Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sunday, 4th June, 2023.
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By the New Born monument in Pristina, Kosovo
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Hello again friends and readers and followers of our epic road trip from Madrid to Yerevan and back. We are now nearing the end of our travels and adventures which began on 21st April.
Today - day 46 of our trip - finds us in Sarajevo. We have visited France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Greece, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and now Bosnia. That is a total of 14 countries. I have lost count of the number of cities and towns we have been to but our itinerary is very well documented. This week saw us in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and Dubrovnik in Croatia, all countries in the Balkans we have always wanted to visit. If only we had time to explore them more. We have only touched the surface but must be back in Madrid for Oli's wedding on 16th June, at least by 11th June. But but let me rewind to last Sunday when we woke up in Thessalonika, Greece's second largest city.
That day we were leaving for a new country and a new city, Tirana in Albania. I have always been fascinated by this little Balkan country, unknown to most and not yet really on the tourist map. I was most interested in its communist period when it was a little like Europe's North Korea. Today it is a free country but one of the poorest in Europe. I wondered what it would be like.
Google Maps showed us the distance was 403km and would take 5.5h. It was completely wrong as it took us nearly 9 hours! It was only 188km from the border to Tirana but Google Maps doesn't know how bad the road is. It should, as it nearly sent us to our death. And what a journey. As we left the Greek city a panel on the dashboard showed our tyres were a little flat. It was difficult to find a garage to inflate them as there are no service stations on Greek motorways. You have to get off at one of the exits and hope there will be a petrol station nearby. Thankfully we found one and a young Greek did the job for us.
It was about 215km to the border at Kristallopogi in Greece which didn't take too long. We stopped for coffee in our flasks only to find one of them had emptied out on to our sandwiches for lunch - boohoo. I wondered what the border would be like. It should be ok leaving Greece as we are from the EU. Even so we had to go through 2 inspection points. I was worried about entering Albania as our Green Card had expired and I had lost my driving licence but at least have an international one. And here we are at the border last Sunday with not a very big queue.
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| At the border between Greece and Albania last Sunday |
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| Eladio at the border |
I got out of the car to take a video of the border crossing moment, something that we are not really used to any more after the existence of the EU. This is it. For the record we were crossing the border from Kristallopigi (GR) to Bilisht (AL) (funny name reminds me of "bullshit") - lots of towns have names ending in "sht" in Albanian I noticed. The funniest word I saw and I saw it everywhere was "shitet" meaning, I believe, for sale.
Crossing into Albania ended up being a diddle. They only asked for our passports and the "car's passport" and we were through. Here is proof that we made it into one of Europe's least known countries.
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| On Albanian soil |
One Albanian official asked where we going and when we said Tirana, he replied "beautiful Tirana". We hoped so. And there began our odyssey. We had read roads were not good in Albania but I had expected some sort of dual carriageway to the capital. There was no such thing until 40 km to go. We got a bit lost as we tried to find the right road to Tirana and Google Maps ended up telling us to cross a dilapidated bridge. Look closely and you will see it has no barriers and looks like it might fall any moment. Needless to say we did not cross it. It was a far cry from the 1915 Çanakkale bride in Turkey hahahaha.
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| The bridge Google Maps tried to make us cross |
We had to ask some locals how to get on the right road. They appeared most interested in us. I was equally interested in them. We found the right road but what an awful road it was. What was beautiful was the countryside. At the beginning it was farming land and we saw plenty of ponies and traps and then we went past some beautiful lakes - huge ones. I later read they were Lake Prespa and Lake Pogradec. If we had had time we would have stopped. Then the mountain area began and it all seemed to look like a poorer version of Switzerland. There was much more traffic than I had imagined and with only one lane and lots of lorries we progressed very slowly. At one stage we stopped to eat our horrible sandwiches which we shared with some ubiquitous lame dogs and then continued our journey. It was interesting to see what Albania looked like; dreadful in parts and beautiful in others. We stopped to spend a penny and once again I came face to face with a Turkish type loo. Thankfully there was a restaurant next door where they had normal toilets. The restaurant looked as good as any one you would find in Western Europe.
