KOSOVO
Kosovo was country 89, another trip I had to cancel during the Covid-19 pandemic. Finally, I am catching up with all the cancelled trips and managed to visit Kosovo, Albania and North Macedonia.
Kosovo has been a great surprise with extremely friendly people and beautiful places to visit. Very beautiful but also VERY polluted with plastic EVERYWHERE, not only in the big cities but also in nature where I went hiking (more on this later). I wished they were a little bit more conscious about their use of single-use plastic: it was irritating getting a plastic stick every time you ordered a coffee so you could stir it (metallic spoons or wooden sticks are not an option!). Not to mention the number of straws they put in drinks and the amount of plastic bags offered in shops.
I started my trip to Pristina, the capital city. It is a relatively small city and I never used public transport, I did all my sightseeing on walking. The only public transport I used was a taxi from the airport to my hotel in the city centre and that cost 25 EUROs. Yes, Kosovo uses Euros so if you come from a Euro Zone country it makes it very easy as you don't need to exchange money.
I also bought a SIM card in the city centre and it was incredibly cheap: 3 EUROs for 10GB of data. I bought it from VALA, a mobile provider and they have a shop in the city centre.
PRISTINA
XHAMIA E MADHE
This is a mosque that was very close to my hotel and I decided to go there first. Not the most impressive mosque I have seen in my travels but still worth checking out
Brotherhood and Unity
Unfortunately, I was only able to take a picture of part of this monument. The rest was scaffolded and painted with bright pink paint.
This is a “spomenik” mostly made of concrete and dedicated to the fallen partisans of WW2.
NATIONAL THEATRE OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOSOVO
MOTHER THERESA STATUE
This will be the constant of the trip, also in Albania and Kosovo. The way these countries idolise this figure is very interesting. Society for a long time forced us to think all Mother Theresa did was good...but when you read into the history of this dark figure you can see that wasn't all good. We immediately associate Mother Theresa with a saint figure as soon as her name is mentioned but she did so bad and promoted bad ideologies. From trying to convert to her religion poor people in India, to being very outspoken against abortion and contraception. This is one of the many statues / churches / museums that I will encounter during the trip.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT STATUE AND SQUARE
In Pristina, it was apparent that Mother Theresa wasn't the only obsession. Soon I discovered the second, or possibly the first obsession of this country: The USA. Celebrating US politicians and former first ladies.
This is a statue of Madeleine Albright...of course, she has a statue AND a square!
THE CLINTONS
This was possibly the most bizarre USA celebration in Pristina. Not only there is a long boulevard named after former US President Bill Clinton...but he also has his statue with a backdrop of US flags!
If this wasn't bizarre enough, next to the statue there is also a shop called HILLARY. The owner had the genius idea to sell similar clothes the former First Lady, Hillary Clinton, used to wear: the infamous PANTSUIT! The shop became very popular and they even opened a second one! Sadly they don't sell the iconic pantsuits anymore but mostly evening gowns. Hillary herself once visited the shop during a trip to Kosovo and inside there is a small shrine with a picture of the First Lady! The shop is literally next to Bill Clinton statue!
I was extremely disappointed that they have statues of Bill Clinton, and a shop named after Hillary....but nothing to celebrate Monica!
NEWBORN
This is a monument that was unveiled back in 2008 when Kosovo finally declared independence from Serbia. Kosovo is a relatively new country and sadly still not recognised by many! It is painted each year with different colourways.
YOUTH AND SPORT CENTRE
A beautiful brutalist building. Possibly one of the best I have seen during my trips. It is right behind the NEWBORN monument.
MOTHER THERESA CATHEDRAL
Again another example of a celebration of Mother Theresa. This is a really beautiful church and the stained glass design inside is interesting.
THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF KOSOVO
STREET ART
PEJA
I visited Peja just after Pristina. Getting to Peja was relatively easy and cheap. I walked to Pristina's city centre to the bus station, It was a 40-minute walk but you can easily take a cheap taxi there.
For bus timings I have used this website: here. For Kosovo was very accurate with the timetable but it was not possible to book tickets online unless for the one crossing to Albania ( more on this later).
I took the 9 AM bus and there is roughly a bus every hour to Peja. The tickets are not sold at a ticket office but directly on the bus. take a seat and someone will come to collect the money. The ride Pristina-Peja cost 5 Euros.
I went to Peja mostly for doing some small hikes. Peja was not my favourite place in Kosovo, it is very dirty and they have a huge problem with plastic pollution. Unless you go hiking I do not recommend visiting as the city doesn't really have much to offer.
The city centre is very small. there is a bazaar but it is mostly a place that sells fake fashion, cigarettes or plastic toy guns. So really not interesting when you compare it to other bazaars.
There is a small mosque in the heart of the Bazaar, but nothing exceptional. Market Mosque:
HIKING. Unless you are a group of people getting a guide to take you to the top of the mountain was impossible...unless you were ready to spend at least 200 Euros which is crazy to have someone driving a car for 25 minutes and then walking with you. Public transport wasn't an option as it is inexistent. I was very surprised by the lack of options for hiking considering it is a hiking destination. They all rely on cars which is crazy when we are so conscious about the environment and the impact they are having. But again I shouldn't have been surprised considering the lack of respect for nature I experienced in Kosovo. So I decided to be resourceful and I used Komoot to find more local hiking trails. You can find some trails that you can access from the city and I spent a full day hiking. Make sure to download the map on your phone as the trails are badly signed and it is easy to get lost: I got lost a few times!
PRIZREN
My final stop in Kosovo was Prizren and possibly the best place I visited during the trip.
To get to Prizren I took a bus from Peja bus station which is conveniently located quite centrally.
As in my previous bus journey, you don't buy a ticket at a ticket office but you do that on the bus. The journey Peja-Prizren takes around 1 hour and 45 minutes. The bus station in Peja is very small and there is nothing more than a small kiosk and a cafe. So don't go more than 15 minutes before your bus is due to leave. Buses in Kosovo always left and arrived on time.
Prizren is really small and I have spent only 2 days there: more than enough! It is a super nice place, with nice restaurants and very vibrant....but mostly to my surprise VERY CLEAN! the rubbish and pollution I experienced in Pristina and Peja were all gone and the city was super clean.
It is a very small city so you can literally see everything in half day as most things are in the city centre.
There is a nice fortress on top of the hill and you can either walk there ( it is a steep walk but doable) or take a quad bike there. Quad bikes are waiting at the bottom of the hill waiting to take people to the fortress. Beautiful views of the city and the mountains.
And finally some nice pieces of street art too!
All in all, I really enjoyed my trip to Kosovo, the hospitality of the people and the places I got the chance to visit. As a relatively new country, they face big challenges but one they should tackle ASAP is their pollution because this is really ruining the amazing places.
Prizren was my last stop in Kosovo before entering Albania ( a country I didn’t like and that i left a week earlier). More on this and how to get to Albania in my next blog post.
