Going to Albania June 7th

I’m finally leaving Ohrid. It was very nice here but last 2 day were a bit slow so I was happy to leave to Albania. The boarders are on the other side of the lake. I got there around 2pm. The customs were very friendly and I did not have to pay for any visa going to Albania. The weather was bit rainy. I saw many bunkers next to the road. I expected very poor country but I was very surprised that everybody are driving new very expensive cars mostly mercedes. The road through the mountains was very nice and good. I was told that 15 years ago there were few road and less than 1000 cars which only party members could drive. I was also told that Albanians are very bad drivers, but I felt it was quite safe. After 15 km I stopped at the market. I must have looked very exotic and was quite surprised when some young girls started to talk me English. They study at the local school. They told me that this market is here once a week. People were using horses to take the good back to the mountains. Two young guys asked me where I’m from and told me that the life there is very difficult and that most of the people leave to work abroad. They have been working in Italy and in Greece. But they told me that working in Greece is not very good and if they do nor have papers they put them to jail. I made few pictures bought some vegetables and continued my way to Tirana. The road was very good and not much traffic. I saw many new houses, cafes and gas stations. It looked like being is some rich country where every body drives very expensive cars. I pass one bug city with steel factories and I took one guy to his village in the mountains. The last 40km were in the mountains. The road was quite narrow and it was raining and fogy, but I did not feel that it was dangerous. People were driving quite slowly. I got to Tirana around 5 and saw many cars in the streets. I stopped and ask one guy for direction to the city center. Hi spoke very good English and he offered to show me the road. His name is Florijan he is 23years old and studies religion. I invited him for drink and he started to explain the life in Albania. It helped me to understand a little bit the current situation. He told me that there was a lot of corruption, but since the new prime minister thinks are getting better. He was very opened and happy to speak in English. He learned by talking to his friend. I have recorded more than 1 hour of his story. At 7 I had a meeting with Artan, historian who I have met last year in Bela Rechka. We met in front of the university and he arranged meeting with one of the most famous Albanian film maker who studied in Czechoslovakia. We visited him in the editing studio where he was just finishing documentary about famous Albanian dancer who lives in Italy. Hi told me that he just finished shooting a film in Czech Republic about Albanian student who fall in love with Czech girl but had to come back to Albania. The movie will have premiere in September 21st in Prague cinema Lucerna. He also told me that he was 4 years ambassador in Czech Republic. He Czech was perfect and I have recorded almost 1 hour interview with him. After this very interesting meeting Artan showed me nice parking place behind the Sheraton hotel and than took me to my wan which was parked on the main boulevard. I was very tired and I fall asleep and woke up at 3 in the morning. The street was more quite so I did not move my car and fall a sleep again.

2nd day in Ohrid May 4th

We met Nikola and Kliment at 12 at the theatre. There was a meeting of the organizers of the Eko film festival and I met the director who was interested to do interview with me about my Eco Auto. Our plan was to try to edit the sound from our stories and make short presentation in flash. The sound quality from my small mp3 recorder was not very good and we needed program for cleaning the noise. We went to the Media Artes office where was a computer with sound program, but we found out the sound card was used in another computer so we got stuck. Outside the appartment building I met Trajkov who started to talk to me in very good Czech. He told me that he and his wife were brought to the Czechoslovakia at the age of 5 during the civil war in 1948. He invited me for visit to his home. They told me very interesting story how they came to Czechoslovakia as small kids, lived in the orphanage and how they met and why they came back to Macedonia. Trajkov told me how he started to make pictures from metal and write poetry and books. He also shered his wish to to come back to and have an art exhibition in Czech Republic. I gave them our book with stories from Bela Rechka and Trajkov gave me his 2 books. We were invited for a picnic to Jasmina and Goran so I have arranged to come back next day and make pictures of his artwork. The picking was at Gorans’ father country cottage outside of Ohrid with a nice view of the lake. We talk about the possibility organizing workshop in Ohrid and we stayed there until 11 pm. We spend the night at the same place close to the lake.