I took the wheel for the last hour or so of the journey and soon we were on the only bit of motorway that existed and then my friends the heavens opened. I have never driven in such torrential rain. Thankfully I was able to take refuge on a layby and wait for it to recede. It was absolutely frightening but once it receded I was determined to "conquer" Tirana as I had conquered Yerevan; i.e be at the wheel entering the capital. It was very much a "veni, vidi, vici" moment when we arrived at our lovely Airbng bang in the city centre. This was
it. And there were Hava, the owner, and her son, Floren, waiting for us with open arms. They own a big house and plot of land where they have built two lovely self contained apartments. The best thing is you can park inside the property. We loved the place so much I took a
video to show you.
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| Our lovely Airbnb in Tirana from the outside |
We had only planned to stay one night but it was too late to see the city and we were so tired we decided to extend our stay to 2 nights. Unfortunately Hava's place was booked but I found somewhere else round the corner for Monday night. Our host kindly let us keep our car on her property.
We hadn't realised as we entered Albania that it was one hour behind Greece - the same time as in Madrid. So we had gained an extra hour. We were bushed and just chilled out until it was time for dinner.
I went outside to sit on the patio and was joined by my neighbours - other Airbnb guests - Gentz and his wife Linda are Canadian Albanians. It was fascinating to talk to them because they had lived in communist Albania. They left for Canada 25 years ago after communism fell but come back often. I asked them for restaurant recommendations - we were keen to try local food. They sent us to a place called Golosa - round the corner from our Airbnb. It turned out to be Italian - Albanians love Italians - but we were so hungry we didn't care and the food was delicious.
Meanwhile in Turkey, Erdogan won the second round of the general elections - to my dismay. And in Spain too there were local elections that day. Oli sent me photos of them voting which I want to share here as Sunday was an important day for Spain's future. These elections are very much a dry run for the general elections this year.
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| Olivia and Miguel voting on Sunday |
Spain is governed by the Socialist party (PSOE) led by Pedro Sánchez in a coalition with the communist party, Podemos. I don't like communists and I don't like the fact that Pedro Sánchez has to rely on the separatist parties for any legislation to go through. Thus I was rather happy to read on Monday that they had been beaten at the polls on Sunday. In any case, it is time for a change. He must know that too as hours later he called snap General Elections to be held on 23rd July when they were scheduled for December.
We woke up on
Monday morning pretty early. I had booked a walking tour in Spanish at 11 am but we also had to move our belongings to the
new Airbnb - a bit of an inconvenience. We would have loved to continue at the same place but the new Airbnb was literally around the corner and in the end was just as good. The new owner let us check in at 9.30 am which was extremely kind. It was thanks to her cleaner we learned two important phrases in Albanian; thank you and goodbye. Thank you is "
Faleminderit" which means something like I beg for your honour and goodbye is "
Mirupafshim". I learned too that Albanian is quite a unique or "isolate" language with origins that stretch back centuries and is one of the oldest in the world. In general it belongs within the Indo European language family but with no conclusive link. The only other surviving languages of a branch of Indo European are Armenian and Greek yet Albanian is nothing like them.
Thankfully Albanians tend to be bilingual with many speaking Russian, German, English and French too. The Albanians we met were very open, kind, helpful and I would say well educated. This is the complete opposite to how they are portrayed in some Western countries who oppose their entry as immigrants. I was told later by our guide and I can believe it that there is no middle class in the country, just rich, poor and very poor. As we were leaving the flat on our last day, Eladio unknowingly dropped his wallet. A woman picked it up and gave it to him. If that isn't honesty than what is?
By 10 am we were sitting in the Opera House cafe by the most famous square in the city, Skanderbeg. It was a name we would hear often during our stay in Albania and later in Kosovo. He is the country's hero, even in Communist times, for having led and won a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire. It was a rare successful resistance by Christians during the 15th century and he stopped the Turkish troops reaching as far as Venice. They had though conquered part of Albania which forcefully became Muslim - but only a part of it. The rest remained Christian. That is why today Albania has both Muslims and Christians but is a totally secular country. We hardly saw women with veils, thank God.
