After the scary taxi ride in Bitola and our amazing hike in Pelister National Park, we decided to head for a small friendly village on the other side of Mt Pelister. We found Villa LivaE in Brajchino on Airbnb. What a place! One of the nicest families we have ever met, and they served great food by the foot of the beautiful mountains. Couldn’t be better? Well if we had found the right tracks! But we still enjoyed our hikes, almost stepped on a turtle, and even had time to relax. Unfortunately, we had to change our plans – there was no border crossing to Greece by Lake Prespa. No worries, except for some lost money for the room in Psarades.
We decided to stay in Macedonia, and are glad we did. Lake Prespa is fantastic. Go there, relax, and swim far out in the crystal clear calm waters. In Slivnica we had the most helpful host, Dejan, and wish him the best of luck with his apples. I felt embarrassed not to know the names of my own apples. Note to self – check my apples. Dejan and some helpful guests in Brajchino gave us valuable information about our next destinations in Macedonia.
Ohrid is the most visited place in Macedonia, so we took the bus there. It is not easy to found your way through the old town, but the trouble was soon forgotten when we had our packed lunch by Lake Ohrid. After a well-needed bath, we headed for the huge fortress with the stunning view. Even I, who is terrified of heights (hard to believe when you read about our hikes…), loved it. I can understand why people love Ohrid with all its bars, restaurants, shops, entertainment, etc, but we prefer sleepy villages after a day or two in busy cities. Maybe because we live in the center of Stockholm and have a busy city outside our door most days. We left Ohrid by boat to see as much as possible of the great lake. Both the city and the lake is on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
