Prištinë

Prištinë, as the capital of the young Republic of Kosovo (2008), was on my to-do list mainly because of solidarity reasons. I was also curious about how things work in a country which is still not recognized as independent by its biggest neighbour Serbia. People and guidebooks agree that there's "not much to see" in Prištinë, but I'm still glad that I visited.

I came by bus from Skopje - I would've had to wait at least an hour for the municipal bus to take me to my chosen hitchhiking spot, while the central bus station was only a 10 minutes walk away, so this time it was really way more convenient to spend the 5€ on a direct connection.

Although the distance between the two cities is not so big, the journey lasted 2 1/2 hours. Most of the time we spent at the border crossing of course; on the Kosovar side we even all had to get out of the minibus and have our luggage scanned (luckily, no unpacking). Again the bus driver collected all the passports and disappeared - I really don't like being in that situation, be it only for a few minutes.

Anyway, when I arrived in Prištinë, I didn't really have a place to stay. I had only decided to go there the night before, and my original host Diamant (yes, that's his name) had his house filled with refugees, who were unlucky enough to arrive on a weekend, when authorities don't work at all. He had sent me an SMS though, telling me to find a cafe and contact him when I arrive, so that's exactly what I did. In the meantime I remembered being in contact with another couchsurfed, Florim, so I asked him if he happened to have a place for the night. An god bless the smartphones, he replied within minutes, offering me a bed in his spacious apartment.

(My arrival was greeted by this Bill Clinton statue on Bill Clinton Boulevard - he approved military actions of the NATO against Serb troops in 1999.)

This being set, I still waited for Diamant and had a coffee with him. He is working with EU-LEX, the European Mission in Kosovo, and mostly he talked about how things go wrong - people simply don't seem to do what they're paid for and spend their time in Prištinë's cafés instead.

After I had left my backpack in a café and said goodbye to Diamant, I finally got to wander around the city center a bit. I found it lovely. It's really hard to capture great street atmospheres like these in pictures, but let me tell you that there was people everywhere, from 0 to 99, playing, watching, chatting, sipping coffee, and, of course, smoking like chimneys.

In the early evening my newly found host Florim was ready to meet, and after I had taken a shower we went out for dinner. It was one of those dishes that look really boring on pictures but taste lake heaven: "Tavë" (which originally just means "clay pot") consisted of sliced spicy sausages baked under a cover of cheese, served with bread. Super delicious!

For dessert I continued with another originally Albanian delicacy: Trileqe ("tri-leche"), which seemed like bread soaked in milk and topped with caramel. Delicious anyway :)

The next day I slept in and then spent the day like pretty much everyone else, sipping coffees in different cafés all over the town. It was great to sit outside all day, but the downside of this was that I passively smoked as many cigarettes as when I used to visit my great-grandmother (which means: unbelievable amounts that make me cough day and night).

People seem to have a very different perception of what a Cappucchino is, though. The first one I ordered consisted of milk and whipped cream more than anything else, and the second was super sweet and chocolate-y. On my third try I ordered a Macchiato - and got what we would call a Cappucchino :D

I also left no stone unturned to find Fli, another popular delicacy, distantly reminding you of a multi-layered pancake. I first thought it wasn't more like a snack, but it actually kept me full throughout the whole day.

When the sun slowly started setting, I suddenly looked at the map and realized that I hadn't seen anything at all except from the very city center. So I ventured away from the pedestrian walk a bit, through a lovely park and narrow streets with dozens of newly built houses. Of course, the highly discussed "NEWBORN" monument was on the way as well (the location is really badly chosen).

For those of you who might have imagined Kosovo as a rather conservative Muslim country (like I did, for whatever reason): it really isn't. Like in Shkodrë, I saw approximately five people dressed in a religious manner (one of them was a nun :D), and everyone was super sexy on the streets, no matter which time of the day. I didnt stay out longer that 9 pm, but according to my host, Prištinë has a great nightlife. If you ask me, even if the bars are only half as full during nighttime as they are during the day, it's already a better party than in Vienna :D