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Published: December 4th 2006
Me and a German UN soldier
He looked so bored in his car we asked him to take a picture.At around 6AM the bus dropped us in Prishtina's bus station. I was quite happy to get out as after the ripoff we had gone through 2 hours earlier (read the end of previous blog) I hadn't been able to sleep because I was too angry. It was good to get out of the tense atmosphere. The plan for the day was to go to Prizren as a day trip. We first checked in at a guesthouse where we woke the receptionist up and then went back to the bus station. On the way back, an old man started talking with Ruddel (who, as an american of filipino origin stand out as a tourist here). He didn't speak any english but seemed very happy when we said we were tourists. Back in the pre-communist day, Kosovo was a fairly common tourist destination. Yougoslavia was a fairly open country and Kosovo was on the main overland road to Greece (Albania and Bulgaria were much harder to go into) and the locals are eager for the good times to come back. That's what we were told a bit after. Anyway, the old man, as a good albanian decided to kiss Ruddel at the
They're loving the US
I can say I didn't expect that. end of the conversation, but thankfully he aimed for the forehead instead of the lips. Albanians are quite friendly people, but they just like to use their mouth to show it a bit too much to my taste (see previous blog for my experience with albanian love).
Now before I get further into the blog, I believe that a little bit of politic will be necessary as Kosovo's situation is quite unique. Kosovo is still officially a province of Serbia although it is de facto independant under UN supervision. When I got stamped at the border it wasn't a Serbian stamp but a UNMIK (UN Mission In Kosovo, which is quite cool to have in a passport by the way) stamp. The UN is everywhere in the province. Before I go on the immediate reason why the UN is there, I'll go briefly over the history.
Why do the serbs claim Kosovo if it's mostly populated by albanians? Well, serbs claim that it is their homeland. It is where they fought their greatest battles (against the turks), where their greatest monastery are. The albanians, in turn, claim to be the descendant from the Illyrians (a group mentioned by
the greeks and the romans as native from the region), although this claim doesn't have concensus among historians. They claim that serbs invaded and took the region away from them during the "Slavic invasion" in the Middle Ages.
According to ottomans and europeans census, Kosovo used to be a province with a majority of serbs until the late 19th century. But then Serbia got it's indepandance from the Ottoman empire and didn't manage to take the Vilayet of Kosovo (the Ottoman province that comprised Kosovo and some neighbouring cities) which remained under Turkish power. But it was not for a lack of trying by the local serbs so the turks, in reprisal, cleansed over 400 000 Serbs from the province. The albanians, which were in majority muslims, were left mostly untouched. When the serbs finally conquered it in the Balkan Wars, the province had been transformed from being a majority christian serb to a majority muslim albanian. And then, over the year the difference grew as the center of power in Yugoslavia was in Belgrade and the Albanians were pretty much left out of power so serbs migrated more to Belgrade compared to Albanians and also Albanians had more
children per family than serbs so that by the breakup of Yougoslavia, Kosovo was basically albanian with less than 20% serbs remaining.
The albanians were again left out of power in the republic of Serbia and Montenegro which followed the breakup of Yougoslavia (and were not given autonomy in Kosovo as they requested) so there were a lot of riots and problem in the province in the 90s until Serbia tried to remove all ethnic albanians from the province by kicking them from their houses and village, destroying all their identity papers (so that they could never claim to have been living in Kosovo thereafter) and raped/killed a few for the scary effect so that hundreds of thousands were forced to flee to neighbouring countries in 1999. The US, under Bill Clinton, (and everybody in Kosovo will tell you the US saved them, not NATO or any european nation which were too weakwilled to do anything), bombed the Serbs until they stopped and then went in Kosovo to preserve peace (all under UN approval). This was, I believe, the right thing to do. International police force has been basically running the province ever since. Lots of Kosovan serbs migrated
Medieval tower
Used as an electric pole. north to Serbia but a minority (around 10%) remained.
