Last Day in Ohrid + Lake Swim

Another solo early morning walk in Ohrid for me today — the same 5km along the lakefront. I saw a man with a dog again that I talked to a couple of days ago. His dog is rather big, even bigger than Sammy! 65kgs of big! After breakfast with Sarah, I repeated part of the same walk with her, and the great news is she felt well enough to do the walk. 

We then took a break for coffee while waiting for a load of washing to finish. Emma happened to be online, so we had a nice catch-up over a WhatsApp video call.

Later, we finally made it to the lake for a swim — something we'd been putting off. I’ll admit, knowing there are snakes in the lake had been a major deterrent for me. Sarah not feeling well had been a convenient excuse to delay it. But today, with no more excuses and the heat climbing, we decided to take the plunge.

To minimize our chances of encountering any snakes, we avoided the local jetty area where we’d seen them before and instead walked 10 minutes to a popular beach spot near town. There were lots of people swimming there, which seemed reassuring. The water turned out to be beautiful — not cold at all, with just a few small waves from boats out on the lake. Being fresh water, it was harder to float, but with the air temperature at 28°C, the swim was perfect. And best of all — no snakes in sight!

For lunch, we ticked off another local "to-try" item: a pastry similar to a sausage roll called Burek. There wasn’t much meat inside, but they were impressively long — about 30 cm — and very tasty. We also tried two croissant-style pastries, one with chocolate and one with apple and cherry. We shared both so we could taste everything. Also very yummy! Just as well we’re getting lots of walking in on this trip if we’re going to keep enjoying these kinds of treats.

The afternoon was a quiet one: reading and trying (unsuccessfully) to find our next accommodation. Jeepers — some places in Europe are expensive!

The Macedonian language and alphabet must be similar to Greek. The signs are very hard to read if not in English. 

Dinner was at the same restaurant we visited a few nights ago. Local food at reasonable, though not exactly cheap, prices. I couldn't face another doner kebab! 😂 We ordered the cucumber and tomato salad again, along with the goulash (this time without the white beans), and tried a new dish called Selsko Meso — a hearty stew of pork, chicken, and mushrooms in a tasty gravy. We had plenty of fresh bread to mop up the sauces. Delicious.

On the walk back to the apartment, we strolled down the main bazaar street. At one point Sarah called me back — “Did you see the girls with the snakes?” I hadn’t, so I turned around... and wow. Each girl had a massive python, they were offering paid photo ops to people. No thank you!

Tomorrow, we catch an early bus — a very early one. It leaves at 5am, so we’ve set the alarm for 3:30am. Yawn. 🥱