I hadn’t planned on going to Kosovo, but as I was nearby and it was on my way back to Shkoder I thought why not. On the bus ride through Kosovo I appreciated just how green and vibrant it was. I later learnt it has the most fertile soil of the Balkan region, and that was evident from its landscape. I had heard that the smaller city of Prizren is much prettier than the capital Pristina so decided to go there. It was indeed very pretty, and I was in the mood for a smaller, prettier city after recently visiting Tirana and Skopje. However, it didn’t have any museums on the history of Kosovo or any walking tours which means I didn’t get as good of an understanding of the situation there as I’d have liked. I’m sure Pristina would have had these. But luckily there are some fairly good podcasts on the subject so I supplemented my time here with those.
Kosovo is the first country of this trip where I felt a distinct contrast to Western Europe. There were no churches, only mosques. The call to prayer was so loud, because of the number of mosques, it was almost deafening. It felt much more eastern. On a separate note, it also felt a lot less developed. The streets outside of the old town were filled with houses that weren’t finished, rubbish and rubble in the roads, and a tangle of electricity wires hanging overhead. The one museum that was there had no information, not a single board explaining about the exhibits. But it was also still definitely Balkan - the corn on the cobs were everywhere in the main square. The Kosovo twist on Balkan food was very good, I really enjoyed my traditional meal here (but more on the food later). On my last evening in Prizren there was a big storm, with torrential rain and lightning. When it eased up I went out to get some food. The fort on the nearby hill looked so mysterious in the stormy weather and with the colours of the sunset. Before I’d really decided it I was on my way up. It was amazing, and reminded me of why I travel. The storm had moved on at this point, leaving the air damp and heavy. I could see the lightning in the distance still. I hurried down in the dark, realising I’d forgotten to actually buy the food I’d gone out to get. In the safety of the hostel I ate the only food I had, a bread roll I’d saved from a restaurant and honey.
A tiny bit of the situation there: the ethnicity of Kosovo is 95% Albanian, 1.5% Serbian, and the rest a mixture of others. It was most recently a region of Serbia and Serbia does not recognise its independence (hence the dotted border on the Serbian side on google maps). It seems like their argument is based on the Serbian populations living in the north, and that historically it’s been part of Serbia. But it seems strange to me since so much of Kosovo is Albanian. Who knows what will happen there, I wish I had more insight but alas no free walking tour! Since I’ve left Kosovo tensions have risen dramatically, with the Kosovo government preventing Serbians moving freely in and out of the country. I’m very glad I was able to fit it in before anything dramatic happens!
The horrors of Balkan buses
Kosovo takes the top spot as being the hardest Balkan country to get a bus in. The reason nothing has gone terribly wrong on my trip so far is because I refuse to leave the bus station without finding information on the bus I need to get the following day. I was close to giving up in Prizren however.
There was a huge information desk in the bus station, but not a single person managing it. I sat and waited for 20 minutes hoping someone would appear, but had no such luck. I scanned all of the bus timetables on the wall, but couldn’t see any with my destination. I wandered around the station until I found the police room, I knocked on the door to see 3 policeman watching TV on their phones. I asked them for help and they were entirely useless, taking me back to the main room and looking as surprised as me when there was no one behind the desk. He then told me that there was no bus to Shkoder (my hopeful destination in Albania). I didn’t believe him however, so continued my search alone. I ended up in a little office round the front of the station with a woman that only spoke albanian, and a man that only spoke turkish. Together with google translate I managed to ask them for help, and after them ringing and texting with someone, they told me that there was a bus at 8am the next day heading to Ulcinq, Montenegro that stops in Shkoder! Online it said the bus was at 10am, so I’m very glad I checked at the bus station…
The 8am bus did indeed exist and I caught it to Shkoder. Sadly the bus driver interpreted Shkoder loosely, so it dropped me 4km out of the town centre. It wasn’t a fun walk in the heat with my bag, but I made it!