Macedonia

                        There are all kinds of vehicles on the road, this guy is harvesting something.    

Tobacco is one of the main crops that is being grown, Prilep is the tobacco capital of Macedonia.

On a back road we came across some gypsy loggers.  Thier logging trucks were old Ladas with no back seat, filled to the brim and no trunk lid...Ken calls them a mini Mac.

An old church located on a rocky knoll had a wonderful view of Lake Ohrid.

What a cute face, and all dressed up and no place to go!

Unbelieveable, we met Denis and Jasmine,from the Netherlands, at the Fort in Ohrid., As it turns out they were
freinds of our good friends in Peachland, Neil and Jill and they were also friends of a nice Dutch couple we spent time with in Turkey, who were also from Netherlands.  What a small world!

Beautiful Lake Ohrid, waterfront with the city and fort in the background.

We came into  Macedonia with our eyes wide open, we really hadn't heard too much about it and didn't know what to expect.  Right away, we found the people very helpful and friendly.  First thing we headed for the hills and went over a high pass, shortly after we stopped for lunch and met George, a guy who spoke English and was more than happy to give us a few tips on what we should see in Macedonia.   One of his suggestions was a road on our map that looked to be a main road, as it turned out it was gravel and we thought we were lost and would have turned around if our GPS hadn't kept us going.  The road and the view ended up being a highlight.  When we made it to Prilep we stayed at a hotel with a pleasant host who had spent time studing in Sweden and Greece, and spoke perfect English...it worked for us.

From Pricep it was off to Lake Ohrid, where again we found a very friendly host at a pension...we ended up staying 3days enjoying the city sights and relaxing.  It is one of the largest lakes in Europe and it was unbelievable the number of pensions, hotels and restuarants in the city.  Pension owners chased you down on foot, bicycle, or scooter.  Tourist season was mostly over already so we had our choice of many places.  Ohrid is located on a lake 360 meters deep and is situated in the corner of Macedonia, Albania and Greece.  A fort overlooks the city and lake, which has a rare species of trout.

Macedonia, was short and sweet, as was the border leaving it, into Albania.