Pristina - Kosovo

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  Pristina, Serbia and Montenegro
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Now, there was good reason for us to get to the EXIT festival via Kosovo.  It looked to be the only way to avoid the tourist toll rates on the roads in Serbia (works out at about $20 per hour's driving!).  We could then link up with a more minor road and get to the town of Novi Sad (where the festival was) via Belgrade.  Easy, non?

Well, we entered Kosovo, where we knew we needed to buy extra insurance, but hoped it would cover Serbia as well (although we knew Kosovo was now a separate territory, but not yet recognised by the UN as a separate independent state).  OK, no one spoke any English, so we paid our $50 and crossed our fingers it would.  We drove right through Kosovo, through the pit of hell known as Pristina (which was anything but!).  We all know of the effects of the war there, and the need for the country to rebuild itself, but the place was a sh*thole

Coolin' the engine - Kosovo

.  No other way to describe it.  The capital was just a manic concentrated version with not one street sign or anyone we found who spoke any English (you don't necessarily expect people to speak your language, but someone.........), and we eventually got to the border.  Much discussion amongst the border guards and we were told we couldn't pass into Serbia. 

The deal is (if you can follow it) :  we were stamped coming into Kosovo with a Kosovo stamp (logical) but because the borders between Kosovo and Serbia are not international and Serbian stamps are not issued, we could leave Kosovo but not get into Serbia.  The only way we could get into Serbia was to drive BACK through Kosovo and get lost AGAIN in the lovely Pristina, back into Macedonia, drive 20km round the corner to the Serbian border with Macedonia (on the bloody toll road we tried to avoid in the first place).  After a day's solid driving, not really what we wanted to hear, plus a complete waste of the insurance we'd bought there 2 hours before.
 
So, we retraced our steps back to the Kosovo/ Macedonia border, went to go into Macedonia again, and were told we'd have to buy extra insurance to enter (surely it could not get worse?).  When we'd come into Macedonia from Greece two days earlier, the customs guy had obviously forgotten to demand we got it......but this guy didn't.  So we were up for $70 for 1 more hour in Macedonia.  Our only win was that at the Serbian border when we got there, where the insurance was a lovely light-on-the-pocket $220, the border guy forgot to ask for it, so we drove straight through.  The insurance covers virtually nothing in case of an accident and is pretty much a scam really, but as the Serbian cops are known for being "eastern bloc zealous" in carrying out their duties, they can often stop you for your documents.  That would be time to play the dumb tourist.

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