While we we waited for the "free" walking tour to begin beneath his statute, we read up about the country's history, thanks to free wifi at the lovely cafe where we paid Western European prices for our coffee. Here is Eladio there on Monday.
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| Killing time and using wifi at the Opera house cafe waiting for our city tour. |
Albania as a nation only really existed since 1912 when it declared its independence. Pieces of Albania have been merged by neighbouring countries - oh how they hate the Serbs - with more Albanians living in countries like Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, Turkey and Greece than in their own country. The population, like Armenia, is very low - just over 2 million but 3 or 4 million or more live abroad. It was Albania's most recent history that most interested me. This was the most hermetic communist country in Europe and with the most severe regime. Life under communism for Albanians was probably as harsh as it is for people in North Korea today. In 1939 Italy invaded the country and then towards the end of the war the Nazis. Amazingly the 800 Jews were spared being hidden mostly by locals. It was only after the war that the country became communist thanks to local politics or adherence to Tito in Yugoslavia, rather than influence from Moscow. That came later under the rule of the "father of the nation" and not a very nice one. Enver Hoxha ruled with an iron rod from 1944 till his death in 1985. He split with Yugoslavia and even with Moscow when it relaxed its opinion on Stalin. Hoxha was a Stalinist through and through and even split later with China when they "relaxed" their regime. Our guide told us that when Stalin died, people got down on their knees in the Skanderbeg Square, in reverence to the Russian dictator. Hoxha has gone down in history as one of the most ferocious communist leaders and it's a pity he was never tried for human rights crimes. His statue was toppled down by huge crowds in the same huge square, in 1991 and that was the real end of communism in Albania. But it had left the country crippled and poor especially after its split with China. As I walked the streets in Tirana and looked at older people, I wondered just how much they must have suffered. This was communism at its worst. We were shown a huge hotel built in 1970 and I wondered who on earth stayed there as it was very difficult to visit Albania under Hoxha's regime. Today 7 million people visit Albania every year and the country will grow economically mainly thanks to tourism and to the raw material, chrome. Its other source of income is agriculture.
What I read would later be confirmed and explained to us by our guide, 55 year old Kole, who we were keen to meet. We met right under the statue of Skanderbeg, the national hero.
Skanderbeg Square used to also house enormous statues of both Stalin and Lenin. Today they have been replaced with this corny I Love Albania statute. There was an Albanian sitting on it and reading his phone, oblivious to our presence.
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| The tacky I love Tirana statue in the Skanderbeg Square probably where either Lenin's or Stalin's statues used to be |
In the picture below you can see just how enormous the square is. I found it rather empty and dull but Albanians are proud of it. To the left you can see a huge high rise building. So many of them are going up and I do hate them, especially when they are luxury hotels. The building to the left in the picture is of a block of flats with balconies sticking out in the shape of the map of Albania and which lights up at night. Progress? Not sure.
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| In Skanderbeg Square |
We met Kole under Skanderbeg's statue in strong sunshine. It was one of the hottest days of our trip with temperatures reaching 33ºc; not that we have had many. Kole is a well educated 55 year old who was to be our main source of information about his country of which we knew so little before we came and now know a little more.
We were lucky to be the only ones in this free Guru Walking Tour (highly recommendable - it's free but you pay the guide the tip you want at the end).
Kole's story began with the figure of Skanderbeg. I realised later you cannot visit Tirana without learning about him, the country's national hero who resisted the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. His figure is everywhere.
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| Skanderbeg's statue - you can't leave Tirana without learning who he was - the country's national hero who resisted the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. |
But there were other things to see in this chaotic and busy city with so much building going on. You could almost feel the progress. Here is another city symbol, the clock tower which Albanians are fond of. It was built in the early 19th century by Et'hem bey Mollaj, who also finished the Mosque of the same name next to the choir. Both buildings are built in the Ottoman style.
