2022 in [North] Macedonia (Ohrid)
(land #27) the town with 365 churches
2022-10-08 17:59 // updated 2026-03-19 10:11
October 7, 2022 : the Balkan sightseeing trip brought me from Albania into [North] Macedonia, in the town of Ohrid which has a church for each day of the year:
it went like this:
- crossed the border from Albania into [North] Macedonia
- stopped at a small spot outside Ohrid called Sveti Stefan (St. Stephen) for our guesthouse
- went into downtown Ohrid at a cozy food hall for an evening meal
- also, to see some youth wearing old Macedonian garb click their heels and swing to and fro
we would come back to the same downtown the next morning to see some sights such as:
- Ancient Macedonian Theatre of Ohrid
- Robevci Family House
- white outside walls with dark brown window frames
- Samuel's Fortress
- Church of Hagia Sophia
- Church of Saint John the Theologian at Kaneo
- saw Lake Ohrid gleaming from afar
Ohrid had an Old World feel:
- a break from the worldly landscape of fast food and wayfarer shops
- hints of a way of life before [North] Macedonia became Yugoslavia
- lots of churches (again, one for every day of the year!)
trip markers
- 27th "country"
- 19th "European country"
- 17th "continental European country"
- 5th "former Yugoslavian country" (out of 6)
- after Serbia + Bosnia + Croatia + Montenegro
- have not yet set foot in Slovenia as of this writing
- 7th "Slavic speaking country"
- after Poland + Bulgaria + Serbia + Bosnia + Croatia + Montenegro
- 1st "country where Macedonian is official" (out of 1!)
- 5th "country that writes with the Cyrillic alphabet"
- after Bulgaria + Serbia + Bosnia + Montenegro
- like Bulgaria with Bulgarian, Cyrillic appears as the only alphabet for Macedonian, the language of [North] Macedonia
I write "[North]" because of a name-wrangling that the "world" sought to untangle in 2018; they now call the land "North Macedonia" but the Macedonians themselves don't like saying "north", so I say "[North] Macedonia" as a workaround!