Rain Day

As predicted, the following day the weather turned. Our guide, Danijela, had previously opined that she’d never visited Lake Ohrid without it raining – it has its own microclimate. We waited for the rain to stop, and in a brief lull headed out to do some shopping. Nicola was after some of the famous Ohrid Pearls, and, ignoring the blandishments of the two old-established jewellers, found some to her liking in another shop.

We lunched on pizza and Macedonian salad (a staple in these parts), then continued on around the coastal path to find the church of St Jovan, or “John” as we know him; also the John who wrote the Book of Revelation. For the princely sum of MKD300 we could have looked inside, but there’s not actually much to see, and we didn’t have any MKD. The rain was settling in for the afternoon by this point, so we trudged damply back to our hotel to dry out, and await this evening’s entertainment: a dinner in the oldest restaurant in Lake Ohrid, appropriately named Antiko. 

St Jovan's Church

 Lake Ohrid is famed for its trout. So much so, they were overfished, and these days are protected so it's illegal to fish for them in the lake; these days they're all farmed. They're the speciality of the restaurant, so we had some. It was delicious. The restaurant is decorated in the antique style, but in fact only dates back to 1988. Nevertheless, we enjoyed it, with some Macedonian wine to wash it down. Tomorrow, we head to a new country!