Ohrid - Sveti Naum in Macedonia - Korcë in Albania

Sveti Naum Monastery

With an extremely long walk from the car park, the place being overrun by tourists, and it being a Sunday, thus worship taking place, we simply drive around the monastery and find a small café in the lovely grounds to take our morning coffee.

The path from the car park

Big groups of tourists

The monastery

Coffee Stop

The cafeteria on the river

David

Me

The coffee is expensive but good

Albania

At the border crossing from Macedonia to Albania the officials ask more questions when we leave Macedonia than upon entering Albania. With winding roads and people walking their cows, horses, and donkeys, we are now back in rural Albania. We soon head for the hills, and see warnings about bears. As expected, we see no sign of them, although Vladimir claims he has seen some here before.

A man loading up his horse and cart in rural Albania

Vojopoja

We leave the main road and head for the ancient village of Vojopoja.

The Church of St Nicholas

This 18th century church has significant artistic and historical value. We wait in the courtyard for our guide, Angela, to turn up, and despite the sign, I take a few photos of the outside of the building.

The outer gate

The courtyard

Frescoes in the outside portico

Once Angela arrives and unlocks the heavy church doors, I put my camera away. The interior is dark, including the many frescoes covering the walls. Angela uses a very dim torch to show us the paintings, amidst the fear of bright lights damaging them. The frescoes depict scenes from the old and new testament, and are considered masterpieces of 18th century art. Directly below the cupola is a circular mosaic on the floor. The church is still used for mass, although at one time only baptisms were permitted inside. In the 17th century, Jojopoja had 500 residents and 24 churches. Only six churches remain, while the population has grown to 1058, and this is the best preserved of them.

Korcë – Hotel Cathedral

It is almost impossible to stop right outside the hotel, which takes its name from the impressive building opposite.

The hotel itself has a very small footprint, with just a small, unobtrusive front door leading to a narrow reception area and a very steep, winding staircase.

The room is quaint, with exposed brickwork, walls painted in bold colours, and as expected, reasonably small.

The position of the hotel is perfect, however, at the head of a popular pedestrianised area, with a plethora of restaurants, bars, and fast food joints. We take a little walk and stop at a small place called Creperie.

Both sweet and savoury crepes are on offer, and we start with a Burger Crepe and a Pita Chicken.

David's Pita Chicken Crepe

It's full of filling

My burger crepe - an interesting concept with a pancake filled with burger, chips, and cheese. I can only manage half.

David notices that they do a chocolate and Kahlua crepe, and goes back to order one. Something is lost in translation, however, and he ends up with one chocolate and one Kahlua crepe.

Chocolate crepe

Kahlua Crepe

I take a few bites of each of them and let David finish both. We roll back to the hotel afterwards, which is thankfully not far.

Thank you to Undiscovered Destinations for arranging this 2025 Balkan Adventure for us.