Macedonia was one of the biggest surprises on this trip so far. The first city we visited was Ohrid and we loved it!
As we drove into Ohrid, we started seeing lots of mosques. Besides the couple of mosques we saw in Bulgaria, we had only seen Christian (mostly Orthodox) churches during our travels in the region.
To reach our Airbnb apartment, we had to drive through the narrow streets of the old town, which at times felt too narrow to fit our car. But, once we reached our destination and parked the car, we were able to really absorb the beauty of the area.
Lake Ohrid is a gorgeous lake. It is one of Europe’s deepest and oldest lakes. The lake has a unique ecosystem and is home to more than 200 endemic species. Because of this fact, it was especially sad to learn that Albania, which shares the lake with Macedonia, dumps sewage directly into the lake (although we read they’re currently working on a water treatment center). Despite that fact, the lake’s crystal clear water looked pretty clean.
The town of Ohrid is built on a hill. At the top of the hill there is an old fortress, and the town is dotted with lots of churches. At some point, there were 365 churches in Ohrid, earning it the nickname of Jerusalem of the Balkans! Overall, it was very easy to get around the entire town on foot, even with two little kids in tow. In fact, it is best to get around it on foot as you are able to take in the stunning views of the lake while getting lost in its narrow cobblestone streets. The kids loved exploring Ohrid and so did we!
Here are some things we did during our time in Ohird:
- We walked downhill to the waterfront and port area and found an awesome playground for the kids. Next to the playground was a man who rented motorized cars for kids for $1 for 5 minutes. We bought each kid a 5-minute ride and they loved it!
- We woke up early (duh! We have kids!) and walked to the Church of St. John at Kaneo to see the sunrise. This is probably the most-photographed church in Ohrid (and supposedly the most-photographed place in Macedonia) and it’s definitely worth the visit. To get a better view, you can climb up the stairs directly behind the church on the hill. Our kids had a blast playing and climbing around the church grounds. (Pro tip: if you want to have the site to yourself, go in the early morning when only the locals are out. The sunset crowds are much larger!)
- After visiting the church of St. John at Kaneo, we continued going down the hill to the beachfront bars/restaurant area. There is a very nice lake-side walkway and boardwalk that loops you back to the old town. Apparently, you can also take a boat back to town. We chose to walk!
- We walked up to Samuel’s Fortress. The fortress sits on top of the hill behind the town of Ohrid, and it was the seat of the First Bulgarian Empire. The walls of the fortress are in great shape. The kids loved walking on the old walls and climbing up to the towers. We set out to hike the outside perimeter of the castle, but ended up trailblazing through the brush after the trail we started on veered downhill away from the castle. We saw a tortoise once we were off the actual trail, so that was a highlight!
- On our way up to the fortress, we stopped at Plaosnik, an archeological site of an early Christian church, where you can also find the beautiful Church of St. Clement, just below Samuel’s Fortress. The site was a fun one for the kids to explore and run around. Just pay attention to where your kids go and try to stay on the main path. Valentina fell through a wooden board that was rotten when getting on a boardwalk. She was totally fine but just a bit spooked.
- We were about a block away from an ancient Greek ampitheater. The Romans took out the first few rows of seating and turned it into a gladiator arena. It is still in fantastic shape and you can walk all around and up and down it. Joe and the kids had fun pretending to have gladiator fights in the arena section.
- We watched the sunset from a different part of town every evening. Sunsets in Ohrid are not to be missed as the sky and the lake turn a beautiful pink, and you can see lots of cute boats sail by.
- One of the most fun things to do in Ohrid is just walk around the old town, get lost in the narrow alleys and passageways, find commence streets full of stores, and stop at one of the many coffee shops for a snack break. Also, there are a lot of cats everywhere you go, so the kids were always excited to find kitties and were motivated to keep walking by the promise of finding more cats.
- We took a day trip to Sveti Naum Monastery. The monastery is in a big complex with souvenir stands, restaurants and other churches. The site is also where the natural springs that feed Lake Ohrid are. These springs form a small lake that flows into Lake Ohrid. We paid to go on a rowboat on the small lake, and it was a big hit with the kids. We got there early and were the first people on the lake, which was very peaceful and pleasant.
We really enjoyed Ohrid and felt we could have easily spent more days in the area. We consider it to be one of the best hidden gems of our trip thus far. But it apparently is not going to stay hidden for long as tourism to Ohrid has quadrupled over the past four years!
