Day 41
Old Town Ohrid
Sunday, September 29, 2024
Zdravo,
After a perfect day yesterday, the wind was howling this morning. Gusty winds churned the lake into frothy white waves. Those beautiful pictures we took of a perfect mountain lake will have to live in our memory.
Grandma was determined to explore Ohrid's old town with a fine-tooth comb today. No stone was going to be left unturned. Starting with our morning walk to town. Instead of taking our usual route from Eyebee Apartments along Goce Delchev, today we continued up Sts. Cyril and Methodius, up the steps to the Upper City Gate. It was a short but steep walk, the kind of exercise that Grandma enjoys to start her morning with.
We'd heard about the Lake Ohrid Boardwalk, but as yet, we had not seen it. It turns out that as you walk through old town Ohrid, you have to turn left at Ilindenska. This just looks like an alley between two buildings, which is why we had ignored it on our previous walk. Actually, it's a street.
From there, the boardwalk really is a boardwalk. A simple wooden walkway suspended over the water. The boardwalk leads to Potpeš Beach, which appears as if it would be very popular during the height of summer.
Beyond Potpeš, the path moves inland and weaves between houses and restaurants. Once again, it appears to be a private path when it is actually a public street.
Once the path clears the township, it starts to rise quickly towards the Church of Saint John the Theologian. On our first day in Ohrid, we'd walked the path that passes above this church. Today, we walked right to the little church on the cliff.
You might remember that we'd said this was the most photographed church in North Macedonia. Today, the Insta-models were out in force, climbing over and under the walls in an attempt to out-Insta each other with the most daring Insta-vantage-point.
National Workshop for Handmade Paper
We followed the trail away from the Church of Saint John the Theologian, following the coastline around the edge of Old City Park until we found ourselves back at the upper gate of the city wall. From the city gate, we wandered the narrow lanes and alleyways through Old Town Ohrid. This is such a pretty town. The ancient houses are all in immaculate condition.
We knew if we kept heading in a generally downhill direction, and roughly heading towards the sun (towards the South), we'd arrive back at the lakefront. Google Maps was turned off as we happily followed our noses.
It was while wandering through the small shops of Old Town Ohrid that we came across the National Workshop for Handmade Paper. It's a fancy name, but essentially it is just another shop to lure tourists. A very interesting shop, though!
The little workshop makes paper by hand, using traditional methods from the 16th century. There are no power tools in sight. Watery pulp is scooped up using a rectangular sieve and pressed to remove water and to compress the pulp into a sheet of paper. The wet sheets of paper are then hung to dry in the sun. Koro was amazed at how closely this traditional process was to the highly automated processes used in modern paper mills. The basic steps are the same.
Another amusing similarity was that every surface of the workshop was covered in lumps of dried pulp. Just like you'd see in a modern paper mill.
Sitting by the pulp tank was an old Gutenberg printing press. The workshop still uses the Gutenberg press. The shop is filled with pictures and documents for sale. They've all been printed using the Gutenberg press using paper that has been made onsite.
As long-time retailers of stationery products, Grandma and Koro were both fascinated by this little workshop. In their day, these simple tools were at the cutting edge of the sharing of ideas and knowledge throughout the world. They were the tools of the 15th-century information superhighway.
It was not a busy day today, but it was enjoyable.
Love to you all from Grandma & Koro & Buzzy Bee.