St Noam’s Monastery, Springs, and Bay of Bones
Based on another Valentina tip, we did a fantastic day trip down to the south of Lake Ohrid to check out St Noam’s Monastery. We parked in the lot and walked into the beautiful arched entrance to the tree-lined walkway. Off to the side of this were tons of stalls of local crafters selling their wares. We stopped and looked at several, though there was one in particular that really grabbed our attention. Ironically, it was also the very first place we looked. She sold the most beautiful, filigreed artwork. It was stunning. We all fell in love with it. Katia and Emmeline each picked out a piece they wanted at the end of the day. We also saw a beautiful ballerina one, and we couldn’t help but buy and ship it to Australia for Lea-anne!
After walking through, we stopped to look at the gorgeous natural springs. The girls particularly loved seeing the ducks and fish in the water while we were standing on the bridge. We carried on to the monastery itself, which was so beautiful. We purchased and lit candles, looked at the beautiful buildings and paintings within, and enjoyed some magnificent views of Lake Ohrid.
After we had our fill of the beauty here, we walked back to a restaurant that sat on the edge of the springs to have a delicious local lunch. We ordered some spring water to drink. The waitress literally took a large carafe, bent down, and filled it from the springs next to us. We tasted it and it was so cool and delicious. It was definitely taking locally sourced-drinks to the next level!
After our lunch, we went for a boat tour with one of the many operators. They are only allowed non-motorized boats on the springs and have rules about not dropping anything into the water, not feeding the animals, etc. We spent a lovely 45 min being toured around and told a little about the history and area, and got to have a brief stop at a little chapel out in the middle of nowhere. It was cute and we were all impressed by the fact that the chapel was built on top of a channel from the spring so that natural spring water ran through the centre of the chapel! It seems like a great place for baptisms!
Once we were back on land, we went to grab a coffee while the girls played on the beach for a bit. The girls dug a big hole and let it fill with natural spring water. The views were stunning. I don’t think I’ll ever get over how beautiful this lake is.
Jon had read about a beautiful orchard that was a short walk away from the monastery. There were quite a few reviews on Google about how nice it was to walk through the orchard and that they had a private beach. We walked over there to check it out. We walked in, but it didn’t particularly seem like a place open to the public.
We started walking along anyway to check and see when an older gentleman called to us and told us there were dogs out and about and it wasn’t particularly safe to walk around there. He invited us onto his porch to have a cup of coffee, pulled out some snacks including two green apples from their orchard, and we sat and had the greatest chat with him. He was so friendly. We don’t normally like green apples and told him how good they were. He told us that is because they don’t use pesticides in Macedonia. Needless to say, green apples have become a staple in our diet ever since that experience. We are eating them basically daily, they’re sooooo good! Nice and sweet and crisp, with no tartness at all.
We had a nice long chat, learning about him and his wife, his background as a chemical engineer, and his two sons – one living in Ohrid and one living with his wife and kids in the US and working as a doctor. There is always such an unwarranted stigma about farmers being such uneducated, redneck simpletons in Canada, which I have always disagreed with, having met many farmers throughout my life and career. They’re some of the smartest people I know. And this man was definitely one highly-intelligent person and we had such a great conversation with him.
We sat for a good 45 minutes chatting, then he made a phone call to some other workers on the property. He had them make sure the dogs were put away where they couldn’t cause us problems and then drove us down to their private beach so we knew where to go. He dropped us off there, told us to have fun and stay as long as we wanted, and that if anyone came by and questioned what we were doing there, to tell them he gave us the ok. We sat at his beach collecting stones, letting the girls dig with their shovels, and sitting and enjoying the peace and beauty of staring over the lake out towards Struga and Ohrid. This lake is just magical to my eyes. I could sit for hours and just stare at its beauty and tranquillity.
We walked back to the car and drove home to Struga. We passed the Bay of Bones, which we had really wanted to check out. But it was a Monday so it was closed. We made a return trip a couple of days later to check out the settlement.
Wow, the Bay of Bones was so fascinating! It’s a re-created settlement from 3,000 years ago. The settlement was built out on the water, with posts being somehow set deep into the base of the ground beneath the water. It was mind-boggling to me to consider how they achieved this 3,000 years ago! We read that originally, it was a community effort for the men to all install the posts together. Eventually, it evolved that each man was expected to install three posts for each wife he took when repairs/new posts were required. Quite the system!
Above the water, the posts supported houses and a walking platform/deck for the settlement. The houses were cute, and while primitive were quite functional! Each house would have had a trap door through their floor that they would open, lower a basket down, and collect a full basket of fish in minutes that they would pull up and have as their food source. Impressive! Apparently, babies and young children would have a rope tied to their ankles all the time to prevent them from rolling or otherwise ending up in the water!
There were crafting huts, stables for animals, and community huts where people gathered. Each hut had its own fireplace but there were also communal fireplaces outdoors, and probably far more things about this settlement that we are ignorant to.
This settlement was well worth making a return trip for. We have seen a lot of interesting settlements, but this was unlike any type we have seen before. And to think how successful and advanced this settlement was considering it was 3000 years old. All in all, we loved this area of Macedonia and Lake Ohrid. Though really, we have yet to find a place in North Macedonia we don’t love!