The Breadbasket of the Balkans

small mosque in a feild

we stopped to get water and I saw this butterfly

mountains

the fortress of Czar Samuel in Ohrid. A Bulgarian ruler who ruled macedonia before losing the region to the Turks.

the view from my hotel balcony!

the balconies at the hotel

my balcony

Lake Ohrid

pig I saw on my run

my run

looking down at Ohrid on my run

looking down at our hotel on my run

poppies i saw on my run

I ran by a man walking his goats!

I am going to post some pictures from our 3 hour drive from Skopje Airport to Lake Ohrid. I was amazed with the environmental diversity and extreme beauty of the country. It is so much more than I could have ever expected. At first the scenery looked very Italian. It reminded me so much of Tuscany with fields of sunflowers, orchards and beautiful mud brick homes with red tile roofs.I can see why they are known as the breadbasket of the Balkans here. Along the way I also so corn fields, watermelon fields and lots of red pepper. They make a lovely sauce out of the peppers and tomatoes that they eat all through the winter to get their vitamin C.

As we started to climb into the mountains we saw vineyards and rivers. The vegetation became more lush and it started to look very similar to the mountainous parts of Maine that I have visited. The main difference is that the houses are very large and all made of stone and brick with red tile. There are also mosques everywhere! They are easy to spot since they all have the tall minarets. The Muslim population in Macedonia is about 33%, but since we are very near Albania ther percentage is high in this region.

We have also seen many Orthodox Christian churches. This is the majority religion. We are going to visit some in the next few days with frescoes that are over 1,000 years old. Isn’t that amazing?

The town where we are staying, Lake Ohrid, has been the center of the Macedonian Orthodox church and also was the seat of an archdiocese in Byzantine times whose power extended all the way to Venice in Italy.

The hotel where we are staying is very nice and right on the water. Today I went for my 8 mile AIDS Marathon run in the hills behind the hotel and then went swimming in the lake. I woke up at 5 am to go run to beat the heat. It is very warm here!  Tonight we will have our welcome dinner and some Macedonian folk dancers.