Prishtina, Kosovo
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Prishtina,
Serbia and Montenegro
Friday, October 7, 2005
SHOCK NEWS: PRISHTINA DOESN'T WIN 'BEAUTIFULEST CITY IN THE WORLD' AWARD.
But, it may win an award for the number of huge 4WD's driven by UN personnel appearing t do very little. And of course, the newly paved streets of Prishtina require such a large, cumbersome, fuel-guzzling car. And no more than one person in each vehicle at a time please...... I'm sure the UN must do a good job really.
We stayed here for one night as our attempts to travel 150kms in a day failed. Our plan was to get from Kotor in Montenegro to Podgorica, then to Rozaje, then Peja in Kosovo, then Prishtina and finally Skopje in Macedonia. But, we failed. The last trip was a bus journey too far, so we gt our heads down in Kosovo for the night. There wasn't much to do and see, but the people were the most frendly we have come across so far this trip. This tends to be the case when there are next to no tourists - we didn't see anyone else lugging arund backpacks or suitcases.
In fact, as we left Serbia & Montenegro, the border guard pointed at us and laughed. Not once, but twice. He thought it was hilarious that people would choose to go to Kosovo. Then, at the UN-controlled Kosovan border the guards there spoke to us for about 10 minutes, wondering why we were there. Partly they wanted to practise their English, but mainly they wondered why.....
The scenery is pretty nice in the vale that is Kosovo, but the best part for me were the signs attached to many pieces of unoccupied land, or houses. SHITEJET it said, which I presume is not the Kosovan entry into the budget airline market, but rather less interestingly means for sale.
N.B. I can confirm that although in Coventry large numbers of Kosovans hang out next to the statue of Lady Godiva, the same doesn't happen here. In fact, there were no Kosovans under any large canopies in front of shopping centres, or naked women on horseback.
