Skopje to Kosalin via Kosovo

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13 Jun 10
Km so far: 2035

Left Skopje with 2.5 litres of Rakija (home made) and a bottle of Macedonian red, gifts from our incredibly generous hosts in the Villa Vorda. Short drive to the Kosovan border. Once again had to buy local car insurance (€35) but no snags and took less than 20 minutes to cross.

Some signs of recent conflict with the KFOR presence but overall the impression as we drove north towards Pristina was of a massive reconstruction programme. Also a big change from the mountains of Macedonia to more or less flat plains in Kosovo.

Pristina itself is not a beautiful city but it has an air of optimism. Had lunch in a very trendy café and wandered around to see the various sights, including the whacky National Art Gallery, accurately described in our guide book as glutinous eggs in armour. Most poignant is the display of hundreds of photographs on a wall outside one of the government buildings, pictures of ‘The Missing’, mostly young men, some only boys, and mostly disappeared in 1998.

Visited the Gracanica Monastery just outside Pristina, not as spectacular as some that we had seen in Greece but worth the visit. Guarded by Italian KFOR troops who manage to make DPM look chic.

Headed west from Pristina towards Pec and drove through numerous villages with blown up houses and memorials to the dead, but also numerous new construction projects. Interesting approach to road works - several miles of just driving on dirt while the new dual carriageway is constructed, with cattle wandering onto the road and some suicidal drivers overtaking on blind bends. Very heavy traffic police presence but they seemed to have a policy of waving through our car with its foreign plates. Probably not too many Cypriot registered vehicles around.

Reached the end of the Kosovan plains and re-entered the mountains at Pec. Arrived at the border with Montenegro at around 6 in the evening after driving miles up a steep road of hairpin bends and negotiating our way past a convoy of German lorries doing 15kph.

Kosovan border policeman seemed inclined to be difficult and there were language difficulties, so we never worked out precisely what the problem was. Eventually he decided that whatever the issue was it was too difficult with these foreigners and he waved us through. First time we’d had any problems with officials and a surprise as the process of leaving a country is normally easier than entering. My concern was that we would have problems entering Montenegro on a Sunday evening, be unable to buy the inevitable insurance, and be obliged to drive all the way down the mountain into Kosovo for the night.

In the event it was straightforward, the insurance cost €15 for 15 days and we entered a country of spectacular mountains, river gorges and white-water. For the first time on the trip we had not arranged accommodation as we were not sure which country we would sleep in. After a bit of driving around found a lovely little hotel in Kolasin, a ski resort. The Hotel Brile, €64 for the two of us including breakfast, great little suite of bedroom and sitting room, excellent dinner of local trout.

Noticing various transitions as we have travelled from Athens into Montenegro. The Cyrillic alphabet dwindled out in Kosovo, food in Macedonia became less Greek and more German, and for the first time in Montenegro we have a toilet where the plumbing is capable of coping with toilet paper.

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Photos

Old and new in Pristina
Derelict Orthodox Church and new Art Gallery in Pristina