Advertisement
Published: August 17th 2007
Hi Everybody!
When you are in this part of the world, you have to do what the natives do. We have lots of places that we want to visit. The problem is that it is difficult to travel between them. We have been to many travel agencies trying to get airline tickets. They either tell us that they are not available, they don't book plane tickets, or some other reason. The rental car is out for various reasons. That leaves the unairconditioned train which is often very slow or the sometimes crowded bus. The bus has to stop at the border for one or more hours, loses air conditioning going up steep hills, but is often the best choice. The bus was our only option for getting to Pristina. One of our companions on the bus was a nice guy from Poland who works for the United Nations. They have a base in Kosovo, a region of Serbia, that will probably some day be an independent country. This young man's occupation is forensics. He identifies bodies that are excavated from mass graves. The graves are in caves, mines, ditches, and deep in wells. He actually told me that he loves his job!!! We also met two nice medical students from Germany and a young married couple from Australia. Thez were taking a break before the husband started graduate school at the London School of Economics.
The hotels in Pristina are use to English speaking guests because of the UN. We loved our hotel, the Afa Hotel. After checking in, we walked to the city center passing the University, the UN buildings, a very old Orthodox Church, and a sculpture garden. We found these areas to be unkempt, covered with litter, high grass, graffiti, etc. It surprised me that these special sights in the town of Pristina wouldn't be kept in better condition. On every street. I saw vendors selling fake DVD's, wide leather belts with big buckles, sunglasses, and cigarettes. There is a saying here that people are born with a cigarette in their mouths. It seems like everybody smokes. When you are in a restaurant, children come in trying to sell you lighters and cigarettes. Because of the frequent power failures, I am reluctant to eat meat. Chad, the guy that I met on the train, introduced me to Shopska salad. It is made of tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, green onions, roasted red peppers, shredded white cheese, oil and vinegar. Many restaurants have only the Russian alphabet and nothing in English. When there are no pictures, I order this salad. It is very tasty!
In every city, you see hundreds of large, gray Soviet style apartment buildings. Some are in very poor shape. When you are in the countryside, you see fields of corn and vegetables. Every rural house has strings of red peppers hanging from it. In the late afternoon, you see families sitting at a table under a large tree enjoying their evening meal. The soil is dark and rich in color. You can tell it is fertile by looking at the crops. The fruit trees are completely covered. I never see anyone picking the fruit.
Take care,
Everette
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 10; qc: 33; dbt: 0.0417s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Robin
non-member comment
blogs
E and W, Have really enjoyed your blogs but you need to come home(if you can stand the heat of 100+ temps for 20 days straight). You are both missed. Didn't realize you would be gone so long. Are you sick of your clothes and where do you wash them? Have a safe trip home!!! Can't wait to see your pixs. The Anniston Star will want to publish your blogs again. You write so well. Robin