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| The clock tower, a symbol of the city now surrounded by ugly high rise buildings |
There are many statues in Tirana to commemorate people who were important in the history of the country. This man below is Sulejman Bergiini Pasha who founded the city in the 18th century - so it's quite new in historical terms.
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| Sulejman Bargjini Pasha - the man who founded Tirana in the 18th century |
Next on the agenda was the Unknown Partisan fighter square - a sort of unknown soldier memorial but of a partisan.
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| The unknown partisan statue - a war memorial for the partisans who died while fighting against the Nazis who occupied Albania in 1944 |
This was to commemorate the resistance to the Nazis who occupied the country in 1944.
We then moved on to to be introduced to another another statue of a national hero or figure; this time of an Orthodox Archbishop called Fan Noli who I had never heard of but was pleased to meet. A passerby said he was a good man and I believe that is true.
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| Eladio next to the statue of Fan (Stilian) Noli - a revered Albanian statesman who was a Christian bishop ruling a Muslim country but loved by all |
Fan Noli is a huge figure in the history of Albania. He was born in Turkey but became involved in Albanian communities in his travels, notably the US. He was also a writer and translator - he translated all the big works of literature from around the world, including Shakespeare and Cervantes. When in November 1912 Albania declared its independence he traveled to the country. Through his writing and preaching he became popular and highly respected and became head of the delegation that would lead to the country forming part of the League of Nations. Eventually he became Prime Minister when he formed a democratic government which tried to cope with the dismal economy and problems the people faced. He tried his best but lost support for his plan to democratise Albania - no mean feat even today - but will go down in history as a man who did his best for the country. After his tenure he was replaced by Ahmet Zogu who in 1928 proclaimed himself King of Albania - his nephew Crown Prince Leka lives in Tirana .
After an introduction to Fan Noli, a Christian leader who led a Muslim country, we were shown the new Grand Mosque - the old Grand Mosque had been bombed to pieces by the Nazis. This is it. I was not happy to hear that it is being built and funded by non other than Erdogan, President of Turkey. I wondered why the secular Albanian Government would accept such a thing. Kole told me politicians' pockets were being lined with money from Turkey for the Mosque to be built. We didn't see inside it as it is not yet finished. I didn't mind as I have seen more than enough mosques on this road trip; a bit like seeing temple after temple in India. Enough is enough.
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| The new Grand Mosque being built and funded by the Turkish government - to replace the Grand Mosque destroyed by German bombs in WW2 |
Next to the new Grande Mosque is the headquarters off the Albanian government. These days there are no problems taking photos of official buildings. I can only imagine that under Hoxha I may have been shot.
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| The current HQ of the Albanian Government |
I asked Kole who the government was. The Prime Minister is Edi Rama, apparently a neo liberal. Kole thought differently telling me the government is corrupt.
Next we were shown the beautiful former Italian Embassy. Today it houses the association of those who suffered under communism and many were tortured, sent to prison camps or simply shot. There is a statue there of two human torsos which are supposed to represent unity or so we were told.
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| Former Italian Embassy now a building dedicated to those who suffered from communism during the reign of Hoxha - the statue is supposed to be the statue of union. |
Our walking tour of the city ended at the New Bazaar - the old one having been bombed also by the Nazis - oh how this country has suffered.
We didn't buy anything there but I was piqued to see so many ex communist souvenirs on sale and going, I suppose, for a pittance. There were also lots of pipes for smoking tobacco - apparently Albania is or was the main producer of this object which I doubt many people use today.
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Pictures from the New Tirana Bazaar (the old one was destroyed by bombing in WW2) - on sale lots of ex communist nick nacks.
There were even portraits of the former dictator Enver Hoxha (1908-1985). Our guide told us it was rumoured he was gay. Gay or not I wondered who on earth would want to buy one. Well, if my parents had been alive they might have as my father had a collection of portraits of the world's hated dictators on the walls of his study including Franco!
