Of Nato Soldiers and UN Trucks
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2006
1
55
120
Trip End
Sep 02, 2008
Prizren,
Serbia and Montenegro
Saturday, October 14, 2006
What's this all about, I wonder. Is this UN administered region malnourished? The war here has been offically over for a few years. Bro and I went to a nice little spot for breakfast that was both a bakery and a fast food joint. I had three cherry turnovers and he had a hamburger. The food was tasty, there is no reason not to eat it. With my cherry juice, it cost two Euros ten (The cherry juice here is quite good, I found a brand that tastes exactly like the Jolly Rancher cherry candy).
But there were not many folks in the restaurant eating breakfast with us. We wondered if perhaps the sort of breakfast we had may be too expensive for many of the locals, or had we come too late in the morning? Maybe it is that the cigarettes are too cheap and no one has an appetite. I don't think I will solve this question.
At the bus station, we got on a bus to Gracanica. It's a Serbian "enclave" in the middle of Albanian Kosovo that has popped up in the news a four dozen times since I graduated high school. Mostly these reports have focused on what newspapers call ethnic tension... Bro and I went to visit because there is a church and monastery compound that was founded in the 14th century.
Seven hundred years ago, Serbs formed the majority of the people in the region. That has changed over the years. Now the few ethnic enclaves of Serbs in Kosovo and the ancient churches are all that remain of these olden times in a sea of Albanian Kosovars. Serbia still claims this region as their own historical heritage, despite modern demographic realities. Albanian Kosovars deny this right. Churches like the one we visited in Gracanica are in the middle of the controversy.
It cost us fifty Euro cents each to get to Gracanica and the church was only a short walk from the bus stop. When we got off, I was surprised to see someone flying a Serbian flag, but it was only up for a moment and then when I tried to point it out it was gone from view. The church itself is surrounded by a 10' stone wall, with barbed wire on top. There are auto-obstacles in front of the sidewalk to prevent vehicles from ramming the wooden gate. A Swedish soldier was standing guard by a door is only big enough to accomodate people. We requested and he nodded his head giving permission to enter.
The church in question is a compact affair, perhaps 20 meters wide and 35 deep. It is dark inside, the product of centuries of burning beeswax candles. In the foyer many of the frescoes have been badly damaged. From what I could tell, during mob riots in the last few years many frescoes have been defaced; the eyes on many faces have been gouged out, and the paintings have been generally damaged as far up as one can reach.
Some faithful visitors came in to pray and visit. A nun bustled around, sweeping, staffing the booth in the foyer that sold icons, and generally kept an eye on everything. It was a short visit really, a church so small can be seen rather swiftly. The paitings are Byzantine in style, and the frescoes that were not deliberately damaged are in fine condition with soot blackening. While walking out, Bro and I wondered if the Swedish soldier spoke English, and we decided to find out if the place really needed an armed guard.
No, it's pretty good, he told us. He hasn't seen any violence. He has been there now four months of a nine month tour, and he enjoys his assigment mostly because of the danger pay. It seemed that his job must be very boring, but he said that he only has to stand guard for an hour and then someone comes by to replace him. We walked down to the bus stop and a Swedish jeep, flying a Swedish flag, drove down the road. It probably wasn't his replacement yet. I estimate that because to the south of Pristinė, Swedish jeeps drive by every five minutes (white broncos with UN decaled in black seem to drive by every minute).
For fifty cents more we were driven back to Pristina and we had only been out an hour. Since it was early, we decided to make a day trip to Prizren. It cost us three Euros each and the trip took three hours, driving through some of Europe's more beautiful scenery, although I was more enamoured than Bro was. The scenery is very pastoral. The bus made a few stops along the way, and one was at a stop that said it was proudly made by the UN organisation for making bus stops.
From what we could tell, the most important thing to see in Prizren was the ruined castle on the hill overlooking the city. It took us some time to make our way to the base of its hill, confusing as it was to walk through the back streets of a city of 220,000 (source: Prizren at Wikipedia.org). We found the base of the castle, and scrambled up the hill. On the top of the hill, the castle was a razed ruin and it is now something of a public park. We took some photos, watched a few choppers take off from the nearby KFOR base and caught our breath.
KFOR is a common acronym out here. Mariana first mentioned it, and its as close as anything comes to a government. The Prizren region is kept secure by the Germans, Austrians and Swiss (Some astute readers will notice that neither the Swiss, the Swedes nor the Ukranians, whom I have mentioned are part of Nato. KFOR is a special unit for Kosovo).
They are supposed to have been maintaining the region's security since 1999. One very stern German soldier manned a 50 cal. machine gun turret on a humvee-like vehicle. Near the base of the castle was another outpost, with two soldiers sitting smoking inside. One American I talked to in the region, a journalist named Christopher, questioned their efficacy. Rather than recounting too much, read an article on the local violence in 2004 here. Christopher contributes to the site, and for all I can tell, possibly wrote that article.
For our part, after finding the paved way down from the castle, we saw a hillside of burned-out houses, as razed as the ancient castle. They are former Serbian homes; Prizren was another Serb enclave centred around a medieval Orthodox church. There was no church to see as far as we could tell. We did find a thought provoking sign around the ruins (which were surrounded by barbed wire). I'll upload the photo soon, but essentially it said 'Stay out of the ruins, you may be shot at.' How exciting too see, on a superficial level; But tragic too. Ethnic Albanians are no longer simple victims in this morass. Their own organizations behave like Milosevic's government did only a few years ago.
We had ourselves a delicious dinner at a cafe in Prizren's old heart. The atmosphere was serene, and we sat outside on the cobbles of a pedestrian square being served by uniformed staff. Two beer and two medium sized pizzas cost us ten Euros including a generous tip. It took us a while to find a bus back to Pristinė, but we did in the end.
We took Sunday to see Pristinė. We had hoped to do some shoping but pretty much everything was closed. Few buses were running but we met two other backpackers and spent the day with them. We watched some local soccer rioting on antenna TV from the night before, and in the evening drank a bottle of local Merlot. It was delicious, and cheap (There are no taxes on anything!). It may be a shopper's paradise in knock-off deals, but there was not too much left to see in Kosovo. It was time to get a bus for Skopje, in Macedonia.
