Balkans - Part 5

09 Jan 2016 . category: Travel . Comments
#Balkans

Day 6: One Day, Three Countries

That morning we went to the Maritime museum, which despite audio guides, was overall a bit mediocore. We returned to our beloved Tanjga for lunch (Aaron intelligently saved half his sandwich for later). Here’s a shot of one of the sandwiches with our trusty Lonely Planet on the table:

We then took the bus to Ulcinj, the southernmost town in Montenegro. On the bus, we meet this great French guy who had quit his job (he was a programmer of some sort) and was traveling from France to Japan overland. It seemed super intense - perhaps in my future?

At the Ulcinj bus station, Aaron almost murdered me after I left the guidebook on the bus after he specifically asked if I had it…oops. I had let the French guy read it for awhile, and forgot to put it back in my backpack. Thankfully, crisis averted and my life was saved when Aaron noticed a confused Montenegrin man wandering the bus station with a English Lonely Planet book.

From Ulcinj we traveled to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo (country #5!). On the bus we met a nice Kosovar girl who didn’t quite understand our fear about losing our passports (someone had walked down the aisle collecting everyone’s passport). Thankfully he was legit and we did get our passports back. On the way to Pristina, the bus went through Albania (country #4!), where we stopped for dinner. Despite paying in a mix of dollars and euros and getting ripped off by the exchange rate, dinner was still dirt cheap. This trip was turning out to be amazingly affordable!

We arrived in Pristina very late in the evening, and found no taxis at the bus station. So we just set off toward our hotel, only to find this one taxi driver just chilling on a highway exit ramp…not sketchy at all right? Thankfully he didn’t rip us off, and we arrived at Hotel Prima in one piece. A real hotel - our classiest place yet!

Day 7: Pristina

This day started with an amazing hotel breakfast complete with fruits and vegetables! Next we hit up the Kosovo National Museum and Independence House. The former included a lot of interesting relics from the war, and like most of the other museums we saw, was quite partisan:

We also walked up the hill to the NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) compound area, where there was a scary wall and large signs forbidding photography. I believe there’s still a significant foreign military presence in Kosovo given the continued controversy over its sovereignty. For example, I think Serbia gets mad if you enter Serbia from Kosovo or something like that.

We also swung by Bill Clinton Boulevard, as well as a statue of the man himself. Given his role in the conflict, it seems he’s highly respected locally:

While we were walking to the bus stop, a random young person stopped me on the street and asked for a picture…a bit weird but he seemed friendly enough (I was on edge and thought he might’ve been a pickpocket). Not exactly sure why, maybe East Asians are still rare enough or something? I was instructed to make this symbol for the Albanian Eagle. Definitely indicative of a large enthusiasm for Albania. The entire city had lots of Albanian flags, and the Independence House described it as “two states, one people.” Wondering if they’re headed for union after NATO withdrawal…

We then left Kosovo for Skopje, the capital of Macedonia (officially the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia due to a naming dispute with Greece). You’ll notice that it’s the seventh day and we’re still on the sixth country. The trip’s title isn’t a lie though - we hit seven countries from the second to the eighth day (inclusive)! We continued our friendly bus chats with two Kosovar guys on the bus who talked about how shitty they think their country is and joked about having drugs when we got stopped for an inordinate amount of time at the border.

We then walked around Skopje for awhile - a city that has major statues everywhere! The cities were definitely getting sadder though, from the beautiful Kotor to now Soviet Skopje. Highlights included the Mother Teresa House (she was born in Skopje when it was still part of the Ottoman Empire).

Other sights: Kosovo National Library.

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