After so much history and a boiling hot sun we had had enough of culture. We couldn't take much more in although I am sure we had only touched the surface of Tirana. Our guide was keen to leave us too as he had tickets for an important match that would decide the winner of their Super League - their Premiere League and he is a keen fan. Thus we paid him, thanked him for his interesting tour and made our way to the city's most famous restaurant Ceren, where we were to taste proper Albanian food for the first time.
There were very few diners and they were all foreign. I doubt normal Albanians could afford the 25 euro set menu Ceren serves - again a place that only serves one type of food. And here we are sitting down about to enjoy new cuisine, also part of our culture trip. |
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Lunch at the city's most famous restaurant - Ceren in the castle of Tirana
A well deserved meal after so much culture |
We enjoyed the meal made up of all sorts of typical appetisers and then a meat dish but couldn't finish any of it so asked for a doggy bag. Not sure that is the right thing to do in Albania but we didn't want the food to go to waste. And here I am smiling for the camera at Ceren on Monday.
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| When my husband takes photos of me it means he loves me. Thank you Eladio |
We finished our lunch late and walked back across the Skanderbeg Square now knowing a lot more about the history of this fascinating little country on the edge of the Balkans. We spent the rest of the afternoon in our cool flat and later the heavens opened again and there was torrential rain. Thankfully we were not driving. We only went out later to get the key for the garage door where our car was and to buy some fresh food at a wonderful little supermarket called Conad full of supplies for foreigners like us. We even found Weetabix which Eladio loves for breakfast. Albania is a cheap country but when it comes to foreign delicacies they cost the same as everywhere else.
We had a light dinner and went to bed early as on Tuesday we had a long drive ahead of us to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. Wow, another unique destination was awaiting us.
If my favourite destinations on this road trip were Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia and Tirana, Eladio's were Kosovo and Sarajevo. He had read that a hair cut cost 1 euro in Pristina and was waiting to get there to cut his hair. I hoped he would as it has grown a lot after more than 40 days on the road.
It took ages to leave the city as we had to go and get the car, got lost finding the apartment, followed a young motorcyclist who helped us get to Skanderbeg Square and then we had to park it and go up and get all our luggage. This is the Mini patiently waiting outside for us to leave. We had a 253 km drive which Google Maps calculated would take us 3h 19 minutes. It took us longer but nowhere near as long as the drive from Thessalonika to Tirana, thankfully.
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Leaving Tirana
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We didn't start trying to drive out of the city until 10 am and that took an age as the traffic is horrendous. We used Google Maps and soon started seeing signs to "Kosove" and "Prishtine". We expected the road to be terrible as it had been coming into the country from Greece. It was not good for the first hour or so but then we were lucky and it was motorway all the way to Pristina. Thus our journey would be shorter than we thought. The new motorway goes through some very mountainous terrain that took our breath away. It may have been a motorway but there were many bends so we had to drive slowly. Just look at the mountains on the road to Kosovo.
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Brand new motorway from outside Tirana all the way to Pristina and oh what amazing mountains on the way
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We stopped to get petrol at about 1.6 euros a litre at this service station which was also brand new. It was the best one we had seen in the Balkans, including the squeaky clean and normal loos. The only thing I didn't like was the music that was blasting away.
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Filling up the tank at a brand new service station on the motorway to Kosovo
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The motorway called "A1" was a toll road and at the next toll we asked how far to the border. We were told half an hour. Soon we were seeing signs to Pristine, sometimes spelled Prishtine. I had to have a photo to record the moment.
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On the road to Pristina on Tuesday
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And soon the border loomed. I assumed it would be easy to leave Albania but I wasn't sure about entering Kosovo without a valid Green Card. This was the border where you can see the flags of both countries.
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Arriving at the border from Albania into Kosovo
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We gave in our passports at the Albanian border after a short time queuing and then wondered where the Kosovo border was. Well, there wasn't one which hugely surprised us. It was a doddle getting in. And then as if by magic, there we were driving in Europe's newest country - Kosovo became independent in 2008. We expected it to be quite poor but we saw many signs of development and prosperity as we drove from the border to the capital. There were beautiful chalet type houses dotting the countryside and we soon realised this was a more developed country economically than we had expected. We were also surprised to learn that Kosovo's official currency is the Euro, despite not belonging to the EU. It must be the only country outside the EU, together with Montenegro that uses the Euro. That would make life easier for us.
