Lin a rest day - day nine 2/10/15

Lin a rest day

2nd October Friday 

day nine Via Egnatia 

A rest day, we stay in Lin for two nights.

Up for a beautiful breakfast at 7:30, then Rosa takes us up the hill behind her house to show us the Byzantine church ruins, she calls the guardian who meets us there with the keys to unlock the gates.

Basilica remains on the hill behind Rosa's B&B

The Guardian shows us some of the well preserved mosaics. Peacocks, grapes...

View from the Basilica remains down to the village of Lin. Lin has a population of about 1500 people.

Walking towards the remains of other old buildings,

And a communist bunker that was built on the site of an old church.

Locals still treat it as a church, there are icons and a shrine inside.

Roland said, that when the lake is still, on a sunny day you can see the outlines of stone walls under the water of the lake. There may have been an older settlement here, back towards Pogradec there are Illiryian tombs and remains. We walk back down to Rosa and Roland's house...

 Scampering down the cliffs  local "mountain goat" style! 😉

We're so lucky! Roland and Rosa have a plot of land behind the basilica where they grow grapes, and they're going to harvest them today for wine making. We ask if we could help with the harvest, and they say yes! I'm so excited! We get into Roland's boat and row around the corner to their land.

Patrick gives a helping hand!

Around the corner of the lake to their plot of land.

Rosa and Roland have a lovely garden with grape vines absolutely loaded with grapes! They have their house, and a couple of small plots of land around the village that they grow produce on.

I'm a happy harvester this morning! We use small serrated kitchen knives to cut the grapes off the vine.

Roland and Patrick harvesting.

In a short time, we've harvested eight crates of grapes! 

We decide that we'll walk back with Rosa, while Roland rows back.

It's a very scenic walk around the headland, past gardens and orchards.

We walk a little faster than Roland rows back!

Unloading the bounty!

The lake is teaming with fish! Some of these are fresh water "sardines" we ate some for lunch beautifully seasoned and crispy with bean soup... No photos, I was too busy enjoying it!

Lots of the locals head out with a net for a bit of fishing this afternoon, the patio is a great observation post!

Roland's cousin has collected mushrooms, this type requires quite a bit of preparation, washing, cleaning and scraping, then cooking.

Helping Rosa make dinner! Lakror, Really I just watched... It's such a skill to use the skinny rolling pin and flip the pastry, I was worried I'd mess it all up!

One had a filling of egg, cheese and yogurt, the other a cooked mixture of peppers, onion, tomato and a little cheese.

Finishing touches before it goes in the oven

And we enjoy the finished results! Yum! With side dishes of mushrooms, and peppers.

Good night 😊 back to walking tomorrow, we'll walk to Ohrid. 

I've  loved our experience exploring Lin and spending time with Rosa and Roland at their B&B!

Accommodation:

Rosa's B&B 25 euro per night for two people. Rosa’s B&B (+355 69 45 04577, English spoken)  €25 a night with breakfast

bedandbreakfastlin@gmail.com