The world's newest country

I really wish I could find a computer and internet connection competent enough to add pictures to these posts. (EDIT - ask and ye shall receive! Although blogger would only let me upload half the photos for this post.)

Have I blogged yet about how much Ohrid sucks? It was an overcrowded tourist trap (I don't care that it was Macedonian/regional tourists) and everyone in the service industry there was beyond rude. I did meet a very nice Macedonian high school student on the bus (or rather looking for the bus) from Ohrid to Sveti Naum on July 31. She brought me to her family's little trailer at the campground that borders Albania and her mother stuffed me full of food. The monastary in Sveti Naum is worth seeing, and the beaches there looked like the best along lake Ohrid, but I only had about an hour on the beach because I'd gotten such a late start to the day.


On August 1 (I lose track of what day of the week it is, but not the date) I left Ohrid at the crack of dawn and went via Skopje to Prishtina. The border guard gave me my Kosovo stamp on a separate card because Serbia is not admitting people with Kosovo's new stamp in their passports.

We were dropped of in Prishtina on corner with a cafe called "Nazi."
A friendly Macedonian of Albanian ethnicity helped me find my hotel. He told me he had been an air traffic controller making a very nice salary in Skopje until the anti-Albanian government had him fired, and, over the protests of EU colleagues, replaced with a less qualified worker (yikes!). He's now making 10% of his former salary.


I spent the hot part of the afternoon enjoying the free internet at this very nice guesthouse that is unfortunately quite far from the center. Then I went and explored town. There's not much to see here, but it is interesting to get the feel of a city so dominated by the UNMIK (UN Mission in Kosovo). There were a few neat buildings including the stadium, a half-finished Orthodox (Serbian) church, the university library that is quite literally in a cage, the old Serbian quarter's mosques and museum; and various monuments to war dead, Mother Teresa, and the 3-story tall picture of Bill Clinton that sits 10 stories up on Bill Klinton Avenue.








Yesterday I took a bus to Prizren, the city that Serbians consider essential to their history and cultural identity. It was worth a look around but after all of the castles/fortresses I've seen I just couldn't bring myself to hike up to the castle in the heat, so I missed the views. One of the most interesting sites around town was the old Turkish baths, where they had an exhibition of photos from the war in Afghanistan. Their brand new city hall thanks the countries that have recognized Kosovo.



Traveling by bus in Kosovo is interesting. In many parts of the Balkans, the bus stations are full of different bus companies and it's extremely difficult to figure out the schedule, as agents will only tell you when their own buses leave. I found Prishtina's bus station to be a particularly confusing version of this. But the buses themselves were in decent shape and I was served chocolate on one and a cookie and small cup of Coke on another.

Today was absolutely wonderful. For the last two nights I'd had some good conversations with an Italian guy staying in the guesthouse. He's touring on his motorbike and invited me along for a daytrip to Peja (which I was going to skip because its sites are impossible to reach by bus) and Mitrovica. We stopped along the road to take photos and in fact I took more photos today than any day of my trip: scenic photos, rubble that has not been removed or rebuild, gravesites from the conflict. It is a really convenient way to travel, and a great pilates-like workout for the butt to stay on the motorcycle for so long.



The Petriarchate of Peć is, according to Lonely Planet, the "Sistine Chapel of the Serbian Orthodox Church." Italian KFOR soldiers guard the church complex and you have to hand over your passport to enter, although if someone was serious about attacking, the 5 soldiers, their rifles and their iPod with its cheap speakers would need some serious backup: they are more of a deterrent measure than a real force.


The frescos inside the church were impressive, but I most enjoyed the mulberry tree in the courtyard. My companion chatted with the soldiers quite a bit and it seems like they have a pretty good life - he said they make 10k euro a month plus room and board and they'll get a pension and much respect upon their return home. The country is beautiful (although probably harder in the winter), they are well respected here, and they get to basically hang out in a fairly safe job. After our chat we motored along the Rugova canyon (outside the part of Kosovo protected by KFOR, so basically Serbia??), which is pretty, and got caught in the rain, a huge drawback to traveling by motorcycle.

Mitrovice is not a scenic town but it is an essential visit. The town is divided by the river; the south side is Kosovar and the north Serbian. The divide is complete. Although you do not go through customs, KFOR guards both ends of the bridges (one bridge French, the other Austrian). To the south, the currency is the euro, the language and alphabet are Albanian, the religion is Muslim. To the north, the currency is the Serbian dinar, the language and alphabet are Serbian/cyrrilic, and the religion is Orthodox.


On the way back to Prishtina we stopped at a Martyr's Cemetry.


Edit Aug 4: Today I went to the Gadime cave. A wheezing old man with arthritic knees was my tour guide, and as he smoked several cigarettes in the cave he insisted I touch some of the formations and pose for obligatory pictures. I was horrified.


Then I went to the Gracanica monastary, guarded by Swedish KFOR. It was impressive, particularly from the outside, but the Petriarchate frescos made Gracanica less special to see.