Yesterday morning, I checked out of the hostel in Skopje (and that girl and her travel partner left to, before I did-and went in separate directions as far as I know). Skopje was an interesting city-an old town, yet a showy Las-Vegas, Disneyworld type new-town made to look ancient. That said, there wasn't any particular reason or desire to stay there longer, so I was glad to leave and take the bus to Lake Ohrid.
The ride to Lake Ohrid was about 3 hours on a bus, and was relatively non-eventful. In fact, the bus turned out to be a minibus, with about 12 rows of 3 seats, 2 across the isle from 1 seat in each row. I was sitting in the very front seat, about 8 feet behind the windshield and the exit door. There we're no seatbelts, and after the 2nd hour of the bus ride I was sort of wishing there would be, as the bus went up and down winding roads, and I had to grip the seat in order to not fall forward.
Anyway, after arriving in the town of Lake Ohrid, I walked about 15 minutes, following the directions to the hostel. I checked in without incident, and took a walk around.
Lake Ohrid seems to be a town built on tourism, as there we're all sorts of restaurants and souvenir shops-I had lunch at a hummus/ falafel place and walked down to the huge lake, where you can barely see the mountains on the other side. A boat captain complete with captain's hat tried to sell me a boat ride.
After a short lunch, I walked back to the hostel and took a nap. As far as I could tell, I was the only one in the room in the hostel.
At about 5:30 pm,. I walked back out and explored some of the attractions. I went up to an ancient Orthodox Church, and walked to an old fort at 6:00 pm, which was supposedly built around the 3rd Century. From here, I was able to view the lake at sunset, which was quite beautiful.
I then walked down the hill to the old antique theatre, which is more like an old amphitheatre, which was used for gladiator fighting, and rested there.
Finally I walked back through town and back to the hostel.