We carried on the same motorway, most of it in torrential rain of which we have had our fair share on this trip - damn it. Soon we were entering the capital which only has a population of just over 200.000 but is total chaos when it comes to traffic. It took us an age to find our destination - a supermarket next to the flat. Check in was damned difficult. I had to find and go into a "shisha" bar to ask for the keys where one of the men sitting and smoking got up lazily to give me the keys. Then I had to go and find Eladio in the car at the supermarket car park where they were threatening to tow it away and find somewhere to park. Our Airnbn host had "parking on the premises" included on her listing and I was a bit cross as it was street parking and at least two streets away with hardly anywhere to park. It took us an age to find a space and then had to lug all our belongings up to the fifth floor of a red bricked block of flats. By the time we were in it was at least 4.30, we were tired, it was raining and had no time left really to explore the city centre which was much further away than listed - a 25 minute walk which would have been in the rain. So, we decided to add another night, just chill out and explore the city on Wednesday.
The Airbnb was a great
apartment and at 40 euros a night we had no complaints. But it was not that well equipped. I have missed microwaves and toasters at most places we have been to and in Tirana and in Pristina there was hardly any toilet paper! I wondered if that was to save money. Thankfully there was a supermarket right next to the flat where we went in search of the essential item and a few more while we were there. Here is Eladio shopping in Pristina - a first for us both. The supermarket was called Viva Fresh Store and is open 24h. It wasn't badly stocked but was pretty run of the mill.
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Shopping at Viva Fresh in Pristina
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Later we sat on the balcony until it was dusk watching the nearby roundabout heaving with traffic. We were apparently in a district or on a street called Rruga B -Rruga means street in Albanian. So they call this street the street without a name. It is supposed to be a quiet area with lots of street art - mainly graffiti; not my favourite. This is the view from our balcony.
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The view from our balcony in Pristina
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My main job that evening was to find out what there is to see in the Kosovan capital, read up a bit about the country's history and book a walking tour. It is only towards the end of our road trip that I have come across a free walking trip app called Guru Walks. But for Kosovo I booked one on a site called Pristina Free Walking Tours. We would meet our guide the next day at 10 am outside the National Theatre.
For the record, after the Balkan Wars, Kosovo - the smallest Balkan country - mainly a Muslim country with an Albanian speaking population, declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia and some other countries, including Spain, Russia and China, do no recognise it as a country. But the US does after Bill Clinton ordered an intervention in the Balkan War that stopped further massacres from Serbia. Since then there is a NATO peace keeping mission called KFOR (Kosovo Force) with a permanent presence in Kosovo. If NATO left and Serbia wanted, maybe with the blessing of Russia, it could easily do away with this fledgling young state that only wants peace. Kosovo has a minority Serbian population, mainly in the north where there have been some recent disturbances. In local elections where the Serbs deliberately did not vote, the Kosovars won and swore in one or two Lord Mayors. The local Serbs, furious that they had won the elections when less than 3% of the population voted, protested. Their protests became violent and they attacked some NATO peacekeeping forces. So there is a bit of violence going on. The other big issues are things like local number plates which ethnic Serbs refuse to use. Both countries want to join the EU but have been told that first they have to settle their disputes which I doubt will happen fast.
The earlier history of this "country" is similar to Albania's and the national hero is, you guessed it; Skanderbeg - the 15th century warrior who fought successfully against the Ottoman Empire, impeding its spread to the rest of the country and even to Italy.
Of course the most famous Albanian we are familiar with is Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The main street in Kosovo is called after her and recently a cathedral was built in her name in the city centre. Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, now North Macedonia but her parents were Albanian and according to our guide in Kosovo, her mother was from Pristina. They resetelled in Pristina when Saint Teresa was just 18. She is highly revered in this area as we would learn on our "free" walking tour in Kosovo, which says a lot from a country which is 90% Muslim. We learned this week that people of all religions - Muslim, Orthodox and Catholic - live in complete harmony in the Balkans. That's good to hear although I never got that impression given what happened in the Balkan Wars.
