Blog-aria: Tales of a Semester in Blagoevgrad: The Second Oldest Lake in the World

Ahh, so I know that it's been a long time since I've last posted. In my defense, last week was incredibly busy and all of my free time was consumed with writing a research paper for my environmental science class. I barely finished in time, but I eventually did get it completed.

So this post will require some backtracking. Namely, to the weekend before last when I travelled to Ohrid, Macedonia. Ohrid is actually the only place I've travelled to so far this semester whose existence I was unaware of prior to coming to Bulgaria. I had never heard of Ohrid until coming here, but early in the semester I learned about it from a number of people.

View of Ohrid from our hostel balcony

Lake Ohrid is situated on the border of Macedonia and Albania and is (as the title of this post implies) the second oldest lake in the world. But more on that later...

We had talked about going to Ohrid, but the plans were sidelined when I got strep throat. I had just started to feel better on Wednesday and on Thursday evening we decided to go ahead and go to Ohrid. Since it was so spur of the moment, I didn't pack until Friday morning at dawn, which had some interesting results (I forgot my camera, packed almost only summer clothes, and brought no makeup with me). But there's something so special about last-minute travel decisions; it makes you feel like the world is just there, at your fingertips, and you can explore it on a whim.

Lake Ohrid

Only Abby, Kyle, and I went this time, so we split a taxi to Sofia and caught a 9:30 bus to Skopje (in Macedonia). The Macedonia/Bulgaria border is interesting; smuggling is a big concern, so everyone has to get off of the bus and they check everyone's luggage and search the bus. I can only imagine what they thought when they went through my backpack and saw my seasonally inappropriate wardrobe. They were particularly suspicious of Kyle. An English-speaking Bulgarian man sitting near us on the bus told me and Abby that it was because the dogs were barking, which meant that they smelled weed and that Kyle looked like he was a druggie (I'm paraphrasing here). But they didn't give him too much trouble.

Street leading to hostel

After getting to Skopje, we caught another bus to Ohrid. We got to Ohrid around 5 pm (6pm Blago time), so it was somewhat of a long journey, but worth it. We found our hostel with the help of a local, since was tucked up in the old part of town amidst some winding (and barely labelled) cobblestone streets. We walked along the main pedestrian street in town, which leads right up to the edge of the lake. We manage to watch the sunset along the lake before having a dinner at a restaurant by the water (I had a lovely fish soup and a red pepper dish, pindzur). Midway through our meal, a quartet of musicians started playing, but rather than the traditional music that one would expect (given the atmosphere of the restaurant), it was a Beatles medley. After dinner we walked along the path by the water for awhile. We went back to the hostel pretty early because we were tired from a late night the night before and the long bus ride.

Making my wish

The next morning, we got up early. We walked along the water in the opposite direction as the night before, which led us to a little boardwalk/pedestrian path thing that was actually over the water. There was a little area with each of the zodiac signs on the railing, and a sign saying to put your hand on your sign, make a wish, and toss a coin into the water. So we happily followed instructions. We walked almost all the way to this church on a cliff, but then we turned back to go back to town. We had to meet our "captain" at 10:45 to take a boat ride. The "captain" was a friend of the hostel who led people on boat rides for cheap prices.

Our boat

We, along with 3 other backpackers from the hostel, boarded the vessel, which turned out to be a very small boat with a weak motor. We had to keep the weight balanced on either side of the boat (there were benches along the port and starboard sides) and any sudden movements could have easily capsized it. Our aged captain turned out to be very entertaining and knowledgeable. He would frequently turn the motor off and just let the boat sit in the water while he told us the history of the lake, the town, the Macedonian people, and his own life. So the following facts are what he told us, with no attempted confirmation on my part: Lake Ohrid is the second-oldest lake in the world, after Lake Baikal in Russia. Ohrid is between 4 and 4.5 million years old. There are 17 species of fish. Ohrid (the town) is the oldest uninterrupted site of civilization in the world.

The captain

He also talked extensively about Saint Clement, the patron saint of Ohrid and one of the pupils of Saints Cyril and Methodius (inventors of the cyrillic alphabet). He told us his personal philosophy, his views on animals, his disdain for Greeks and Bulgarians (for claiming Macedonian national heroes as their own), his fashion preferences (white suit), and his local claim to fame (dance moves). He also pointed out various landmarks on the shore to us. After the boat ride, we climbed up to the church on the cliff (St. John at Kaneo), which had stunning views of the lake and surrounding mountains. After taking a break for lunch right on the shore, we visited St. Clement's Cathedral and the surrounding area, ruins of a university run by St. Clement (undergoing some excavation). We climbed further and went to a fortress constructed by Filip, the father of Alexander the Great (or Alexander the Macedonian, as he is referred to there). We climbed on the fortress walls for more beautiful views of the lake and town.

Abby and I by the cliff near St. John's Church

Afterwards we went and hung out at the ruins of an ancient amphitheater. It was less impressive than the one we saw in Plovdiv, but it was the perfect site for a mid-afternoon doze in the sun. While we were sitting there, a woman and man walked by. The woman doubled back and warned us (in perfect English): "Be careful. The sun is very strong and you're all already red." After the ominous warning, we walked back down to the pedestrian street and got some gelato. Abby bought some jewelry and Kyle bought a Macedonian flag sticker before we went back to the hostel to drop our stuff off and figure out buses for the next day. Looking in the mirror, we were all pretty sunburnt, particularly Kyle's face and my decolletage.

Sunset and sunburn

Worn out from a long day outside, we had a low-key dinner and went to sleep early. Plus, we had to wake up at 4 am to catch our 5 am bus to Skopje. That bus was followed by another to Sofia and one last one to Blago. By the time I was back to my room, it was 5 pm. As I said, it was a lot of traveling time, but the lake was absolutely beautiful. The water was so clear, and the weather was sunny during the day and chilly at night (perfect).

Last week at AUBG was overwhelmingly busy. Referred to as the Amazing Week at AUBG, it would take forever to go through everything in depth, so here's a glimpse: It featured More Honors (which is sort of like the Oscars for AUBG, if the awards given out were more like the superlatives in high school). All of the categories were entertaining, and each one had a video clip that preceded the list of nominees. The videos were hilarious and very well-made. In addition to More Honors, it was also the last week of beer pong (each week the school holds a beer pong tournament). We lost in the first round (a typical performance). Also, there was a fancy/dressy cocktail party called JMC Rocks, which honors the Journalism/Media/Communications students here. The whole weekend was Alumni Weekend, which included a student/alumni challenge on Saturday. Sunday was the AUBG Olympics, sort of a field day event with all sorts of different competitions, including tennis, swimming, tug-of-war, soccer, and arm wrestling. On top of all this, our Turkish friends hosted an informal "Turkish Night" for a small group of us Americans where they prepared different Turkish food and drinks for us and played Turkish music.

So basically, the week was jam-packed with festivities, barbecues on the lawn outside of the dorms, and various off-campus events. In the midst of this I somehow managed to write my entire Environmental Science paper without missing out on too much of the fun.

Now tonight I leave for Istanbul, where I'll be staying from Friday morning until Monday night (classes are cancelled Monday for Easter). I have two papers due next Wednesday, but then I'm done with classes for the semester next Thursday. We might try to go to the Black Sea coast the weekend before finals, but I'll definitely be going to Italy after the semester ends. I booked a flight to Milan last night with Abby. Right now, our tentative plans include Cinque Terre, Florence, Naples, Sorrento, Capri, and finally, Rome.

I'll be back in the U.S. in less than a month! Time is flying by, but there's still a lot of traveling ahead of me.

Some more pictures: