Visit to Ohrid

A couple of of weeks ago, I traveled five hours to the other side of the country to visit some colleagues in the city of Ohrid (pronounced Ocrid.)  I arrive after dark, so did not see much of the city, but when I walked out of my host's apartment  the next morning, I was overwhelmed by the sight of of the lake.  Ohrid is known as a vacation town  and even in November it was  warm  and beautiful.  I had not know how much I missed seeing a large body of water.  

First day we took it easy.  Star, a long standing nickname, and I went to her office at St Paul the  Apostle University where she posted exam grades.  My office is not decorated nearly as nicely.

Then we went to the market.  This street obviously caters to tourist rather than the locals.  The pavement is marble, which looks nice, but is treacherous when it rains.  I bought some post cards in a shop that knows how to treat non-Macedonians.  They spoke English, asked if I would like stamps to go with the cards and indicated that I could mail them in a box right outside the shop. I was impressed.  I also bought a pair of purple slippers to ward off the chill of a drafty apartment. (Though I do have heat now.)

The next day we went around the lake to see St John the  Theologian church.  It was built in the 12th century.  The pamphlet I bought tells the tale of a miracle done by the church's namesake when he first visited the area. The interior has a number of very old icons painted on the walls.  The one below is on the ceiling and is the only one from the 12th century.  To see others, click here. (They are copyrighted so, I did not want to use them directly.  I was not allowed to take pictures inside the church.  This photo  is from a free image web site.)                                     

From there we climbed  and climbed and climbed to the top of the mountain or hill, depending on how in shape you are. (It wasn't that bad, but I haven't been riding the bike much lately.)  At the top we came upon an excavation site of an old monastery.  Here you can see the cells that the monks slept in.






This church was also on the site.  I think you had to pay to go in, so we decided to just look at the outside.

 On the way down to the city center, we visited a paper museum.  They made paper out of very finely shredded wood, adding herbs and such for color.  They also had a replica of the Gutenberg press that they used to print various things such as pages from the original Cyrillic Bible.  It was very interesting.

In town we saw this statue of St Naum.  I am not sure what he did, but the town is full of commemoration of religious figures.  I was told they have 365 churches.  Amazing for a town the size of Janesville, Wisconsin.  Then we found a restaurant by the side of the lake, ate local pizza (not very good) and watched the swans glide over the crystal clear water.

The next day I retraced my bus trip to Stip, ready for a week of classes.

More uses for that cord of wood

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the use of wood for heating the houses in Stip.  It is even used for rather large apartment blocks.  In fact I have seen that supplying this wood is quite a cottage industry at this time of year.  A load of logs are delivered and stacked.  A couple of days later, a car pulls up pulling a a portable radial saw and the men go to work cutting the logs into split-able lengths.

These are then split and stacked.  A man spend a day and a half splitting wood for the neighbor's apartment.  They will be quite cozy this winter.  I think we have enough for the winter as well, though none has been burnt for heat yet.  And it is quite cold in the apartment since it is in the 20's at night and only in the 50's during the day.

But I have discovered a couple of other uses for this wood. In the fall, cauldrons steamed as wood was added to keep them hot.  They contained red peppers that were cooked within an inch of their lives to make a local condiment, ivers. The process is a social activity.  The women takes turns stirring while others sit and chat.

The final results is a red paste that, because of the long cooking process, has very little nutrition value, but it tastes good on bread or as a sandwich spread.

                                                         I eat it on eggs.

The other day, I smelled wood burning and went to investigate.  The landlord's father was out back 

feeding wood into this contraption

:

Which is exactly what it looks like, a still.  He was making raki, moonshine from grapes.  I was told it was legal because it was for personal consumption, but if I understood my landlord properly, it was 50% alcohol.  The older gentleman drinks it when he goes hunting, according to his son.  I said that is what they do in Wisconsin as well.  They say they are going hunting and they play poker, drink beer and maybe get a deer.  But Goran's father only hunts rabbits and the season is a month or two.  I'm surprised he can hit anything as small as a rabbit after drinking this stuff.

So, I hope some of the wood is used to heat the apartment soon so I can take off some of the three or four  layers of clothes I have on.