Lake Ochrid, Makedonia

To visit Lake Ochrid,

might turn out quite of an adventure, since this pearl in southern Balkan area is nearly impossible to reach by direct flights. At least not from Milan, where I live. 

Ochrid Lake is situated nearly 700 mt. above sea level in south western of Macedonia and 1/3 of the lake belongs to Albania. Ochrid has its own airport, but it looked not well used to me, as only few flights landed in our three days stay in the city. 

I took this trip with my usual company; the Serbian siblings. 
On our way back from lovely beaches in Greece, we headed out to Macedonia. 
The roads from Thessaloniki are fairly good up to Skopje; highway all along towards the capital of Macedonia, after witch there are two roads, both circling around the mountain area. 

photo by author

Once we arrived to Ochrid, round 5 pm, not only we were welcomed by a tropical temperature, but also with warm full summer season touristic atmosphere. It seemed to be quite awkward in the end of September as we heard later on. The weather had been unstable until the day before to our arrival. 

As I mentioned pearls, this area is well known for sweet water pearls, available in several stores in the city. I didn't buy any since I had run out of cash and unfortunately I couldn't withdraw from any of those several cash dispensers. But I certainly will do during my next visit, whenever that might be. Withdrawal using visa and master card works perfectly. My V-pay didn't. 

photo by author

For several tourist around the globe Macedonia is cheap. Just to give you an idea, a fairly rich lunch with some starters and fresh fish soup, beer and water cost €5,50 per person. To visit churches and other monuments, is required a fee that is proximately €1,40. Only wine bought in restaurant is pretty expensive, if anyone wishes to go for a good Macedonian wine. 

Santa Sophia's church; photo by author

Macedonia is known by exporting paprika. The main product made of paprika is Ajvar; so called Balkan Caviar. To make a jar of ajvar is necessary nearly 100 kg of paprika, a lots of hours of work and long cooking period. And of course, a good paprika. 
No. You can't make Ajvar from the paprika you find in your grocery store, unless it is long shaped and fat. 

As I like to travel in places where food is delicious, I have to admit that I had really good meals in Ochrid. Mostly trout from the lake, but also lamb and several vegetables, cheese and wine. One of the things serbs and Macedonians have in common, beside Ajvar is Burak. Burak is a pie with cheese or meat filling and mostly eaten for breakfast, since it could turn pretty heavy for a main meal. Burak can be made at home, if it is possible to find the right main ingredients, and by following tutorials from several websites. 

The colour of the lake is incredibly beautiful; turning from dark blue to emerald green. As in our boat trip to visit the Bay of Bones and the bay of St. Naum. The shore just after Ochrid is filled with several hotels and residences to fill-fill the needs of tourists. As the lake is clean and swimming is permitted, many of these hotels offer sun beds and a place near the beach. 
The Bay of Bones is the oldest village of the lake; the oldest lake in Europe, counts about one million years. This village was probably settled between 1200 and 700 bC and gives to the visitor an excellent idea of how people used to live in those days. All cottages with the lake view. 

Bay of Bones; photo by author

St. Naum used to be a Bulgarian writer and a monk who lived in 9th century, and the monastery was established by St Naum himself. He is also buried in the church. In 16 hundred the Greek school took it over. But this wasn't our main reason to visit St Naum. We headed there to visit the incredible swamp that forms just before the Lake Ochrid. The water temperature is 11°C and its vegetation creates an optical illusion; it looks like its deep only a meter, but its at least 3 meters deep. 
To visit the swamp is necessary to get in one of those rowing boats along the area, rowed by local personal  The tour takes proximately 30 minutes, offering amazing photo shoots and the sound of silence. 

In the third day of our stay, we payed a visit to the fortress that finds itself in the highest point of the hill; the view from there was just stunning. Walking down the hill, we visited the Roman amphitheatre, and three orthodox churches. 

full moon and Macedonian flag; photo by author

In the harbour area is to be seen the statue of St Clement, the father of Balkan cyrillic letters. What I didn't know is that the Balkan cyrillic letters are made to be pronounced as they are written. And has origin from Greek alphabet. This information made me interested to learn them. It could be easy to us finnish, since we also pronounce as we write. 

One of the things a tourist might not know and even think about is to use local beauty services, such as hairdresser or a beautician. I had my feet done and washed and dried my hair by a professional. 
The beauty salon took €15 for bringing my feet back to walking condition and the hairdresser cost me €5. Worth for helping local small businesses. 

