away from the lake edge.  As was becoming the norm, we received at least double the food we needed.  The table received 3 huge green salads and Greek salads, 3 bread baskets with various spreads, including the garlic spread again, and 3 meat plates with sausages, beef (kind of like burgers), chicken, pork, and fries. 

Towards the end of the meal there were dancers (5 guys and 6 girls), aged 14-17, in traditional dress.  We were told that they have upcoming dance competitions that they are practicing for.  Several of the group danced, but not us.  Several of the group chatted with the dancers afterwards, but not us.  Everyone was very impressed with the maturity of dancers, plus their English.  No one wanted dessert, we were told it would be rude not to get it.  So we ate some, but others didn’t.  While our group has several picky eaters, that did not include the people who had been in the military.  We were back a little before 22:00.  Justin went straight to sleep.  Crystal went downstairs for drink, and the server downstairs was very happy that Crystal had liked the wine from the night before and came back for more.  She went to sleep around 23:00.