After I had had my bought of local history and after our shopping trip, we had a meal of leftovers and went to bed incredibly early at around 8.30 pm. I fell asleep reading a fascinating book by an Albanian woman who lived under communism as a child. I am devouring the book called "Free: Coming of Age at the End of History" by Lea Api. It was the Sunday Times Memoir of the Year and tells me so much about this once hermetic state.
As I went to bed so early, I rose at 5 am on Wednesday morning with my eyes wide open. It was raining again, on and off, most of the day, except, luckily, during our city tour.
We took a taxi to the centre which, like Tirana, is Skanderbeg Square where we were to meet our guide, Astrit, on the steps of the National Theatre at 10 am. We got there early and decided to explore the terrain and have a cofffee - or a macchiato which is what is served everywhere in Kosovo - not the Italian type but more like a small capuccino but still lovely.
We came face to face with the warrior Skanderbeg whose real name was George Kastriot - Skanderbeg meaning Alexander the Great. Our guide later told us he became known as this because his fighting skills were as great as the real Alexander the Great.
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Next to the Skanderbeg statue in the square of the same name in Pristina on Wednesday
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The square then turns into a boulevard towards the more modern part of the city and it is named after Mother Teresa of Calcutta. I felt her presence in the area very much even though we were in Muslim territory. She is a world figure who put Albania on the map. She herself said she was Macedonian, Albanian and, of course, Indian.
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The statue of Mother Teresa by the boulevard of her name in Pristina
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I wonder if when Saint Teresa lived in Pristina when she was a young woman, whether she could ever have imagined a street being named after her or a statue being placed in the centre of her city - and later even a cathedral. No doubt she had no idea. We had to have a photo on her boulevard.
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On Mother Teresa Boulevard in Pristina
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On the same boulevard, a bit further along from Mother Teresa's statue, there is a memorial to the KORF. This is the Nato led peace keeping force in the country which was established in 2009.
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A plaque dedicated to those from the Nato peacekeeping force, KFOR, who gave their lives keeping the peace in Kosovo.
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Seeing this rather sombered the moment. We didn't see many tourists around and we were there just after the disturbances I mentioned earlier. Were we stupid visiting Kosovo? Was it dangerous? I don't think so from what we saw and heard in Pristina but my dear friend Sandra later made a comment which brought it home to me but also made me roar with laughter. Let me share it with you: "Not many people I know have been to Kosovo other than on a humanitarian mission! But then again, you are one of a kind". It was only after our morning city tour that another person, David, a friend of my parents warned me that Nato was preparing for the worst. These are the words of Nato's press release: "Nato Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg announced today during a Press Conference that 700 NATO troops from the Rapid Reaction Force will arrive in Kosovo within the next 24 hours in order to reinforce (KFOR) the Peace keeping Mission already in the country, while a Batallion of rougly 1.000 Reserve Troops has been placed into a high state of readiness able to be deployed into Kosovo within hours" I think if this press release had been issued earlier, we may well not have gone. However, everyone I met in Pristina seemed to be very calm and one person told me it was the press mongerers who made things look worse than they are. I don't think NATO would be getting ready for the worst just for the sake of it.
I didn't know this when we had a chat with the waiter at the cafe we went to when we had half an hour to kill before joining the walking tour. We went also to have a coffee and to use the wifi. He was a young man aged about 30 and spoke good English so we quizzed him on his city and country and what living there was like. First things first he told us Albanians were their "brothers". He was equally interested to know what our impressions of the city were even though we had only been there for one night. He told us his country was safe despite the disturbances and that life was quiet in Pristina. He complained though that it is difficult for young people, many of whom emigrate for a better life. His brother lives in Germany and his two sisters in Italy. He told us the average salary is between 300 and 400 euros a month which is not enough to live independently because rent costs about the same. As to buying an apartment it is nearly impossible as the price is around 90.000 euros. We told him it was similar elsewhere. Young people may earn more in Spain - say 1000 euros a month but you can't get a house for under 200.000 euros. He also told us there were plenty of jobs but the salary is always the same.