To organise a group visit to Ochrid, please do not hesitate to ask info@kairos-travel.eu

South Africa part 5

Where to stay and what to buy

Our journey started from Cape Town and we stayed in a hotel of 3* in the district of Gardens, just under neath of Table Mountain. It was a nice hotel with extremely kind personal. Breakfast was regular and we had plenty of fresh fruit each morning. Coffee, tea, water and apple juice are available 24h for the hotel guests. Near to our hotel are plenty of restaurants, and locals to chill out. I found a beautician and thai massage close to our hotel.

Long Street Cape Town

At Oudshoorn we had a lovely residence, again in a 3* hotel, with swimming pool so clean that even frogs swam in it. We tried to kiss them but by the morning they were all gone. The owner told us that he sold all his properties 20 years ago and started this hotel business. On our arrival day we were nearly the only ones, but by the weekend it was fully booked. 

The place offers a bbq area, swimming pool and small cabins for 3 to 4 to sleep.

(Two beds are upstairs with no light.) 

Our hotel at Oudtshoorn

At Knysna we had a major surprise; it was nearly unpossible to fit us 5 in one place and the only one we could find was a house to rent for those three days. What a pity. I would have loved to tay there much longer. We stayed in this marvelous place called Thesen Island, where to get in, in order of security reasons, our driver needed to registrate his fingerprint, that was used as a key to the gate. And thos one here; this was the view from our terrace:

The first two nights were so bright due to the wind of erlier days, that I could even catch a shooting star, by laying one of those beach beds the landlord had left us to be used. 

I felt in love to this place. I feel I wanna go back and perhaps rent some of these houses for a longer period of time. This island offers nice boutiques, and beautifully elegant dining. 

We had a lovely neighbours too; three german ladies that kindly borrowed some coffee at the first morning to be able to wake up. Our land lord had left some coffee, but we are Serbian, Finnish and Croatian. We bath in coffee: We need a lots of coffee. 

Our last overnight place was at Franschhoek, known for it's wineries. We rented again one house with three bedrooms and it looked like this: 

Our landlady was a really nice person who had left to us some of their own wine to taste, among some olive oil (to be payed apart). As a dog lover it was to our pleasure to notice they had 5 dogs. 

And again I felt I want to come back some day soon. In this very same house. 

Generally speaking, South Africans are really nice and it attacts to those that work there although they might come from other countries. 

If you plan your older days and do not want to spend winters with dark and snow or icy rain, South Africa can be a valid option. There are several houses to buy or rent and depending of the location and the estate, houses with garden, swimming pool, view and other extras these houses are still less expencive than in most EU countries. The choise of a real estate to custom your needs is various. 

I am seriously thinking of invesing to South Africa, as soon as I am finished with my parental obligations. 

If house is a bit too much to buy, then try other options. 

If you love Italians shoes, hand bags, and design, South Africa is not the right place to plan such purchases. South Africa is certainly wellknown about diamants and stones called tanzanite. It is a bright blue stone and beautiful with diamonds. 

For a modest souvenir, there is plenty to choose in order of local jewerly and bigotterie. 

pinterest.com

At Cape Town the Green Market Square holds a local African market, where visitors can buy painted and printed art, fabrics or small statues. It is normal to bargain. 

For the bigger statues, I suggest Franschhoek 

You may also like to buy some wild food cans, available in some small shops, and in the airport, or perhaps wine you have tasted. Wineries are more than willing to  deliver it to your home, unless the suitcase can handle the weight of these bottles. I am an expert traveller, and I can proof to you that in a small hard covered trolley I can fix up to 8 bottles of wine. But it must be able to carry up to 20 kg of weight. Each bottle holds 750 ml of liquid and the botel with the liquid weights 1,5-2 kg and I use some laundry to soften the area around the bottles. Nowadays, and to my own comfort I let the delivery company to handle it to me, or I contact the import company. Witch is actually really hilarious, since they allow you to taste them all over. We felt in love to this Sauvignon Blanc and thought that it might be available in every liquor store, but it wasn't. It is produced near Mossalbaai and we couldn't find the winery to go and purchase some of it. 

I never found any pearl in my oysters, but I noticed that ostrich leather is available every where: Also the fake ones. And so are the pearls; fake and real ones. 

At Outdshoorn we found beautiful lama wool covers for reasonable price. 

The local lamb's skin oil is available as skin care items. It didn't smell. 

