Lake Ohrid

November 10^th-12^th, 2026

Researching online, Lake Ohrid seems to be one of the main destinations in North Macedonia.  The bus pulled into the small city of Ohrid after a three-hour ride from Skopje.  The bus driver stopped short of going to the bus station, parked on the side of a main road and just said “Okay, ride is over.”   That suited me fine as it cut my walking time to my accommodation by half!

Hard to see it, but just above the clouds, a little off right from centre, you can see the top of a snow capped mountain.  On the other side of those mountains would be Kosovo, which I briefly visited back in 2010.

They are building a new highway that is not quite open yet, well portions of it are.

There's another section of the unfinished highway.

And yet another section, but I was really trying to capture the autumn colours.

Autumn definitely arrives later here than back where I live in Canada.

I was early for my 2 pm check-in time which made it perfect to find somewhere for lunch, and to make it even better, there was an Irish Pub within a one-minute walk of my place.  It was a cute little spot with a friendly bartender, good music and an okay burger.

I passed this place on the way to the pub.  It looks like expensive travel...but at least it only costs a leg!

The Irish Pub.

I had a few pints of these pales ales.  I do like the logo, but they turned out to be expensive, for this country at least.  300 denars = $7.70 CAD

Like most of the places I’ve stayed on this trip, I just had instructions of where to go, what code to use to enter the main door, where to find the keys for the room etc.  There was a little snafu on this one as my door to my room was locked and it wasn’t supposed to be.  I messaged the place on Booking.com and they told me to try the door marked “Private”, and that was open.  I clued in that my apartment had two entrances, the locked one going to the bedroom and the unlocked door to the living room with a little kitchenette.  It was a nice place with a balcony that had a partial view of the lake.  Sweet.

You might be able to make out the lake just off to the right of center.

Before it got dark in the latter part of the afternoon, I took a little jaunt down to the lake, which was only a 3-4 minute walk away along a pedestrian only street lined with shops primarily selling expensive-looking clothes and jewellery.  The “Old Bazaar Street” was definitely a tourist hotspot as even the tiles lining the road were fancy.

The Old Bazaar Street.

This was North Macedonia's flag from 1992-1995 featuring the ancient Vergina Sun.  Following strong economic and diplomatic objections from Greece, which viewed the Vergina Sun as an exclusive Hellenic cultural heritage symbol, they changed it to the current flag.

I did a double take on this photo, it almost looks like a kite surfing kite, but no, it's a seagull flying by...and of course there's no wind.

An old man was feeding the seagulls by the shore, which sent them into a bit of a frenzy.

Some funny looking red "submarine"...a tourist trap I figured.

The old, historic part of town.

Looking back from a pier.

I had a lazy morning the following day then went for a walk around the historic part of town, where my accommodation was located.  My main goal was to ascend the hill to a castle.

An old VW van which seems to be slowly becoming a flower planter.

Working my way up the hill through to old part of town.

There's my destination, the fortress on the horizon.

This is the upper gate of the fortress.  I'm currently on the inside of the walled city but I went through this gate and then walked around the perimeter of the fortress before entering it.

Looking north towards the city.

That's an impressively tall turret.

Samuel’s Fortress was built around the 4^th century BC, but recent it was heavily restored in 2003 with the addition of entirely new battlements where none had survived.  It was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire during the rule of Tsar Samuel at the turn of the 11th century, hence its name.   I walked around the walls, enjoying the views of the lake and the city.

It wouldn't have been easy to hit an attacker with an arrow through this slit.

Standing on the top of one of the taller turrets.

Not a bad view.

It was a very calm day on the lake.

It looked like a church down there, and I figured that I'd likely check it out...and I did.

Enjoying the views from up on the wall.

Gotta love me some crenulations!

Looking into the interior of the fortress.

That looks like a deep cistern in a side section of the castle.

The sprawling city of Ohrid...supposedly only about 50,000.

Sorry, I just couldn't get enough of the crenulations!

Scanning the area from the wall.

Leaving the fortress, I ambled down a different path and ran into a couple of Americans who were on my bus yesterday.  I spoke with one guy while we were pulled over at a rest stop.  He was originally from Alaska but was now living in Denmark since he was dating a woman from there.  He and his buddy had travelled through Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo and now North Macedonia.  All that in only a few weeks so they must have been moving quickly.  We chatted briefly and went on our ways.  They had just come from the church I had seen from the fortress.  I figured I’d go and check out while they were on their way up to the fortress.  I asked them what the church was like and they said that they’d only spent about fifteen minutes there…I knew I’d probably be quicker than that.

A little forest near the fortress.

Getting closer to the church.

Like the fortress, it cost 150 denars ($4 CAD) to enter The Church of Saints Clement and Panteleimon.  At the ticket booth there was a woman trying to sell a booklet about the church and she mentioned that she was a professional photographer.  Yeah, no thanks.

The outside was nice.

This tomb, of some priest I gather, you can see his picture behind the cross of the tomb, had only just died a few years ago.

Entering the small Byzantine church, I did notice a sign saying no photographs, but I couldn’t help but snap a few sneaky ones.

Here's a better photo that I found online.

After my 3-4 minute stay in the church and taking a few pictures outside, I set course for one more church, the Church of Saint Sophia (or Hagia Sophia…but not to be confused with the massive church near the Blue Mosque in Istanbul).  The church is one of the most important monuments of North Macedonia, housing architecture and art from the Middle Ages.

I came down these steps, but I couldn't help but look back up at the middle ramp.  You'd have to have some skills on a scooter to navigate that.

Hmm...should I try tandem paragliding?  No, that's crazy shit!

The oldest church in town.

There were signs on the lawn stating "Do not pick up the turtles".  That got me excited...but I couldn't spot any.

Once again, the entrance fee was 150 denars, and I spent maybe close to 8-10 minutes inside this one!  The walls had faded murals that must have been hundreds and hundreds of years old…maybe even a thousand.

The other end of the church.

Okay, one castle and two churches, that’s a good quota for the day.  It was mid afternoon and it was time to find a place for a snack.  I walked along the boardwalk by the lake and decided to try the other Irish Pub in town (can you tell I’m not very interested in the local food?  It just doesn’t look terribly appetizing).

Just leaving the walled part of the old town.

It was a nice lakefront promenade.

Looking back towards the old part of town.

The next day, my last full day in Ohrid, it was windy and overcast so I decided to hang out in my apartment for a good portion of the day, catch up on some blogging and then went out for a late lunch.  I have an early travel day starting with a bus to Tirana at 8 am, transiting across Albania’s capital to another bus terminal to then head to the small city of Berat.