Hotel Real Pristina

... here for a second to properly convey my experience so bear with me. I was midstream when Mr. Three Teeth walked right up to me, bent down towards the stream and took a close look. I am thinking what the hell is this idiot doing and he then pointed to the wall toilet and told me something in Bosnian which I assume was to be careful and aim well. Maybe he was worried I would foul up his oh so fresh facilities. Trust me, I wanted to be in and out ...

... erfunden wurde, soviele Pizzerien habe ich noch nirgendwo gesehen. Seit Sofia habe ich uebrigens kein McDonalds mehr gesehen, amerikanische Ketten haben es noch nicht in diese Kleinstaaten geschafft.

Am Bushof in Pristina hat man mir mitgeteilt, dass es Busse nur am fruehen Nachmittag oder am fruehen morgen (4 Uhr) gibt. Keine Nachtbusse. Nun, Pristina ist eine Kleinstadt und hat nicht viel zu bieten, daher habe ich einen Bus am Nachmittag gebucht und mir die ...

... to get to Bulgaria so the next morning we all got got online and started looking for bus or train info. Annoyingly, we couldnt find any info anywhere on getting out of Kosovo...

We checked some travel forums, they had nada. There were some articles talking about buses once or twice a week to Croatia but no details on times or places to get them.

Was getting frustrated at this point. This was the first time that I'd not been able to figure out my travel plans ...

... cost, is the chance to meet other travelers and/or to more or less have an apartment in a foreign country on a temporary basis. They come in all flavors, from sub-leased flats to extra rooms in somebody's house. The 'profesor's place is more like the latter, complete with instructions to remove shoes. I tell him that's no problem after living in Thailand for ten years. I think some of these people get a kick out of seeing an old ...

... to Michael Palin, and it certainly shouldn't happen to a supermarket worker. Just past four o'clock the bus station began to come alive, well that's how better writes would describe it- in reality some lights came on and some Kosovars appeared. A huge tv mounted on a wall then sprang on, giving a more comprehensive weather forecast than I ever thought possible. Disturbingly they all had better mobile phones than me (although there are ...

... spent several days in Pristina and was able to visit two nearby towns as well. And altogether, I found Kosovo to be a fascinating place. The country felt like the center of intersecting religions, cultures, time periods... everything. There are UN and foreign military personnel who share the streets with german luxury cars, peasants with horse carts, and school children who would fit in at any American school. The cities also felt incredibly safe and comfortable to be in too ...

I'll take independence without infrastructure for 2 million, please Alex. Kosovo Diatribe I By Dho I was there three weeks ago. The ground was covered in snow and fog filled the sky for most of the day. I had heard Kosovo was a "shithole", but I had brushed it aside as overt racism. Little did I know, it is true. We just smiled and nodded at the soldiers as they watched us, with a little bit of confusion contorting their faces as we crossed the bridge with our packs on our ...

... black...an there was no chain linked, bard-wire lined fence. It was 4:42 am, though, and I was on a bus. Had been for eleven hours, performing contortion exercises in the two seats I had scavenged, using all my mental powers to block out the strains of Albanian pop bombarding me from the speaker above my head. Oh what a night to have forgotten my earplugs in my pack beneath the bus! Customs was amazingly brief, though. They didn't even stamp my passport. I'm a little bitter ...

... I had to take a shower. Through the traellers' highway, I had heard that Kosovo had regular power and water outtages. I talked to the staff to confirm the times of these but they assured me that it's "ne problim" multiple times. You know where this is going. Halfway through my shower, the lights go out and minutes later, the hot water. Good thing I was prepared. And from Albania's regular blackouts, I've also developed the ability to work in the dark.

... from, why we had come to Kosovo, and if we would take their photo too!! One of the younger men was translating for us, and everyone was trying to teach us a few words of Albanian and laughing at our mangled attempts (it's a tough language!!). The next day, we were back in the market browsing for souvenirs when a stall keeper grabbed Dan and started gesturing and saying something in Albanian. There was a lot of honking behind us, and we eventually turned ...