Macedonia, a lake and a fake (city)

Crossing the border on foot !

From Tirana, we went in minibus to Pogradec, and dealt with the driver to be dropped at the border, outside the city. From there, we walked our way through the no man land's (very quick, 10 min max, see below the macedonian monastery on the left in the sun and the building a little on the right of the center of the central hill). 

After crossing the macedonian border, we hitchhiked to be dropped at the monastery. It's very near but as there is a military zone between border and monastery, you have to walk 5km or so to get there...

the monastery, located in a very quite place and full of peacocks and other animals

With our science of perfect AND improvized timing, we had time to visit the monastery, sip a beer in a bar and take a boat going to Struga and Ohrid. (a bit long, more than 2 hours !)

We really deserved the famous trout (not from the lake as it's now forbidden)

it's a very nice little town full of traditional houses...

...churches...

Our host suggested a guide for 35 euros to get to 2 villages in taxi for the morning.

springs, nature and an old car... what else to ask ???

We headed to Skopje for our final step of our Balkan trip !

 Macedonia in a pic : the flag, the statue of Alexander the Great that didn't lived there, the Catholic cross and brand new statues and bridge...

Skopje is largely uninteresting, with lots of "brand new soon to look old" buildings, covered with statues, fake columns... the most absurd being those 3 fake pirate boats in front of the main city buidlings...

 and quite a big fail for this one, if you look at what the guy holds in its hands..