One of the first thing I bought was a hat. The sun is really strong and there is no way to put sun tan lotion, nor sun protection to the sculp. 

My souvenirs cost about €300 all together and some of the daily extras I payed in cash, that makes my pocket money to €500 for two weeks. 

Hair dresser for wash and blow dry my hair and nails done with a nail studio cost like in Italy; €12 to €15

We also used laundry services and for few € all our clothes came back clean in just 24 h. 

Hotels may charge more for their laundry service. 

In smaller towns shops close at 5pm while supermarkets stay open until 8pm, and restaurants close 9pm mostly. 

We had some trouble by changing currency. Some of the exchange offices are closed on weekends and they do really a lot of paper work. Be prepared to wait a half an hour before you change €100 to Rands (ZAR) 

You can also withdrawal money out of cash dispenser, remembering to switch it to international withdrawal. I forgot to do so and I had to use the exchange offices instead. 

In one of those I met a flirting guy who promised o pay a visit to my hotel. 

But I guess he was married, because he never showed up. 

Wanna join to my next south African tour in January 2018? 

Read my earlier posts and mail a request. 

For group hotel reservations only contact www.kairos-travel.eu

All photos above (behalf one) are from the author. Please ask a permission to copy and paste them elsewhere. 

South Africa part 3

Culinary South Africa

Our trip was based on culinary experience and South Africa offers plenty of possibilities to eat the world around. 

We started with Portuguese style restaurant, that actually offered a bit of international cuisine, with a Portuguese accent. They fancied green hot chilli avocado pizza with danish feta that our "tour leader" took. He said it was excellent.

Green hot chilli avocado pizza

Near to our hotel at Gardens district we also found very modest Italian restaurant with wooden pizza oven. And not far from that we had really spicy thai diner. Also Indian restaurant, vietnamese and many other options are available. And the main ingredients are excellent quality. 

One night we decided to have an elegant diner to witch we even dressed up. Between down town and waterfront in an area of old storehouses there is an elegant restaurant where I tasted the most delicate ostrich carpaccio and ostrich filet. 

For some reason "these elegant restaurants" seem to save with inner lights and we needed the flashlight from our smartphones to be able to read the menu. 

springbok carpaccio 

We also learned that in some restaurant desserts are the largest portions of the whole menu. It is highly recommend to think what you order as a main course if you want some sweet afterwards. That one below was a regular size. 

To continue our culinary trip, we also tasted some Belgium style cuisine at the Waterfront and at Camps Bay we had a sunset smoothie one night and another night Italian diner. Again light in the restaurant was optional, while food was excellent also the way it was set in a plate. 

In every restaurant we met only nice people, ready to serve us. 

Salmon salad with avocado

I had the best Vodka-Lime sorbetto ever, and I hope they take it as a regular to their menu adding some ginger in it. Fits to the name of the restaurant too. 

Talking about cocktails; I am not a cocktail lover, but time to time, I like experiment by tasting some. The best Bloody Mary ever is to be found in the area of Cape Town. Two memorable ones: one at Camps Bay at the restaurant we dined and the other one at Sea Point. 

We also had some beautiful oysters at the V. A.  Waterfront and Turkish diner with a lots of mezes at the area where old warehouses are.

No need to take them all

Just about 40 minutes by driving to the winery area there is this typical Dutch look alike village called Stellenbosh to visit. We followed the food steps of our tour leader, to whom the visit in South Africa was already his 5th one. And again our gustative pallbearers were not disappointed. 

monster hamburger

An other winery town near Cape Town we visited was founded in 1685. We could have done a wine tour, wine and culinary tour or just wine tasting. We took the last one. And then enjoyed our lunch in the restaurant. 

A bit further a way, where we stopped on our way back from the region of Eastern Cape, there is this little jewel called Franschhoek. We had diner and breakfast in this Italian style restaurant where they write Bruschetta without "s", because locals don't seem to be able to pronounce it as Italians with the "s". 

They served dishes that were like in a competition of Master Chef:

Driving towards Cape of Good Hope we stopped in a small town where Pinguin colonies are to be admired. Its called Simmons Town. We all ordered mussels with creamy sauce, but unfortunately just one mussel was bad and one of us (not me) got ill. 

The day after me and the Croatian lady headed to the African Restaurant in down town I was suggested to visit, and we enjoyed lovely South African beer and delicious dishes.

