Friends Join Us

Niecy and I were up a bit early this morning, as my host teacher Tanja and her husband, Toni are coming up to join us for the day.  We got all packed up, then headed down to find some breakfast.  I found the coffee, and Niecy got creative and found us some breakfast.  We sat outside in the cool morning air and awaited our friends.  They arrived just after 10:30 and joined us for a cup of coffee.  Tanja saw some friends that she knew, and they joined us as well.  After we finished, we headed back to the apt. to pick up our bags and get checked out.

Toni drove us up a steep hill to park the car, and then continue walking up the path, passing through a lovely part of town, on our way to Plaosnik, the reconstructed St. Clement and St. Panteleimon Church in Ohrid.  What an interesting combination of ruins, and remodeled beauty.  The inside of the church was stunning, and complemented the outside harmoniously.   We walked all around, and then down the hill where we saw a few more churches, and an open air amphitheater.  For the next part of our adventure, we met up with Tanja and Toni's neighbors, Zorica and Strasho, and their daughter

Elle.  They accompanied us around the lake to a special site called The Bay of Bones.  This was an interesting compound where it was  actually a floating museum.  It depicted the housing of a much earlier era.  Each house was complete with fur skins, a bed area, and a stove. One had a bear skin (complete with the head!) that Toni affectionately  snuggled with.  lol.  Again, such interesting history.  The day was definitely beginning to heat up by the time we were walking to our car.  Our next stop was back to the city of Lake Ohrid, and lunch (of course food was going to be next!).  We headed to a Turkish restaurant that was owned by a friend of Strasho and Zorica.  And, what do you know???  It was called ARIZ!  That was just meant to be!  lol.   Here are Niecy and I right under the
sign.  We had a huge meal of roasted chicken, rice, beans, shopsko salad, and, or course, rakia whiskey.  Niecy said she could show me the hair on her chest...  lol (inside family joke...  huh, daddy?)  After the huge meal, we had a dessert of baklava.  An absolutely delicious meal and we are all stuffed.  We walked (waddled) around for quite a while after this, trying to make a little room in our bellies to breath!   Then we were off for home.  On the way through the simply amazing countryside, we stopped at St. John's Monastery, which is possibly the most beautiful church in all of Macedonia.  We timed it perfectly and were able to view part of an Orthodox church service, complete with priests, candles, and the quiet, meaningful prayers and songs that were being chanted.  Didn't get home until about 9 p.m. Extremely tired, but extremely satisfied with my weekend.