Travel Blog: Ohrid Day 2

04 July 09 (just for reference)

A new day brought with it a whole new set of adventures. Josje was far too hung over to grace us with her presence in the morning and so Joe, Charlie and I went out. Granted we were all moving slow as well and so didn’t even leave until roughly noon. Steve from California had departed in the morning and so the Three Stooges ventured off in search of misadventures…which we were sure to find. Josje said she’d meet us in an hour (that was a lie).

We decided it was time for us to check out that cool fortress that had been looming over us since we arrived. So of course we began the trek up the hill during the hottest time of the day like a bunch of nitwits.  Fortunately it wasn’t so bad that anyone passed out. It was bloody hot and bright though which gave us an ample view of what Ohrid really looks like.

Did you know that in some countries, at some tourist attractions, foreigners have to pay more? Yep, in fact it was 50% more at this place. Poor form Macedonia, poor form. As if our presence is going to drain out some of the historical and cultural significance of it all. Bah!

We dillied and dallied around the fortress for some time. Took silly photos walked on walls we weren’t supposed to walk on (it wasn’t our fault someone had knocked down a fence that had been meant to keep people like us from climbing up on the walls and walking their length. Father, that place is certainly NOT up to code (see photos), half the stairs have no railings and aren’t 3 feet wide etc…

After that, we meandered on down to a huge archaeological dig site which also has a very old (9th to 15th century) Orthodox church which was rebuilt. The dig site was cool and was quite old though we didn’t find out just how old it was. We wandered about and were again in a place we probably weren’t supposed to be, but hey, that’s life right?

Our cultural quota filled for the day we decided it was time to get back to doing what it is we do best, seek out trouble. Well, not exactly. Joe went up to the hostel and Charlie (in his pirate socks, see photos) and I (in my hat) wandered through town chalking up more strange looks that a three-headed camel. Along the way we spoke with Bobbi and found out that we could rent a boat. But since Joe and Josje weren’t around we thought we’d go have a coffee instead and then present them with the idea. Oddly, when they arrived they also spoke with someone about renting a boat. So for 900 Denar (about 15 Euro) we rented a boat for an hour, without a chaperon and headed out to the high seas, or at least the relative calm of Ohrid Lake. Out on the lake we had lunch, swam and generally cruised about taking terms at the helm of the boat.  Once we got back onto the shore we made our way back to the hostel and ran into Jen from California. Did you ever notice that when you meet an American from California they generally say the state instead of the city where most of us say the city?

Anyway, we realized it was American Independence Day and so decided a BBQ was in order. I personally said we needed to blow shit up and went about trying to find a way to do that. Unfortunately, no fireworks were to be found and all my other ideas were found to be insane, dangerous or insanely dangerous…so nothing was blown up. We did make Šopska salad (tomato, white pepper, cucumber, seasoning) and boiled hot dogs…as the grill also didn’t work. Overall, it wasn’t the best July 4th celebration, but it wasn’t the worst.

After all the food was gone and most of the beer, Joe wasn’t feeling all that well (probably those really cheap, shoddy cigarettes he was smoking) and Josje was still mostly out of it. That left Charlie and I to carry the torch and head into town around 11pm or so. The fact that any of this happened is a miracle as we had all spent hours lounging about in the Sunny Lake Hostel hammocks talking about it but unmotivated. We even sat and watched Peta and Goran register the 44 Polish virg….tourism & recreation students for kicks.

Oh right, the Poles. Those poor souls. Stuck in a hostel and so intimidated by us that they could just about not speak with us at all. Honestly, they outnumbered us 11-1 and they could hardly say two sentences to us. It’s going to be a dark time for the Polish travel industry when they all graduate if they don’t learn to open their minds and be more outgoing in general. But I digress…

So, Charlie and I head into town. First we thought, Jazz Inn, but when we got there the place was dead. We chatted with Kung-Fu Master Grasshopper for a bit but he said he had to be there for some reason. So Charlie and I left him and headed to Club Row. Considering it was crap the night before we weren’t really expecting all that much from it. In fact all the clubs sucked even more and it all culminated in me telling a waiter that it was criminal to charge 150 Denar (2.50 Euro) for a bottle of Heineken and he got pissed off and ignored us. Luckily we had got the bottles and didn’t need to stick around.

