sâmbătă, 30 iulie 2011

On the Road. Again. Through Ohrid Lake

Yesterday we spent almost the entire day on the road, having in plan to reach Ohrid early in the afternoon. Well, the map is not always the road, as we well know, and the Bulgarian kilometers are somehow very different of the rest of the world's kilometers. 


And, of course, we stopped several times on the way to take some pics, because you know this became a habit already.




A very tempting sunflower in the fields made us stop despite the lack of sunshine. But wasn't it pretty?




We mistook the road few times trying to find Zemen monastery, but look at this stork nest on a road we had to turn back!




The Zemen Monastery is on a mountain, difficult to reach, but is such a beautiful and quiet place! Was build in XI-th century in Konyavska Mountains, at about one kilometer of Zemen. 




On our way out of Zemen we took a different road, we got terribly scared because we thought we lost ourselves in the mountains (no telefon network, no water, no people for about 15 kilometers) on a terrible road. But, finally, we reached some civilisation, and also this beautiful lake (or should I say swamp), which was not on any map we had. Told ya' about the Bulgarian roads and kilometers, but don't ever trust their maps. And I'm talking about a recent paper map, which I'm very good at reading!




And our final destination for the day, the Lake Ohrid itself, after a very long and difficult drive from Skopje (note: don't ever forget to take the circular road!!! we missed it and had to surpass the city center and some bazaar area). It was one of the most difficult roads we ever went, 118 kilometers in 2 hours of adrenaline. 




But, finally, we reached the lake and the hotel, we get the accomodation and we caught the sunset on the Granit Hotel's beach.




Some information about the lake, according to http://www.exploringmacedonia.com. "Being the largest and most beautiful out of Macedonia’s three tectonic lakes, Lake Ohrid is about 30 kilometers (18 miles) long and round 288 meters (945 feet) deep. While the lake is filled up by water from three rivers, most of Ohrid’s water comes from another lake - Prespa which is located on the other side of Mountain Galicica. With its unique flora and fauna characteristic of the tertiary period (2-4 million years ago), Ohrid is one of Europe’s great biological reserves. Most of the lake’s plant and animal species are endemic and unique to Ohrid. The most famous among these are two types of the Ohrid trout, named letnica and belvica. Other unique Ohrid creatures include two types of eel, and the bleak whose scales are used for making the well-known Ohrid pearl. This treasured jewel is produced according to a secret method which was passed on from generation to generation. Sport fishing attracts many passionate fishermen from Macedonia, Europe and even from the world. In 1980 Lake Ohrid was proclaimed by UNESCO as a locality of the world’s cultural and natural inheritance."



And, the traditional photo shooting, at the sunset. Don't judge us too hard, we just enjoying a lot doing that!








 And, the total sunset, on the terrace...

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