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Published: November 20th 2007
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Kosovo
From the Bus We dragged ourselves out of bed half an hour after the other people in our dorm got up. We were both awake but neither of us wanted to face the coldness. Rob polished off enough toast for both of us and then we went out to get money from the cash machine to pay for the hostel.
We arrived at the bus station to find that the times we had been given were wrong and that there was an earlier bus than the one we had planned to get. The bus to Pristine was pleasant and most importantly it was very short. The border was no problem however we were not stamped out of Macedonia which we worried about slightly. I pointed it out to one of the UN guards who muttered something and moved away.
We arrived in Pristine at three forty which we thought was plenty of time to get to the guesthouse. The bus stopped at the side of a busy road and we were left with our stuff as the bus drove off. We had no idea where the centre of the city was and the bus station wasn't on our map, so we followed
Election Posters
children handing them out at a stop a route that the majority of people were taking. It took us through the middle of a housing estate that was definitely something different. The tower blocks were huge and clothes hung from every balcony. There were hundreds of satellite dishes everywhere, way too many for the number of apartments. We knew that Kosovo is supposed to have a litter problem but we were not expecting the levels that were in the estate.
It was starting to get darker and I didn't fancy being in the estate at dark, so we walked right through it to the other side. We still weren't anywhere on the map and so we asked for directions to a place we knew a local would know; the Grand Hotel. We began to trek up the hill towards the general direction of the hotel and eventually stopped when we felt like we had gone far enough. As we were pondering the map a group of people stopped to see if they could help. One was Serbian, one French and one from Kosovo. They chatted with us for a while and then concluded that we should get a taxi because it was too difficult to explain
Pristina Residential Area
First thing we saw after the bus station, look at all the satallite dishes. how to get to our hotel. We only had a twenty Euro note and did not fancy trying to get change for that so we continued walking. We reached an area that appeared vaguely central and stopped again to study the map. Two girls asked if we needed help and then told us to follow them. We chatted whilst walking down a road under construction with no lights at all. Eventually they said they were leaving us and we should catch a bus two stops and then ask someone else for help. We were quite surprised because we thought we were on the home run; however we still didn't have any change so we walked it.
We eventually reached Velania Guesthouse and once we had escaped the slightly deranged professor (he kept on showing us random TV channels) we found we had a lovely room. We had a mug of hot chocolate and went on the internet. In our room we sat by the heater trying to warm up and read about places to eat. As we were preparing to leave there was a power cut. I am unbelievably prepared for power cuts, I not only have my little
No Power
There is no power but generators power the computers and the internet cafe stays alive! torch but we have the wind up torch.
On our way into town we stopped to examine our pitiful map and a security guard from a casino came over to help us. He didn't speak any English but smiles and gesticulations do wonders in this part of the world. It was raining quite heavily and it wasn't particularly fun walking around the streets in the dark but it was amusing to look into cafes where people were sitting in the dark with their jackets on. We struggled to pick out eateries because no signs were illuminated. Eventually we found a pizzeria that had lights on thanks to a generator. We had a beautiful salad and a pizza before heading back up to the hostel.
The professor had given us directions to and from town that were considerably quicker than our first route. What took us two hours initially only really takes twenty minutes.
At the hostel we delighted (intermittently) in having a warm cosy room with a TV with English channels. We stayed up way too late watching films that I knew from my childhood and that Rob said were trash. (Bugsy Malone?)
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kate
non-member comment
A first
Iy was lovely to read your latest blog and no doubt by now you will have explored and discovered whether you like it a lot or a little. After reading this blog i looked for the 'Next jounal' button and couldn't find it. So i went back to inbox feeling rather perplexed as to why i couldn't access the next one the usual way. Imagine my surprise when i realised there was only ONE! One blog, oh dear you have never just sent one. Does this mean you are organized and on top of things. Have fun Love mum xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx