POSTCARD FROM | CABANA TRAVEL | CABANA MAGAZINE
Surrounded by mountains and straddling both North Macedonia and Albania, peaceful Lake Ohrid is dotted with fishing boats, while babas in bright head scarfs prepare homegrown feasts in villages nearby. Oliver Maclennan shares a postcard from North Macedonia, a fascinating, craft-rich country with a complicated history.
BY OLIVER MACLENNAN | CABANA TRAVEL | 2 AUGUST 2024
On Sunday mornings in the village of Radozhda - and elsewhere across all North Macedonia - it is normal to find families in the cemetery. During the long hot summers, these gatherings begin early around daybreak, and, as you might expect, there’s a mixture of people and emotions. Seated on benches - as if around a dining table - a family is eating breakfast and drinking coffee, as they cheerfully remember their loved ones. Meanwhile, inside the small but pretty church, for 20 denar you can buy a bundle of long thin candles made of beeswax, wrapped in twists of old newspaper, and offer up prayers to the dead. By 8:45am, the place is empty.
The only sign of life is down below, on Lake Ohrid, which, surrounded by mountains, straddles both North Macedonia and Albania. It’s peaceful here, with fishing boats puttering across the water. But it wasn’t always this way. After WW2, when Albania was a dictatorship, if your boat went too far, crossing the border, there was a very real risk of being shot. More recently, the country added ‘North’ to its name, to differentiate it from its namesake in Greece, owing to longstanding tensions.
This in itself points to a long and complicated history, and one man in particular - Alexander the Great. Born in Pella in Greece, his empire incorporated what is now North Macedonia, and he’s an important local symbol and hero, much to the chagrin of Greece. I’m travelling with my sister and her family, and all of that couldn’t be further from our minds. Time moves on. Though slower in some places than others.
In Mali Vlaj, a village high up in the mountains, a baba, wearing a bright green headscarf, invites the four of us into her home. She puts on a spread, including cucumbers and tomatoes from her garden, along with cheese, coffee and rakia. When my 12 year-old niece politely refuses, the baba is shocked - and pours her one any-way. As can be seen across Europe and elsewhere, the young people have moved to the cities - of-ten abroad - and villages like Mali Vlaj get left behind.
For those looking for something less rugged, there are numerous small towns and attractions, located predominantly on the east side of the lake. Vevchani, for example, with cool natural springs that bring a freshness to the village, and help power an old mill grinding linseed; or Sveti Naum, a 13th century monastery on top of a cliff, close to the border with Albania. Here also there are springs - and young men in rowing boats to escort you. Bubbling up through the sand, the water is bluish and clear, and there are birds and damselflies, but few fish - although trout lay their eggs here in August. No matter. There is plenty of fish in the restaurants, which overlook the lake. And, most important of all, plenty of time to enjoy it.
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