1st day in Ohrid June 3rd

The morning was very windy and I was afraid that waves will hit the car. Around ten the wind settled and the sun came out and I went for my morning swim in the lake. Ceca tried also but she quickly returned to take a hot shower. After breakfast we left to the city. We parked the car right at the beach and went to explore Ohrid and find Jasmina and Goran from Media Artes. We asked few people but nobody knew where is the Media Artes. We saw posters for Eko festival and found the cultural center where was the festival and it turned out that Goran is the director of this center and that Jasmina will be there for the evening performance. In the office we met Kliment who we asked before where is Media Artes, but he did not know. It turned out that Kliment was born in Czech Republic and lived there until the age of six and we started to talk in Czech. He offered to be our city guide and of course we were very interested to hear his story. Hi was born in the Czech Republic and when he was 6 his parents move back to Macedonia. Hi is a guitar player but it is hard for him to make money playing his music. First he took us to see an old roman amphitheater which was discovered only 10 years ago and was build in the fourth century BC. It was reconstructed and it is used for performances. Our next stop was the St. Kliment church and the first Slavic university where Cyril and Metodej taught their students. I was surprised to find out how much connected this place is with our history and how little I know about it. Our next stop was the Samuil fortress from fourth century AC. There was a beautiful view of the city and the lake. I bought a nice painting of Cyril and Metodej. On the way to the St.Jovan Kaneo church we met our fiend Nevzdat who was reconstructing a house there. There was a very nice view. We spend more than 1 hour at the St. Jovan Kaneo church enjoying the beautiful view. Jasmina invited us to the theatre to see their performance. It looked funny but I did not understand much of the local jokes and dialects. After the performance we met Goran and Jasmina and went for a drink. We told them about the festival in Bulgaria, our journey and they were surprised that my car runs on used vegetable oil. We also met Nikola who is an actor. He was very happy when he found out that I’m making the TTA DVD-ROM and I gave him the last year presentation of the best European multimedia projects. He offered us help making presentation of our journey in Ohrid. We spent the night close to the lake in the center.

St. Naum – June 2nd

The weather in the morning was again very beautiful and I went to swim in the lake. The water was a little bit cold – 15 degrees but it was very refreshing and the water was crystal clear. The visibility is almost 20 m. I met a few local men who have small boats for taking tourists for trips on the lake. I helped one old man to bring his boat to the shore and he offered us a ride to the Sv. Naum. His name was a Jordan. He pick us up after the breakfast and we had our first story. We went back to see the monastery and enjoyed the beautiful view on the lake Ohrid. On the way back we met Nikola and his father who were selling souvenirs. Nikolas’ father worked 12 years in Czechoslovakia and he had a lot of nice memories nad could still speak good Czech. They invited us for a boat ride on the spring river next to the lake and Nikola told us everything about this place. It is very beautiful place with many springs and very clear water. We went to see a small church with one of spring of the lake Ohrid. Nikola told us about his dream having a small souvenir shop and his passion of making photographs. On the way back we stop in the restaurant. It was almost six when we left this beautiful place. Our next stop was a nearby village Trepejca, the home of Nikola and his father. The village is on a hill with houses going all the way to the shore. There were a lot of new houses and recosnstructions and no tourist. We sat on the beach and enjoyed this nice place. On the way back we met George and he invited us for a coffee in his new house. He was very joyful and started to tell us his life story. He also told us a very nice story how he saw the Sv. Naum. After watching the sunset from his balcony we left to Ohrid. We stayed over night on beach with a beautiful view of the Ohrid fortress.

Bitola June 1st

The night behind the theatre in Bitola was good. We were woken up by a noise and we realized that we parked next to the school. Bitola is a very old town with a lot of interesting sights. First we visited a small mosque where was an exhibition of drawings from the international children drawing festival. Than we went to the old bazaar, one of the biggest in Macedonia. There were many small shops and no tourists. People were very friendly. We bought nice fresh food at the market and put it back to the car. Our next site was Heraclea, an old roman city. On the way we have stopped in a local pub for lunch and were surprised how many young people are walking on the street and how people are relaxed. On the way to Heraclea we got a bit lost and passed through an old zoo, it looked very aged with only few small animals. Heraclea was a very beautiful and very well preserved old roman settlement with a big amphiteater. It was quite strange to see such a beautiful historical sight and no tourist. Only school excursions with kids who were not too interested about the great history of their country. It was almost 5 and started to rain when we left Bitola. Ohrid was only 80 km but we decided to go first to the Prespanske lake and than cross the mountains to lake Ohrid. The weather was bad so we did not make any stop at the lake. The mountain road was very beautiful and it was a pity that we could not see much. We pasted through the clouds to the other side in 1600 m. Before going to Ohrid city we planned to stop at St. Neum monastery. We have arrived there around 8 pm and were happy to find out that it was still open. There was a nice man who gave us a private tour of the church. He told us about paintings in the church and the history of this place that is very connected with the begging of the Slavic languages and writtings. There is a grave of St. Neum who was a student of Cyril and Metodej. The 2 famous saints who brought the writing to the Slavic nations. Outside of the church we met Nevzdat with his uncle and his lover. They invited us for coffee and we found out that Nevzdat is a border police inspector and lives in Skopie. He is helping here his uncle who has a firm on recuntructing houses. He invited us to see him in Ohrid. We planed to explore more this very nice place and we stayed over night at the parking lot close to the lake Ohrid.