ohrid to belgrade

the hiking and physical activity lessened a bit this past week. we started our week of more-relaxation in ohrid, macedonia, spending 3 nights around one of the most beautiful places i've ever been. we arrived on the 3rd, having less than an idea of where we'd be spending the night, and of course it was during the night that we arrived. as luck, or something like that, has found us several times while traveling, a private-room-street-hustler named kate nabbed us immediately off the bus and presented us with a place to stay. we followed her back to the house (private rooms are those connected to a house, sort of like a mini hostel with community shower/kitchen/etc.) and gladly agreed to her taking the task of wondering around a town we don't know off our hands. so the lake; lake ohrid. lake ochrid is a tectonic lake said to be one of the oldest in the world (some 3-4 million years old), is 300+ meters deep at its deepest point, and is so clear that you could drop a (as was told to us) a white dinner plate 25 meters down and still see it -- it really is unbelievably clear. the 2 full days we spent in ohrid weren't doing anything overly exciting; walked around the old city seeing the different historic and non-historic sites, and of course finding the local street cuisine and eating our way from place to place. the one short expedition we did go on was a day-trip to sveti naum monastery. we were told by our hosts that spending time in ohrid and not visiting sveti naum was liking going to paris and not seeing the eiffel tower. after we had walked around the monastery we decided he had never been to paris...

lake ohrid


old town, ohrid

so then on a bus to montenegro we go, or so we thought. the once-a-day train into tirana, albania, which would serve as our connecting point to montenegro didn't exist -- at least at the time we got there. it wasn't a big deal, we just had spend the night in tirana and headed out way early in the morning for a bus to the border city. and it's turns out that tirana is nice -- getting to spend a night there was a good thing.

by this time it's the 7th and we just arrived in budva, montenegro. oh budva -- what a great place; right on the adriatic sea with plenty of warm weather. once again we arrived without a place to stay and without knowing much more than what the lonely planet book had told us. and once again a place to stay found us before we went looking for it -- pat actually predicted that all we needed to do was go to a cafe/coffee shop and someone would offer us a private room. longer story, short: we stopped for a cup of coffee, were offered a room, took the room, and stayed in it 3 nights. budva is quite the touristy place (when it's not the middle-ish of november), luring people with the 'old town' right on the sea and the beaches; both which we indulged in. of the 2-ish days we were there, part of 1 was spending touring the city of kotor (about 30 km north), wondering around the maze-like streets of the old town, and doing no more than relaxing by the water -- and taking a quick swim. the original plan was to leave budva on the 9th and travel north to durmitor, montenegro, but decided we couldn't leave the coastal town after waking up to a perfectly warm and sunny day. so then on to belgrade.

budva, from old town


budva


kotor, from the fortress

we took the overnight on the 9th, arriving the 10th, and will spend a couple days around the city.