Hotel Theranda Prizren

Prizren -- September 11

Our final stop in Kosovo was the town of Prizren. Prizren lies near the Albanian and Macedonian borders and is considered the "jewel"in the crown of Kosovo. So we headed to the bus station in Gjakova and were on a bus to Prizren within a few minutes.

45 minues later we arrived in Prizren, and after taking a taxi (2 euro) to our pension, we were ready to start seeing the sights. Our ...

... entering, we had to check in with the Swedish KFOR troops who guard the monastery to prevent any possible conflicts between the majority Albanian Kosovars and the local Serbs. The monastery has incredible frescos in good condition, and the architecture alone makes it worth the trip. In a few years after some restoration, it will really be a gem.

As we walked around the monastery taking pictures, Craig must have ...

... that is lined for miles with the typical concrete monstrosities that pass as apartment houses. One cool thing in Skopje is that the traffic signals count down the seconds until the light turns green. I don't think that would work back home in Atlanta since people would probably start moving ten seconds too early and **** up the intersections with wrecks.

I also noticed groups of workers edging and mowing the medians and sidewalks with ...

bonjour ou bonsoir... j,avais raison de penser que cette journee serait un defi...c,en fut un... lever a 4 heures 30 pour prendre l,autobus de 5 heures trente qui est parti a 5 heures 20... heureuse4ment j,etais la... puis l,autobus de podgorica vers prizren est ausi parti avant l,heure... j,y etais aussi... on a traverse une immense chaine de montagnes... soudain la foret ressemblait a la notre au quebec... les gens dans le bus ...

... from Serbia. On the one hand, this would make for some euphoric scenes of nationalism and ecstatic crowds. On the other, the Serbs can be assured to take it... personally. Anticipation when we arrived was thick and delightful: from the taxi drivers to the street vendors a sense of victory exudes from every smile. The mood was reinfored with stencilled graffiti on hundreds of buildings: No Negotiating. Prishtina is surprising in a lot of ways. I have a ...

Kosovo is back to looking like Romania, as I discovered from my bus rides around the region. Rolling farmland and huge mountians, acutally more impressive than Romania's. My first day out of Prishtina, I travel to Peja, on the way to Montenegro. On the bus, as seems to be becoming a habit of mine, I befriend the ticket guy. Fortunately, this one speaks good English. He offers to give me a ride to the monastery outside of Peja and getting no psycho vibes, I accept. However, before ...

We were sorry to leave Pristina yesterday and took our time getting to the bus station, bidding a fond farewell to the professor's pensione. We had been recomended a visit to Prizren by the owner of our hostel in Sarajevo, a Kosovar woman who told us that it was a beautiful town with lots of the Turkish Ottoman houses and old mosques still intact. After a bumpy but beautiful bus ride, we arrived in Prizren, near the Albanian ...

I'm sitting in an internet cafe dealing with an aggravatingly slow connection and - worse yet - listening to the girl running it play the exact same song over and over and over again. I probably shouldn't complain too much since it's really cheap, but man . . . . . why?? Surely you'd have had enough by the 15th listen? Anyways. . . Today I got out to the small city of Prizren, in the southwest of Kosovo. Widely considered the province's most attractive town, it's a definite switch from ...

Well, what to say about Kosovo. It was great. Alot of coffee and great hospitality. We staying in the place near to Pristina. It was a small little town called Lypjan. We didn't spend that much time there. We only spent 4 full days there, but the time was great. We went to the Marble Caves, it was so wickedly cool. I got alot of great pictures of the Caves and met alot of great people while I was there. Everyday, atleast 3 times the power went ...

As bro and I looked for a place to eat breakfast, it occurred to me that Kosovars are really skinny. Our bus driver from Novi Pazar, who played the same four songs on his cd seventeen times, was 6' and 150 lbs. All of the professor's assistants seem rather thin (but he's a jolly exception). All of the staff in the restaurant where we bought some food last night were slim. In general, the people we pass on the street are not all skinny as a rail, but they are ...