Visiting a "friend of a friend" at Betty's Bay, nearly 2 h driving from Cape Town, we had lunch in a small village called Kleinmond (small mouth). Mussels and oysters are to be found everywhere in the cost line. 

Here we ordered oysters to start with that were excellent and some fried fish and calamari with chips. The portions in this restaurant are huge ! I could barely eat those calamaris and some chips. I took the fish in a doggy bag but forgot it to the house of our friends. Calamaris were cleaned with perfection. This is something I learned while working as a student in a Greek Restaurant in Helsinki, that nowadays do not exist anymore. The rule was to take out the whole skin, the marrow bone that looks like a piece of plastic and the chewing gum type inner skin. Many restaurants leave the last skin or buy bags of nearly cleaned ones and it makes eating calamari like chewing a gum. 

I didn't know what to do with all that food we didn't eat, but as a hint to the travellers to South Africa, you may take remaining food with a doggy bag and give it away to the parking assistants, or in some case to the waiters to take back home. Make sure you don't give away something already started, to be educated. 

In Hout Bay that is about 1 h driving from Cape Town and where swimming could be possible when there is not much wind, with the water temperature of nearly 18°C we had again this lovely meal in a restaurant, where dishes were combined as if the chef was a winner of the Master Chef competition. 

avocado scampi salad

On our way to the Garden Route we slept few night over at the Oudtshoorn: A town of universities and restaurants that shut their doors at 9 pm. When we arrived it was nearly 10 pm and all we had left about the choice was a gas station. They had a lots of these english type of pies. We had few bottles of wine from our visit to winery and bought those pies, and some cheese to go with it. 

The evening after, we were more prepared and walked from our hotel to the restaurant that had the most delicious popotie pie ever among other delicious dishes. Popotie is something like Caribbean and African mixture.

In our stay at Knysna, a small pearl in the Indian Ocean at the Eastern Cape we enjoyed oysters, more oysters, some sushi and delicious king prawns, but most of the times "termites" arrived before I could take a picture of any of those dishes. 

One night we were so tired by all that travelling that we just stayed "at home" and enjoyed some wine with some cheese and chocolate, cause we rented such a beautiful house at the Thesen Island  

white chocolate goes with white wine

South Africa has excellent wine and beer to flush down all that good food and has nothing to envy Italy, France, Chile, Australia, Spain or other wine producing countries. 

It was markable fact that wine is not over charged in the restaurant and the price of a good wine in a winery is exactly the same in the liquor store. 

Next time in South Africa I shall go and visit all those wineries and I can swear there are plenty to get drunk at. 

Cheers !

pink panther

Photos by author; please ask permission to copy and paste 

For group reservations, contact www.kairos-travel.eu

Tour of Sardinia part 2: Sardinian diner

As one of my latest trip I went to visit the Italian Island Sardinia.
Sardinians actually do not consider themselves Italians at all. They are Sardinians.

For ages this island has been robbed and raped by different population and civilisations.
The original Sardinians belong to to populations of nuraghi that were extinct by Romans.
Somewhat I still think that Romans got mixed with some of those Nuraghi people, and that population is still alive and kicking.

There are archeological fundings that show how Nuraghi population had the peak of their hight at 160cm. It also seems that in the island lived an other population called giants. Next to any man that is 160cm tall a basket ball player may look like a giant.

photo by quisardegna.org

Any how this island has a heavenly kitchen and various labels of wine. I took some of it at home and had a diner party that has a theme Sardinia. And here is what we had for diner.
As a starter I had some courgette and fennel with "bottarga" that stands for "caviar"; Bottarga of tuna.

Fennel with bottarga

Accompaigned with Sardinian bread called Carasau. It is dry and crispy, and it is served with some Sardinian olive oil in it.
As a main course I served fregole pasta and arselle clams. I studied the recipe on youtube.
And then we had this plate of various Sardinian cheese, sausage and ham of wild swine.
I brought the Sardinian biscuits with me, but my son ate them all during my absence, so all I could find that possibly looks similar was this biscuit with a fig filling in it.

photo by lakasa.it

We also drink some wine; Vermentino di Gallura and Cannonau.
Cannonau is the typical wine of the Island of Nuraghi that is close to Cagliari. Cannonau is actually the most well known wine from Sardinia. It is a fruity red wine that suits well most dishes from starters to main course. It is one of the wines I prefer because it is easy to give as a gift. It really suits at every diner table.
Vermentino di Gallura explains itself. Gallura is the area of north east of Sardinia just south of the island of Corsica that used to be Italian, but was gift to France as a gift. Gallura has a rocky soil. And its soil gives also the flavour to this particular white wine. It is granite rock and one of the hardest if not the hardest to find in this planet. Most obelisks and monuments, like the one in the Suez Canal are done by Sardinian granite.
I found an interesting mineral museum at the Island of Caprera, just next to Maddalena Island.

