On our final morning in the Balkans enroute to Skopje, we rose early for a quick boat ride to photograph Lake Ohrid, before other boaters disturbed the mirror-like reflections of the old houses and the Church of St. John on the water. The night before, we enjoyed a partial lunar eclipse at 4AM, from our hotel balcony.

After crossing the border into North Macedonia from Albania the day before, we photographed the reconstructed floating fishing village, which is also known as the Bay of Bones Museum located on the beautiful Ohrid Lake. The museum shows a glimpse of what life in prehistoric times was like (middle left). This location had mirror-like reflections with dramatic cloud formations,(top row plus middle-right) as well as a beautiful wooden dock (middle right). Then we spent time photographing a single tree in the middle of the lake (lower right). These were Kodak moments, on learning how to compose landscapes from Mehmet, which comprised of moving the camera just inches to turn an ordinary image into a great one.

In the afternoon in Ohrid, North Macedonia, we took a walking tour of the Old City, and photographed the ancient amphitheater (middle top), narrow cobblestone streets (upper right), saw beautiful views of the sea (upper left plus middle), enroute to St John’s Church (middle). It was a long walk back, so Mehmet hired a boat taxi with a charismatic admiral (bottom right) piloting our return to the restaurant for dinner.

We arrived in Skopje, North Macedonia, after surviving a flat tire just 5 km from City Center. The drivers are all trained to repair their vehicles, so not to worry. After lunch, the group went on a walk of the Old Town full of narrow cobblestone streets and retail shops geared to serve wedding parties. There are a large number of custom gold jewelry shops here (top right plus left-bottom-two), as well as tailors who make wedding attire (upper left). What drew me most was the variety of unique ice cream flavors, including one named Red Bull (lower right).

Skopje is the capital and largest city in North Macedonia and is known as the city of statues. In 1963, a massive earthquake destroyed about 80% of the city, and the government chose to repopulate the city with hundreds of sculptures, of all sizes, styles, as part of a massive building campaign. Fountains, bridges and museums were built. Some citizens were not happy with the government spending that much on statues, and accused them of turning Skopje into a controversial theme park.

The Old Bazaar is also situated in Skopje , North Macedonia, located on the eastern bank of the Vardar River. The Old Bazaar is the largest bazaar outside of Istanbul. Here, Mehmet bought 8 pounds of fresh spices (Vegeta) for his wife (upper right), and others on the tour also purchased various spices and nuts (lower right).

Thanks to our team of guides, especially Mehmet Ozbalci from Turfantastik Turizm, who organized this trip (center). We will always remember Alexander (bottom middle right), Edin (left center), Tom (left bottom), Arber (right middle) and his family (top right), and our driver, Ergan (aka Ari – bottom right).

We also got to know many of our traveling companions. Susan (our writer with the tenacity to keep up – bottom middle), Sherrine (fun selfie expert – top middle), Heidi (Bahamas special desserts specialist – top right), Allene (still using film, but had a Google camera that erased Mehmet while leaving his tripod in the edit – bottom left), Marcia (wonderful grandma who bought unique gifts for her grandkids – top left), and Gordon (who had more birthdays than the rest of us, at 84, but was also the youngest with more energy than the rest of us – bottom right).

We really had a good time and look forward to seeing everyone on future Mehmet trips together