Now it hasn't been all perfect since the UN arrived, In 2004, after some serbs living in Kosovo allegedly killed albanians, albanians rioted and killed in retaliation several serbs and destroyed several churches while the NATO troops mostly sat out and didn't do much. Now NATO troops are stationed around churches/monasteries and serbs enclave to protect them. So this is where Kosovo is in 2006. It is a messy situation but there is peace for now. But of course no one will know what will happen in the future.
Anyway, back on my travels. We hopped on a bus to Prizren which took 2 hours. Kosovo is a small province and it has a very good bus network so transport is really easy. There is not much to see in Prizren. It just has a lovely Old Town, one of the oldest continually inhabited city in the Balkan, and a citadel. We didn't have much of a plan there so we decided to go with the flow. We had a really good pizza in a restaurant where people thought we were UN worker. They're quite used to foreigners here
Prizen bridge
With byzantine citadel on top of the hill but not to tourists. We wandered around the Old Town which was very atmospheric. You could definately feel the Turkish influence more here than in Albania. There were several mosques around but by looking at what young women were wearing, you couldn't tell that it was a muslim town (not that I'm complaining). We took a picture with a KFOR policemen from Germany who was happy to do it as he seemed so bored.
We hiked up a citadel on top of a hill overlooking the city. We didn't find a path up so we just went freestyle, hoping the place had been demined. The citadel was pretty and quite big but heavily damaged. I thought it was quite old while Ruddel thought it was very recent. Some carpet merchant told us it was a byzantine citadel (I won!). The place turned out to be where local teens like to hang around to meet their secret lover which we thought was quite funny. We talked with a young girl (not realizing that she was probably there waiting for the love of her life) and the conversation turned to the problem between serbs and albanian when ruddel said that we
Rushing in bomb shelter
After walking on a mine...
haha just kidding mom ;) thought the town and the people were nice. She replied: "They look nice, but they're bad people.". We tried to ask what she meant and she confirmed that she was talking about the ethnic problem. She left at that point, I think our questions were making her uncomfortable.
On the way down (on the proper path this time) we came accross a church that was under heavy UN protection. I asked the german guard if we could get in but he told us it was a military site. He was not as friendly as the one we had taken our picture with. There were several destroyed buildings along the way, we couldn't tell whether they had been destroyed by the serbs in 1999 or the albanians in 2004. On the way back we hung around the Old Town again and Ruddel shopped a bit. A salesman at a souvenir shop we stopped at was quite a funny guy. As a prelude to Istanbul, he was a real carpet salesman, trying to get us to have tea in his shop so that we'd stay longer and (hopefully) buy more. He told us the Germans UN soldier were the best customers
and the turkish the cheapest. He seemed to be doing quite a lot of money from UN soldiers buying souvenirs.
Back in Prishtina, after 2 hours in the bus, we tried to walk our way to the center. The bus station was out of our map so we had to ask around. One girl explained it to us this way: "Take this road and turn right, walk for a few hundred meters then you'll see Bill Clinton.". "Bill Clinton???" we asked, puzzled. She confirmed in a surprised manner, as if it was perfectly normal. We did as we were told and she was right! Bill Clinton was there, waiting for us. There was a huge picture of the former US president, welcoming us to Bill Clinton boulevard! Wow. We followed the way of Bill and found the center. In less than a day, the conversation had fallen quite often on Bill Clinton or the americans, and the only opinion we found was that they loved him and americans. Not surprising I guess since they saved them from being ethnically cleansed but it isn't something you're used to hear: people (and muslims at that) actually saying without shame that they
Prizen and a couple
The citadel appears to be the place of choice for young lovers to meet. like america. I had a conversation with my guesthouse owner later and when I mentioned what he thought about the iraq war he said: "Maybe it is mistake, but for us it doesn't matter, the americans saved us. Bill Clinton is good man".
We had dinner at a Thai restaurant right next to the UN compound, which was just delicious. It was the first good thai food I've had since I left Montreal and even though it was expansive it was sooo worth it. Hmmm thai food, just mentioning it now makes me hungry.
