Sacred Sunday

Lake Ohrid from abobe the Roman Theater

5th century baptismal and mosiacs

After our meetings on Sunday we departed as a group for a tour of Old Town and the many beautiful churches and historical sites there. We visited the Icon Gallery where we saw a collection of icon paintings that is considered one of the best in the world. Photos were not allowed inside any of the churches which is a shame because I saw some truly amazing things including the largest collection of 11^th century frescoes in the world at St. Sophia. Those paintings are 1,000 years old – wow! Our guide who is an export on frescoes showed us some frescoes that prove that the renaissance style of painting began here in Ohrid 300 years before being seen in Italy. St Sophia, or Cathedral of Divine Wisdom, was the seat of the archbisphoric of Ohrid (part of the catholic church) for several centuries and so the portraits of six popes are found there also.

I returned to the Roman amphitheater in the sunlight and sat on stones where the locals sat 2,000 years ago to watch gladiators and dramas (and for a time also some Christians and lions). Some of the benches are still engraved with the season ticket holders’ names from 2 millennia ago.

Two of the most amazing places we saw where SS Clement and Pantheleimon at Plaoshnik and St. John at Kaneo. Both rest in rocks overlooking the lake. At Plaoshnick there is an archeological dig site as it is the site of a 4^th-5^th century Christian basilica. I saw beautiful mosaic floors and a baptismal from the 5^th century. Ohrid (then Lychanidos) has a very early Christian heritage as the apostle Paul came here and baptized people in the lake.

In the evening we has the special treat to visit another country! We went to a small village called Republika Vecani. This village declared itself independent from the state of Macedonia and even issues it’s own currency. It exists like Vatican City, as a state within a state. There we had an amazing traditional dinner or salted meats, goat cheese, beans, stewed pork and sausage and of course shots of raki and pitchers of wine made by the owner of the restaurant in his cellar. I bought a bottle to bring home and he let me see where he makes it!  It was an amazing night with dancing and love music. On the bus ride home we sang songs together with our Macedonian, Serbian, Russian, Ukrainian and Romanian friends. The shared their songs with us and also sang our songs along with us. We sang a lot of Beatles and 80’s music and also took turns singing our national anthems. It was a perfect day.