photo by I Love Costa

My culinary trip was basically concentrated on two areas of Sardinia; the south-west and north-east.
South-west is the Area of Cagliari, that to me is a pleasant town. It has 120.000 inhabitants but it looks as big and vivid as Thessaloniki, Greece. People are outgoing and there are many young people due to the university.
Cagliari actually offers more than they may be able to advertise.
Within just 30 minutes of taxi from the airport or an hour with two local bus services, it is possible to reach the beach Poetto, and admire "the devils sable" Sella del diavolo as Cagliari people call the rock. There is a legend about this Rock I am not going to tell, because it is interesting to learn about it once at Cagliari. 

Sella del Diavolo seen from Mount Urbano

Visit the salt pools and admire flamingos, visit Nuraghi, or just hang on in the down town of Cagliari. Some of my fiends fly over to Cagliari for just one day. They take their swim suit, get to Poetto and hang in the downtown for the afternoon before flying back home to Milan. 

photo by studiainitalia.com 

Cagliari has this lovely market to visit with a huge fish market and every vegetable there is to find in this island. My discovery were these mushrooms called "ovuli", because they look a bit like eggs while closed. And just as Funghi Porcini, Ovuli are to eaten raw, with some pecorino sardo cheese. 

Market at Cagliari

I also advice a visit to Cagliari's archeological museum. I visited before visiting Nuraghi, but is should be done other way around. In that way it gives the idea of evolution in Sardinia and how Nuraghi people actually lived. 

bronse statues of the nuraghi period at the archeological museum

The other part; north-east is equally amazing, due to its rock and beautiful small towns, such as Santa Teresa Gallura that could have been the old Roman town called Tibula. Its granite has been used to build the Pisa Cathedral, and some parts of the Rome's Pantheon.

The name was given by the king Vittorio Emanuele I as honour to his wife Maria Teresa d'Asburgo Este. I am totally astonished of the beauty of the rocks at Capo Testa, due to the erasion that wind and sea salt has done to them. 

dinosaur head rock at capo testa

Following the road towards the Archipelago of Maddalena passing by vineyards. At the city of Palau I needed to take a ferry and get to the island of Maddalena. Giuseppe Garibaldi moved to Caprera Island once he retired from politics. And I might just to the very same. Maddalena looks like an ideal place to sit down and write my travel blog. Considering that the airport of Olbia is just one hour driving from the harbour of Palau.

the grave stone of Giuseppe Garibaldi at Caprera 

I found the visit at the old house of Garibaldi and his story really interesting. His father was an engineer as far as I remember, and he had developed really genius problem solving that even today may look modern. A bit like my favourite architect Gaudi. 

Costa Smeralda is the most exclusive area

of Sardinia. It offers luxurious villas, hotels and yacht harbours. In an old fashion Sardinian law, also women were to inherit. But only men got mainland because it was useful for the agriculture. Women inherit mostly cost line. This coastline area was indeed inherit by a Sardinian woman, who made business selling it to Aga Khan. He then developed the finest vacation resort area thinking of the jet set of the show business. I must say that I felt really fancy staying in this beautiful hotel with such a view. 

Hotel Balocco, Porto Cervo

It took us 8 days to do it all and we hired a car for 5 days. We stayed first 3 nights at Cagliari, then one at Oristano, two days in Alghero, and finally two nights at Porto Cervo, Costa Smeralda. 

Once we left Cagliari airport by car, we headed to the town called Iglesias. From there along the cost line passing by a beautiful beach called Piscinas, and headed towards Oristano to get some rest. From Oristano we drove along Tinnura to see the Murales, and to the town of Bosa, so that for the evening we found ourselves in the swimming pool in our hotel at Alghero. We visited also the National Park Capo Caccia, and drove to Stintino, to admire the view towards the National Park of the Island of Asinara. 

From Alghero we headed through Sassari and Castelsardo towards north-east. 

elephant rock near Castelsardo

I am still missing the whole eastern part from north to south. That will be the target to my next Sardinian trip. 

Let me know wether you want to be part of it, by leaving a comment down below.