At the start of the trip we didn’t know if we would make it to Kosovo but if we managed to have a few days up our sleeve we thought we would go and dip our toes in the water at the capital Pristina. Well we did have a few days before we left so we headed on over.
I can remember hearing about the Kosovan war when I was in high school and I suppose it was the first war where I was old enough to understand what I was seeing on the TV. Therefore it was pretty surreal thinking we would be visiting and I was wondering what the place would be like.
We arrived from Lake Ohrid after a very easy two bus trip and set up in our hotel then went for a quick bite to eat. After a short walk around the main square we headed back to the hotel as we were freezing! We thought we were doing okay with acclimatising but by the end of our short walk our faces were freezing. We checked the temp and it was -2!
The next day we had earmarked as museum day and set off after breakfast to the ethnographic museum. When we arrived we were told that half was shut due to renovations but the man was very nice and told us what to see and do in the city. Unfortunately he started the explanation of telling us that there is not much in Pristina and we should go to Prizren as it was a much more pretty city. Oh well! After viewing the old Ottoman house we ventured off to the Museum of Kosovo.
Well I must admit that this was probably one of the worst museums we have ever been to. There were two floors, the bottom filled with ancient pottery and tools etc with not a lot of information on where they came from etc. The second story was filled with guns and uniforms from the army. It was very underwhelming considering we were hoping for at least a little information on the history of the country etc.
Well we had ticked off 2 of the 3 major sites in the city and we were not even ready for lunch! Luckily we had a bit of a walk to the next stop which was the National Library. To get to the library we got to walk along the wide pedestrianised boulevard lined with clothes and coffee shops and tiny book stores. Every time we walked down the boulevard it was always busy with people walking up and down and gave the impression of a real hustle and bustle about the place.
The National Library is situated right next to the university and it’s the most imposing building in the city. It was a pretty impressive building made all the more imposing due to the grey sky and leafless trees in the surrounding park. It was once voted most ugly building in the world but we kind of thought it was cool. Once we laid eyes on that we had a bit of free time on our hands and very underwhelmed with our tour of Pristina so far we thought we would go for a spot of lunch.
Our lunch spot increased our spirits as it was a very cool cafe filled with the young office working North Macedonians and a fair share of tourists. We got to sit back and eat delicious food and watch the world go by. It was here that we noticed how striking the North Macedonian women were with very sharp angular facial features. This coupled with their very elegant sense of style reminded us a lot of Russian women. This surprised us somewhat as Kosovo was part of Albania until 1912 when it was annexed by the Serbs. Yet they reminded us more of the Slavic nations than Albania.
When reading the Lovely Planet it was evident that there were not too many sites to see in the city but what you did get to experience was the wonderful atmosphere in the city in one of the last off the beaten track countries in Europe. But that is difficult to experience when you are only there for a few days and it felt more westernised than a lot of small French villages we have visited. One of the reasons for this I think is that when the communists came in they tore down a lot of the old architecture to build a new communist style city which I suppose doesn’t feel very off the beaten track. But sitting in the cafe watching the goings on you definitely did get a sense of the atmosphere they were talking about in the book.
Considering we had seen all the sites in one day we thought we would sign on to the free walking tour and see if the tour guide could provide a little more information on the city and country for us. Hilariously when we arrived the only other people on the tour were 2 other Aussies from Brisbane and an American who’s mother came from Brisbane. Such a small world when you go to the most undiscovered place in Europe to meet not only other Aussies but those from Queensland.
Our tour guide Astrid arrived and started giving us a historic run down of the country. I must admit we were a little distracted due to the street dogs that we had collected while standing and waiting for him. They had started to bark and attack every man that walked across the square we were standing in. Most were just barking but there was one who was getting a bit agressive. But every time there was a lull in foot traffic they would come back to us and be as nice as pie. It became pretty clear that they were protecting us. Kind of cute for us but not for everyone else trying to go about their business.
The walking tour pretty much covered the same ground we did the day before but we got a lot of great information from Astrid which explained a few things about the city for us. As we walked past the museum we visited yesterday he said that when the Serbians left they took all the artefacts from the museum so it is very much a work in progress at the moment.
Astrid also spoke quite extensively about the war and its impact on the people and what the future holds for the country. Like most Balkan countries Kosovo was passed around like a hot potato. After the first Balkan war in 1912 Kosovo was annexed from Albania and became under Serbian rule. From there they then became part of Yugoslavia in 1918 until 1974. The Kosovans always wanted their independence but Serbia always thought they were part of Serbia but unfortunately the Serbians didn’t really do much to help the Kosovans and from 1974 they were granted self government status as an autonomous Serbian state. This changed in the late 80’s and early 90’s where the Serbs tried to take them back but the Ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence. Serbia entered Kosovo and tried to remove the ethnic Albanians from the territory by force. In came NATO and America and they bombed the living hell out of eastern Kosovo. The Serbs retreated and Kosovo was declared its own country. Except the Serbians refuse to acknowledge that. Both nations are currently tentatively at peace with trade agreements even in place. But talking to Astrid about it there is definitely an underlying resentment towards the Serbs.
Astrid and his family when the conflict started in the late 90’s moved out of Pristina and went into the mountains and stayed in a school for a little while but the conditions were not great and food scarce so they moved back into the city. He said the city of Pristina went pretty much unscathed in the conflict as the bombings were all further east.
It was interesting when we asked questions about Tito and his communist rule while they were part of Yugoslavia and Astrid spoke very favourably of the time under his rule and we definitely haven’t seen a lot of evidence to suggest Kosovo was anti Tito like we did in Albania with Hoxha. The tour barely touched on this part of the countries’ history and it was definitely more centred around the Serbian conflict. Another interesting point he made was that there was only one country that loved the US more than Kosovo and that was the US themselves. Bill Clinton has his own boulevard and statue and Madeline Albright has a statue as well.
After the tour we shouted Astrid a coffee and we asked him about the coffee culture and how the cafes during the day are all so busy and shouldn’t people be at work and he said unemployment rates are 25-30% of the population which we found surprising but made sense as to why there were so many people out and about during the day. It also made a little more sense as it why the cafes were always busy but the restaurants were not.
We commended him on his English and how we found that almost everyone spoke English which we were surprised about but he simply shrugged and said that it used to be learnt to get an advantage but now it is pretty much a necessity.
We left for Skopje the next day glad that we made the effort to come to Kosovo but both said we probably wouldn’t come back to Pristina for a second visit. It wasn’t bad it was just that there wasn’t anything here that made us fall in love with the place. Though the people were lovely and welcoming and I sincerely hope they get the peace and prosperity that they deserve. S