There is a downside to staying in a hotel close to a mosque, in a room that doesn’t have a plug low enough to plug a kettle in.
It was 4 AM, when the mosque started up again.We started laughing and gave up trying to sleep.

The internet at the hotel wasn’t cooperating yesterday, so I was frantically downloading the photos for yesterday’s post while most people were off the internet. Meanwhile, Sandy REALLY wanted a coffee.

What could she do?

There’s always a way around everything!

This country is officially called North Macedonia, but everyone drops the first word. The reason ‘North’ is there at all is that Greece has a region called Macedonia, where Alexander the Great came from. So when Yugoslavia fell, they objected strenuously against Macedonia being used. In order to get into the United Nations, a compromise had to be found.

Though a few years ago, just to rile the Greeks, Macedonia put up a statue of Alexander the Great.

Classic trolling.

The plan for today was a free morning, grabbing lunch before jumping on the bus for a few hours drive to Ohrid. Sandy was googling and planning while I was blogging, so our morning was productive.

Here is the Alexander the Great statue, with Blogless Sandy helpfully standing at the bottom to give it scale.

Skopje is a city that likes a sculpture. Our bus driver is from here. As we were driving in yesterday, Jake said, “Our driver doesn’t have a statue of himself in the city… yet. Just give it two or three years and he will have!”

There was also a replica of the Arc de Triomphe, like in Pyongyang.

Here we are posing on the Bridge of Civilisation, which has lots of ancient Greek guys on it.

My jeans are rolled up to try and stop them getting wet. I gambled that the rain wouldn’t come, and although it was spitting, the rain held off. As I’m wearing merino again on this trip, that made me happy. Smelling like a wet sheep isn’t great.

We’ve noticed many stray dogs here. They appear to be well fed, which is surprising, given that this country is heavily Muslim. I remember in Zanzibar that dogs were never to be seen.

It was nice to see this kennel.

The Art Bridge is way famous. It’s lined with artistic Macedonian guys from all branches of the creative arts.

Unfortunately, some of the plaques have come off. I don’t know who this man is, but even as a statue his gaze sees right through you.

This one was cool. Swishing his arms around like that.

Action shot.

Zoom in on his little pointy shoes!

Meanwhile, the artistic women were chucked up on top of a building…

Mother Teresa was born here. There’s a Mother Teresa House here, but I’m not terribly interested in a woman who denied medicines and pain killers to sick people because it was god’s will that they should suffer. These quotes are all you’re going to get, I’m afraid.

The ancient fort was built in the 6th century. From the outside it gives Tower of London vibes, with the old stone walls within a bustling modern city. I didn’t go inside. By all accounts it hasn’t been well looked after, so it’s not worth seeing.
I’m sure when they get sick of making statues – or they run out of room – they’ll get around to some restoration work here.

On the way back to the hotel, we bumped into Jake leading many of the group down to see the sights.

We were glad that we chose to see the city while it was uncrowded. I’m finishing this up while lying on my bed. I’ll have a short Power Nap before we check out and move onto the next town.

It was my turn for the window seat. It was a shame that I was so sleepy after our early morning call to prayer.

We drove over the mountains and they were wreathed in cloud. We stopped halfway for a toilet stop, and when we headed off again, practically the whole bus fell into deep sleep. I know I did. I was dreaming, and a couple of times I surfaced, realising that my mouth was wide open, which is a sure sign that you’ve been sleeping sitting up.

When Jake woke us all up, the sun was shining and we were 10 minutes away from the ancient city of Ohrid.

This place is a popular tourist destination for the area, with plenty of people from Serbia, Albania and Turkey wandering around. It was a Saturday, and I imagine in high season it must get packed.

This statue is a celebration of the activity they do here on the 19th January. Epiphany- the baptism of Jesus.

A bishop drops a wooden cross in the freezing water. Over a thousand young people jump in after it. The one who gets it will be lucky forever.

We began our walk into the old city at the waterfront, then moved up the hill, heading for the amphitheatre.

Along the way was the church of St Sofia. This one has a fantastic story.

St Sofia was originally built in the 11th century, but before this, there are ruins showing that 3 Christian churches were also on this site.

Underneath those ruins, there are the ruins of pagan temples. This has always been considered a holy place.

It’s famous for its fresco paintings. These originate from the 11th and 14th centuries.

The Ottoman Empire changed the church into a mosque. Rather than demolish the church, they covered the frescos with white plaster, because mosques always have plain white walls.

It remained that way until after WWII.

An international team saved 60% of the frescos. Can you imagine how carefully they must have worked, chipping away at that plaster??

I really wanted to see those frescoes.

We were heading off, so I raced down to the door and snapped this. It was a tantalising sight, but I couldn’t linger. It was off up the hill again.

There are many pearl shops here. Our guide explained that these are hand made. They take a granule of mother-of-pearl, then coat it in many layers of a compound they make from fish gills. Each layer takes 45 minutes to day before they can add another one.

There are over 100 churches in the Old Town alone. This why this town is known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans. This is one of the smaller ones, built in the late 19th century and consecrated to Saint Barbara.

Wood fires…

… and an Hellenic amphitheatre. This pre-dates the Romans.It was built in the 3rd century BC by the Greeks.

When the Romans came, they kept it and used it for gladiatorial games.

When the Slavs arrived, they used it for public executions.

It was deliberately covered by the traumatised population and was forgotten about for centuries, until it was rediscovered in the 1970’s.

The original stones are below. The seats are new.

Church of Saint Jovan the Theologian at Kaneo. This, according to the local guide, is the biggest tourist attraction in the city. To be honest, I’m not sure why.

I would have thought that the thousand year old frescoes in St Sofia would draw the crowds. The views of the lake outside the church are very pretty, though.

On the way back down, we passed this stray dog. The strays here are beautifully mannered and are cared for by the community. When stray dogs are collected, instead of being euthanised, they are sterilised. That’s what the tag on its ear signifies.

When we got down to the harbour, I had great news. Instead of taking us straight back to the hotel 4 kms away, we were staying in town for 90 minutes for dinner and exploring.
I couldn’t see the frescoes after all! Blogless Sandy and I didn’t waste a minute.

Imagine being hidden for so long?

I took a video, but it wouldn’t upload no matter how many times I tried,,, and I tried a lot of times.

I guess you’ll simply have to go there yourself,

Then it was dinner on the waterfront, with a beer for Blogless Sandy and a pink gin and tonic for me, because that’s how we roll.

in a place like this, dinner by the water is practically mandatory, isn’t it?

Dad joke of the day: