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Published: April 29th 2007
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We were all planned to head onto Albania after Montenegro but we have both become increasingly fascinated by the former Yugoslav republics and so we switched routes and headed up to Serbia to hear the other side of the story.
In one of the books I’ve been reading it says that during the nineties journalists used to call Serbia ‘Mordor’ though that was due to good old evil lord Slobodan. So not so surprisingly Serbia has been the most chilled and relaxed country we have visited so far! The people we have met have been super friendly and have been pretty keen to dispel any myths of Serbia or Serbians being dangerous. Its pretty sad they feel they have to do this but their past governments have not helped in giving its people a fair crack.
Belgrade for a city of 1.5 million is busy but not mad, has a wicked cafe scene - always good for people watching- and a stunning medieval citadel overlooking the Danube and forests which meet the city. It has not got many main sights as such but it was a cool place to wander round for a few days.
We popped
Belgrade Parliment
Belgrade has heaps of quality statues this is just one of them up to Novi Sad in Northern Serbia for a day while we were in Belgrade. Its certainly not much of a tourist attraction but it continued in the Belgrade vain of having mellow people, a beautiful citadel flanked by the Dandue and some nice bars - there was a great one on the citadel where you cab sit in deckchairs on the river side and watch the river cruises go by.
Next up we headed down to Kosovo, and in typical Balkan tradition we headed through the centre plain in Serbia, over some beautiful mountains where somewhere in the middle you cross the boarder and on the other side you are in a new country or territory, Kosovo on this occasion.
We arrived in Pristina, Kosovo's capital, at the lovely new bus station and jumped in a taxi to the ‘Professors’ guest house, quality cheap accommodation. Now Pristina is the ugliest city we have visited, in the 1950’s communist planners got there hands on the city, knocked down the Turkish bazaars and replaced them with the crumbling tower blokes which stand now. There are a few nice Mosques and couple of older streets but mostly its dusty rubbish
Patriarchate of Peje
You can just about see the nun in the background - not a bad location to be a gardener hey? lined streets with uninsperational buildings. However the streets which these monstrosities line have recently been renamed post 1999. And they have gone to town! The best of all is Bill Clinton Boulevard- they love the Americans and Bill particularly here, there are posters of the American flag saying thank you everywhere! When Bill gets old and a little senile here is defiantly the place to come and be a batty old dictator! There is even a Tony Blair street (which we couldn't find)- a nice legacy for our Tony!
However Pristina and Kosovo as a whole has an unbelievable charm which is solely the responsibility of the locals. They are the most friendly we have met on our travels so far. Seriously everyone is nice to extreme, even taxi drivers! They don’t rip you off! - Its all meters and the most direct route. According to the guidebook the view here is that the taxi drivers are either direct descendants of Mother Teresa or a Serbian conspiracy to bring down the UN. So far we have only had the saintly ones.
There is a weird buzz about the place which is helped by the huge numbers of humanitarian
workers here, you see a white UN Toyota on every street and all the cafes are full of people of different nationalities. The advantages of all these people was that we had the best meal we have had in ages at an expat pub across from the UNMIK headquarters - Sunday lunch, with the works, pint and they even had Sky sports on and the Saturday SUN to read! It was great to read about someone who has been taken to court for barking at a dog in Newcastle (Howay Pet!) and that Deirdre is still in top form.
We used Pristina as a base to explore the surrounding areas in Kosovo. Peje was our first day trip out and its most famous attraction is the Patriarchate of Peje, this was the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the thirteenth century. The existence of the building here is used by the Serbs as evidence that they were the first settlers of the area and so is very important in the current situation, even though the area is now an Albanian strong hold. Therefore the building is guarded by the Italian KFOR, there are two check points and you
Bridge over Prizren
If you look in the background you can see the domes of an Othordox church - to the left is the Sebian Sector. have to leave your passport at the first. The guards were lovely and the process easy even though it was pretty weird talking to people with huge guns in a camouflaged tent. The Italians were in great form - I think road bloke may mean more like chance to check out the local ladies - we saw them cruising round posing past all the bars! Good lads! You can take the Italian out of Italy but.....................
The Patriarchate was well worth the faff with the guards as its location and the frescoes inside the main church are amazing. Its enclosed by a wall and once we were inside the grounds there where nuns pottering around gardening, a beautiful church and the old girls quarters. A idyllic setting with the Accursed mountains in the back ground and a mountain steam running through the middle.
Peje its self was pretty nice though the best thing was that as it was Sunday all the people were out and about strutting their stuff. We grabbed a beer in a bar on the main strip where groups of lads turn their chairs towards the street and watch the young fillies pass by-quality people
watching. We also had our first Burek here too which is supposed to be the quintessential Balkan snack, it just a 'Gregg's' pasty which is served with yogurt but its tasty and only 0.5 Euros, barginos!
Our second day trip out took us to Prizren, which was the medieval capital of Old Serbia however thanks to the Ottomans it has a definite oriental feel. The city centre is like a mini Sarajevo with a river banked with Mosques, Bazaars, mountains in the background and an iconic Ottoman arch bridge - all super picturesque. We chilled in the main square, drinking the delicious coffee they serve up here, you get a tiny cup of espresso and then a mountain of cream on top! As the mosques played out to call people into prayer it felt like we could be in Turkey.
This was great but the day was overshadowed as it is here that you can really see some of the dreadful destruction which has occurred in this region. Behind the square is an old Serbian settlement up on the hill, in full view from anywhere in the city, which are all burnt out and half destroyed. We walked up to check them out however the area was surrounded by barbed wire with not a soul anywhere to be seen; it is the most depressing sights we have seen on our travels. The only thing standing was a Serbian Orthodox church at the top of the hill which is surrounded by the German KFOR. All the houses on the edge of this area proudly display the Albanian flag and in the centre of town there are a number of monuments for the Albanians lost during the conflict. It was clear that although some houses have been rebuilt that it would be incredibly difficult as a Serb to return to the area. However in 1999 most of the Albanian population of the city were forced to flee from the Serbs so there are no good guys in this conflict. On the bus ride back we saw a few Orthodox churches which were demolished with the adjacent village suffering the same fate. But then on the perimeter fence of parliament there are hundreds of photos of missing Albanians from 1999.
Though on a side track from all this seriousness the buses here are awesome, they the normal bombs you find here but the DVD player works on them all and for every journey you are subject to home videos of the locals singing Albanian tunes and dancing with their mates. Its quality the women look like they are dressed in drag and the blokes tend to to fat with curly mo's popping some shapes. Great soundtrack to here!
We have had a wonderful time here, the people are amazing, it is a stunning place but there is a definite eerie calm here, but its so easy and safe to travel around at the moment its a great place to check out.
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