October 2, 2017
One of two bridges filled with statues of people important to Skopje.
A gypsy posed for me on my morning walk on the bridges.
Decorated Mosque in Tetovo from 1439. Built by two sisters. Paintings date from the 19th century. Very colorful mosque.
Inside the Decorated Mosque. Even more decoration and color. Very unusual.
We stopped in the town of Tetova an hour out of Skopje to see the “decorated Mosque”. A very unusual mosque in mint condition. We enjoyed looking at it with the 1970 colorfully restored painting everywhere.
After another couple of hours driving through hills and valley, we came to Lake Ohrid and the city of Ohrid, where we stayed at a hotel across the street from the lake. It is considered the most beautiful city in Macedonia and is certainly most charming and pleasant to be near the crystal clear water. We compared it very closely to Lake Tahoe. It is 22×10 miles (Tahoe is 22×12), 74 miles around (Tahoe is 71), the clarity is 66 feet (Tahoe is 70) and both lakes have one main outlet. The big differences are that it is at 2274 feet in elevation (Tahoe is 6200 feet) and it is 5 million years old (Tahoe is 2 million year old). The residence time of a drop of water in Tahoe is 650 years and in Lake Ohrid it is only 70 years. We were really impressed with the clarity of the water.
The pedestrian pathway on Lake Ohrid.
The narrow cobble stone road up to the fortress. Traditional medieval houses.
After lunch we drove to the top of the old city Fortress and walked down to town. The old walls were impressive as they made nearly a complete circle. The view from there was quite pleasing. Tzar Samuel built the Fortress in the 11th century and it is no wonder he enjoyed living there for 30 years. Having won a number of battles against the Byzantines and been mean to them and his own citizens, he eventually made the Byzantine’s so angry that, after winning the “Battle on the Mountain” in eastern Macedonia, they blinded 14,000 of Samuil’s troops, except for one eye in every 100 soldiers, so the one eyed man could lead the rest home. Samuil was so distressed that he died of a heart attack. Pretty gruesome tale.
Many people live in the houses on the old road to the fortress.
The 11th century Tzar Samuil Fortress. He built and occupied the fortress for 30 years when the Byzantine succeeded in wining a battle against his troops in eastern Macedonia and sent 14,000 of his soldiers home blind. Samuel died of a heart attack. The fortress was never reoccupied by the Byzantines, but was later, by the Ottomen’s.
View of Ohrid from the 11th century Fortress.
St Sofia Cathedral. Built in early 11th century before the church split in 1056.
We descended the hill a couple hundred feet and came upon the 9th century St Clement Church. Clement built the church and died there early in the 10th century. He is the patron Saint of Ohrid. The paintings we saw were original 11th century frescos. When the Ottoman’s conquered the Balkans in the 15oo’s, they white washed many churches and turned them into mosques. This was no exception. The result was that when restorers began their work in 1970, they were able to uncover the original frescos. Beautiful to see the original colors. Again we had to sneak to get a couple of photos. Mark got the best one.
Another aspect of Balkens that is important has to do with the alphabet. Prior to the 9th century, the Balken peoples had used the Greek alphabet. In 905, St Naum and St Clement were students of St Cyril and his brother St Methodius, who together had created the Glagolic alphabet. Later St Clement, created the Cyrillic alphabet, which was shorter and easier to use than Glagolic, which had 50 letters, while Cyrillic has 33 letters. Today it is still used in Macedonia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Serbia and a small part of Bosnia. Clement also founded Preslav Literary School, the first university in south eastern Europe in Ohrid.
A little further down the hill and we came upon 11th century St Sofia Cathedral. Restored in the 14th century, it too was white washed by the Ottoman’s and 60% restored in 1970. As it was built prior to the 1055 schism in the church, there are frescos of several popes in the building.
11th century frescos in St Sofia Cathedral. The Ottomans used the church as a mosque for 500 years. In 1970 the restoration began and the frescos, including those of several popes, came to light.
St Clement, the patron of Ohrid, holding the city in his hand.
Finally, we reached the bottom of the hill and entered the public square where we found a statue of St Clement. It was s short walk from there to our hotel, the Villa Dea. We enjoyed the location of our room and sat on the balcony until nearly dark. Then we walked to a local cafe for a nice meal of lake trout. It was nice to have a pleasant evening out.
View from our deck at the Villa Dea on Lake Ohrid, Macedonia. Me in my new, warm sweater.
Albania is mostly atheist, according to Elvis. The Albanian dictator, Enver Hoxha, who ruled from 1945 – 1985 declared Albania as the first atheist country in the world in 1967. He destroyed 2000 religious buildings, killed 7,000 people and imprisoned 40,000 others. In 1991 the law changed. Now religion is allowed and people are free to worship as they please, however religion is not taught in public schools and muslim women are not allowed to be covered in public schools. There are 4 religions currently practiced in Albania: Orthodox Christian, Sunni Muslim, Catholic and Bektashi, a muslim sect.
Albanians pay a flat tax of 10%. They get free education through high school, and free health care.
More later.
Adventures with Julia 