This led us to standing out in the street and watching the people go by as we chatted. This quickly led me to realize we were being looked upon with a great amount of Disdain. Apparently our t-shirts and short pants (board shorts, boat pants, long shorts, whatever..) were not appropriate attire to be seen in on Club Row. Plus, he had his pirate socks on still.

This led me to create the Disdain Game. We decided that since they were looking upon us with disdain that we would fix them with our best looks of Disdain in return. Unfortunately, Charlie’s look of Disdain resembled the way a gay man looks at a straight man that he’s interested in copulating with and so we eventually had to scrap the game so that we didn’t get into a fight. Plus, we had finished those shitty Heineken’s and were in need of further refreshment.

After ditching the empty bottles in some potted shrubs outside our least favorite club, Nemo, we headed for….the Jazz Inn. However we were intercepted by Kung-Fu Master Grasshopper, Dali and some others who were heading for Club Napoleon to see Johnny Live. But this required a stop off at the ‘Cafe We First Had Coffee in Ohrid’ (note: We don’t know the actual name of the place so this will have to do). The reason for this was two-fold – to drink a beer and to meet up with Dani who had just recently started working there.

Kung-Fu Master Grasshopper (KFMG aka Vladimir) expressed some concern over the club and Johnny Live while the others raved about both. This was an interesting situation and I decided it required a Vox Pop response. So I began to randomly poll people that we passed on the way to the club to find out if they liked Club Napoleon and Johnny Live. It was basically be stopping them and saying “Club Napoleon, Dobro, ne?” with accompanying thumbs up/down gestures. Then again doing the same with Johnny Live.

The results were mixed across the board and that meant that we had to in fact, go to Club Napoleon to see what the real deal was. When we arrived we found that there was an entry fee…so I took care of it. I walked up and said:

I’m an American writer. I need to go inside for two minutes and check the place out to determine if it and Johhny Live are cool…

Much to my amazement, it worked! I was inside, sans cover charge and looking around. The club consisted of an outside courtyard and then and interior area. I took the two minutes allotted to me by the doormen to do another Vox Pop…this time solely about Johhny Live who was on stage not five meters from me, firmly clasping hte microphone in front of him, stiff as an ancient Macedonian statue and belting out a tune akin to NIN (Nine Inch Nails). Even as such close proximity to such unbelievable greatness (as in an utter lack of stage presence) the results were mixed! I was truly amazed as I thought he was fucking crap personally. So I left and met back up with KFMG and Charlie.

Kung-Fu Master Grasshopper flagged down a cab and we headed back into the old town proper. Why do we call him KFMG you ask? Well, he had, on several occasions mentioned that he was studying Kung-Fu. Charlie saw fit to test this and decided to feign an attack. KFMG’s foot just missed taking off Charlie’s head and so therefore he was nothing less than Grasshopper from then on to us. (actually we couldn’t remember his name and Kung-Fu Master Grasshopper sounded far cooler than ‘hey you’).

Where were we off to you’re curious? Why the Jazz Inn of course! Upon our arrival it was like Cheers as Kagor (not his real name at all but named after the t-shirt he was wearing which had a symbol from a graphic novel. In fact Kagor isn’t the name of the guy in the graphic novel but was all I could come up with at that time. I’ll do some research and get the symbol and the name.) the bartender, when seeing us yelled “Heyyyyy!!” Of course I had primed this pump before we left saying “Dude, it would be totally cool if when we came back in you got a group of people to yell “hey!” like we were total regulars at Cheers… He was a good sport and I wish I had his real name. I hope Dali or Kung-Fu Master Grasshopper read this and tell me what it was so he can get his props for being a Cool Dude.

Our little group turned into 8 and then Antonio showed up and then a whole lot of ‘you had to be there’ things happened and in the end I was sort of pissed off. Not because there was no fighting but more because there was no skinny dipping with the girls we had bought drinks for and some other stuff. Charlie did sleep on the hostel stairs for a brief period of time before I found him and we stumbled into the hostel at about 6 or 7am to conclude day 2 in Ohrid.