Beautiful Little Ohrid

After experiencing the furgon (a small, I-can't-believe-this-is-roadworthy van with no seatbelts, that stopped every 2 minutes while the driver screamed our destination out the window trying to find passengers...and full of smoke and possibly live animals in the back) on our way from Krujë to Tirana, we decided to hire a driver to take us through Albania and across the border into Macedonia. Our destination this day: the beautiful little town of Ohrid.

The 3 hour drive was fascinating - like going back 200 years. Every property had its own vegetable garden and small collection of edible animals: still a country that relies on individual self-sufficiency. The scenery was amazing and hiring a driver was a great move. Not only could we not have imagined negotiating hairpin turns on a cliffside while in a furgon, but often the two lane road became one lane due to the donkeys sunbathing in the middle of it.

Lake Ohrid is the largest and oldest lake in Europe and the town of Ohrid was the perfect place to relax and recharge for a couple of days: wandering the cobblestone streets, eating in pizzerias, and drinking wine in the lakeshore cafés. Ohrid is also dotted with a plethora of old, tiny churches - like this one, the Church of St. John, absolutely gorgeous.