Surprising Kosovo

Kosovo

It's funny travelling around this area that there are many places where there is a somewhat negative stigma. Due to recent wars throughout the region (Kosovo's is slightly more recent that Bosnia's I believe) It is easy to presume that the area you are going to is going to feel unsafe or look like a warzone. We already had these pre-conceptions challenged when we went to Bosnia. But Kosovo was always going to be a different story, as I said their war is more recent, but they are also still in conflict with Serbia (Issues around the legitimacy of their sovereignty).


Pec, Peje, Peja

We left Podgorica to arrive in Kosovo and drove through beautiful gorges with clear blue water, steep grey cliffs and luscious green pine forests. Our route took us high up into the mountains dividing Kosovo from Montenegro. Once passing the Montenegrin border we drove for a long time through no man's land before arriving at Kosovo's border. Upon passing it and receiving our second stamp in our passports we descended through the forested mountains towards Peje. Peje has three names, as indicated in the title, this is due to the diversity of the people in the area. 

Our accommodation was great, it was in the house of two brothers who ran a sort of guest house. They made breakfast every morning for us consisting of an egg, cheese, tomato, cucumber and a really interesting mixed fruit jam. The house is filled with many interesting objects and one of the brothers would spend some of the evening playing a beautiful sounding stringed instrument.

The Patriarchate

Around Peje we walked through some woods and had a look around the bazaar. One day we walked to the Patriarchate of Pec and spent some time in the calm grounds there. The patriarchate is a deep red building which currently houses many nuns on its complex. The outside of the building is very pretty with its red walls and coloured features. But the inside houses many murals and icons over it's wall. Unfortunately photographs are forbidden on the interior so I cannot show you the beauty of it. However also once inside there is no real desire to take photos as you just feel the need to take it all in. 

After examining all the artwork we sat down in the gardens of the Patriarchate and just watched the gentle trickle of the stream there. It was a really peaceful afternoon. 

Prizren

From Peje we took the bus south towards the Old Ottoman city of Prizren. Prizren is described as the oldest city in Kosovo and contains many religious cites (well over 40 mosques and several churches as well), an old stone bridge and a fortress. The fortress is at the peak of a very steep hill but does reward many views over the town and it's multitude of minarets. It was quite interesting to walk around the fortress and see all the places that we had been. To be honest a lot of our time here was spent wandering around the old town or staying in the room to get away from the baking heat. 

Our first day we climbed up the tower of the old Hammam, now an archeology museum, and saw views of the town and the Church of our lady of Ljevis. We also went to the mosque one day which was built by Sinan Pasha and it was very interesting to see how other carry out their worship as well as the way that it was decorating.

Where next

As I write this we are in Skopje the capital of Macedonia. We are here for a few days before we fly to Istanbul. This is our penultimate stop on our journey through Europe. We're off now to go an explore the main city before the temperatures rise again. When we arrived it was 31℃. Will write again soon, in the meantime here is our up to date photos. 

Andrew and Olivia

Links to other parts of the world




Location: Kosovo

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