We went back to the guesthouse to find that the kitchen's TV was playing some hardcore porn. I guess someone needed entertainment while cleaning the dishes.
The next day me and Ruddel were going our own way, he was heading toward Belgrade while I was gonna go to Peja and then Montenegro. But just before leaving we stopped somewhere where we had seen some funny posters. Apparently there was a public demonstration of love for the americans. We thought this was pretty funny. I don't think they have those posters in Bagdad though. So after that I said goodbye to Ruddel whose company
I enjoyed very much. He was a really funny guy and it sucks that I only was able to travel with him for a day.
I took the bus to Peja which was also 2 hours. Again it was no problem, I barely waited 10 minutes before the bus left. On arrival to Peja though everything went wrong. There were no buses to Montenegro (I had missed the last by a few minutes), there was no left-luggage available and no one in the bus station seemed to care about trying to help me. I eventually ended up finding a travel agent that sold me a private bus ticket for somewhere in Montenegro that would leave in the evening.
Now that I had my onward transport arranged I tried to get the direction to what I wanted to see in Peja: the UNESCO World Heritage site of the orthodox monastery. I somehow thought it wouldn't be a problem to get there. Julie and Ian had seen it and hadn't mentioned any difficulties. Everybody on the street became cold and left when I mentioned the monastery. Even the travel agent, who had been nice a few minutes ago, became cold
and would just tell me a vague direction. I asked if she could tell me how to say it in albanian so I could ask a taxi driver but she said in a snickering tone: "I wouldn't go there if I were you, taxi drivers won't take you there, it's not a public place. Only a few
serbs ever go there.". I got the message but didn't give up.
I walked in the general direction she had told me and tried to ask other people. It was really annoying because I had my big backpack (not left-luggage facilities) and it was rainy. After about 90 minutes or so I did end up at the monastery only to be not allowed inside by the KFOR guard. He didn't speak any english except "no". I think he didn't like the fact that I had 2 backpack which might contain a bomb or something. I insisted a bit but ended up retreating. So I ended up spending a quite miserable day, totally opposite of what I had experienced in Prizren. I spent some times in cafe and in an internet cafe and had some sort of massive hamburger (complete with eggs) for
Destroyed building in Prizen
Done by the Serbs in 1999 or the albanians in 2004? Don't know. But Kosovo is still a scarred place. dinner which was quite good, if overly calorific. I took the bus in the evening, quite happy to be leaving Peja.
I know snap judgment might not be the most accurate but my visit in Kosovo left feeling bizarre. On one hand the people were generally very nice to me, but the ethnic tension is still omnipresent. I guess the scars are too recent but even then, no one seems ready to apologize and compromise. I feel the current situation is merely a cease-fire. The UN will ensure Kosovo get independance and when it will leave, unless thing change, riots similar to the ones in 2004 will happen again at some point and then no one will be there to protect the minority serbs, which will force the serbs in Serbia either a) to watch their fellow serbs get killed (unlikely) or b) intervene (more likely, given past serbs history) and then we're back to square 1.
After WW1, France insisted to give highly punitive and humiliating terms on defeated Germany. The result was Hitler. After WW2, the Allies insisted on being nice to the people they had spent 6 years fighting. Which method was the most succesful?
Serbian church
Under UN protection. We were told it was a military building and we weren't allowed in. I feel the albanians are going for the former, and it's scaring me (I haven't met serbian people, but from what I know they're stilll not ready to give up Kosovo so they're not better). An eye for an eye might be comforting for the people who have suffered, but in the end it only bring more suffering.
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Edam
Edward Carroll & Amy Forde
Banaue Etc
Hi Victor, thanks for the tips on the Northern Philippines. We have just booked our overnight bus for Banaue and are really looking forward to some mountain times. Even if we are a little scared of the Irish like weather (heard rumours of 10 celsius!). Hope you are getting on well in the Balkans. Are you going to Slovenia? Out of the places I have been to in Eastern/Central Europe it is by far my favourite. Although a little more expensive than the other countries. EdAm