It was interesting to talk to a local. We thanked him for his time and went to find our tour guide Astrit. There were two other tourists, a Portuguese chap called Francisco who is a tour guide himself, bringing Portuguese tourists to the Balkans and who wanted to refresh his memory of Pristina, and a young girl from Washington who never uttered a word.
Our tour began by the statue of Skanderbeg with whom we were already acquainted. Astrit then took us towards the old town, not much of which is left after wars. But it is where the city began and there is much evidence of the presence of the Ottoman Empire. However, many buildings from that time sadly no longer exist after the modernisation period of the 50's and 60's when Kosovo belonged to Yugoslavia and was semi communist. The slogan was "destroy the old, build the new" and because of this most of the main old buildings and places of Pristina no longer exist.
But not everything was destroyed, thank goodness. We were shown the oldest Mosque commonly known as the Bazaar Mosque but whose correct name is the Carshi (stone) Mosque built in 1389.
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The old Bazaar Mosque - the oldest building in Pristina
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It didn't seem very busy, nothing like the Mosques in Turkey. In fact, although both Kosovo and Albania are Muslim countries they are much more lax than other Muslim countries. We saw very few women wearing veils - a good sign in my opinion.
We saw the outside of the Museum of Kosovo and were astounded to hear that during the Kosovo War the Serbs robbed it of all its contents, only giving back one or two items. However, the Kosovar people have filled it with new content from donations from around the country. We then visited the small Ethnological Museum which I was most interested in. It was really a family home owned by a rich famil called Emin Gjikolli who built it. The family fled Kosovo in 1959 but oh what a treasure they left behind, a house from the 18th century and its outhouses in the style of the time. I would have loved to know more about the family, who they were, why they fled and what became of them.
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Outside one of the houses of the Ethnological Museum in Pristina
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Nearby is the new Bazaar - the old one was destroyed in the 50's and 60's. We only saw it at a distance unfortunately.
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The new Bazaar in Pristina
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We were then showed the Monument of "Brotherhood and Unity" which was a popular slogan of the Yugoslav Communist Party. Our guide didn't explain much more - something about the different religious communities living in harmony, .....
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Monument of Brotherhood and Unity in Pristina
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As he took us to the next point of interest, we walked straight past what is the Kosovo government building where someone was offloading huge water bottles. It looked so unassuming.
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The government HQ in Kosovo
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We also walked past the statue of a man called Ibrahim Rugova. This is him.
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The statue of Ibrahim Rugova considered the father of the independence of Kosovo
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He was President of the partially recognised Republic of Kosovo and is considered the main instigator of its independence, a man much revered by the people of Kosovo.
Kosovo's main ally is the United States, after Bill Clinton intervened and ordered the attack on the Serbian forces, putting an end to the Kosovo War. This was pointed out to us when we came upon a statue of Madelaine Albright which you can see below.
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The statue of Madelaine Albright in Pristina
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I wondered to myself what interest the US has or had in Kosovo and I suppose it is geopolitical of course. There is also a statue of Bill "Klinton" and a road called "Xhorxh Bush". As I said above, if one day the US removes its support of Kosovo, this new country would probably not survive. That is probably why the KOFR NATO forces are still there. Both Eladio and I had to explain why Spain doesn't recognise Kosovar either, something our guide was fully aware of. It doesn't, simply because of the issue with Catalonia. What can I say?
A little further on is the Newborn Monument, perhaps Pristina's biggest tourist attraction - not that it has many I'm afraid. Originally the words were Newborn but every year the words are changed to give a different message. This is the one we saw which reads: No New Broken Republic. I had to look up the meaning and it is actually an anagram that says NO to a broken republic that is being torn apart. Everyone was taking photos - me too and I asked the lovely Portuguese guy to take a photo of the two of us in memory of our visit to Kosovo. This is the photo I have chosen as this week's feature photo - it had to be of the two of us in Pristina.
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