Kosovo
Luxury
again – our guide had invested in a minivan instead of taking public transport!
We set off at 8:30, destination Kosovo. Kosovo is the newest (officially)
country in the world. It has a dogged history. Landlocked and bounded by
Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania, 80% of the population are Albanian.
Centuries of history in a nutshell: the territory had historically been part of
Serbia (but let’s be frank, the boundaries in this part of the world are a
moving feast!) and Serbia considered it to be the pearl of Serbia, containing
some of the most prized monuments in the way of mosques and churches. When the
first murmurings of independence were whispered, Slobodan Milosovic rattled the
sabres by making statements on tv which created a rush of blood to the
Nationalistic pride of Serbia and the rest, as they say is history. If it
wasn’t for the fact that both Serbia and
Kosovo are seeking membership to the EU, the uneasy acceptance of the current
independence of Kosovo could still be threatened – but the EU is watching.
Armed militia from Italy are still watching also, with a presence in the
capital city guarding the remaining monuments.
We however
went to the second largest of the cities, Prizren. It is hard to describe the
mountainous landscape – glaciers have moulded the towering backdrop, and then
the beech and pine trees have covered the land with such a density of
vegetation, that the forest seems impenetrable.
We went up
and more up for a couple of hours and stopped at small café, populated by guys
selling sheep’s cheese and a rainbow of honeys – from bees in the pine forest,
the fields, and another one from a specific flower, all different colours, some
with walnuts seemed in the honey, some with honey comb in the jar. I was
offered a taste of what I thought may be cassis but turned out to be a rich
blackberry syrup – he tipped some into the lid of the bottle for me to taste,
grinned at me and then put the lid back on the bottle for the next punter to
buy.. (it was good). Unfortunately, impossible for me to consider buying
anything - I felt for even accepting the
tidbits to taste (cheese was divine).
We hauled
ourselves back into the minivan and continued to listen to Ivan’s history in a
nutshell (“to understand the ramifications of the recent war, (2008?) you need
to understand the Balkan War (1990-1995) but to understand the Balkan War you
need to understand the Second World War, but to understand the Second World War
you need to understand the First World War, but to understand the First World
War you need to understand the …. Back to 1863”) and this as we stood on the
spot where the tribal leaders met to sign a treaty in 1863…
These two
lovlies were as intrigued by us as I was of them, and politely asked in my best
Croatian if I might take a photo – Serbian is similar to Croatian so the
request was granted.
The city
was filled with hordes of young people, and apparently 78% of the population is
18 years or younger – most of the families are muslim and the size of families
is impressive. Maybe this population imbalance can also be attributed to the
newish cemeteries with names of the men who died in the two recent wars.
We wandered
into the main mosque, ate lunch in an amazing restaurant (Ivan is a bit of a
foodie) and then shake the large amount of food, walked to the top of the track
to the tower the top of the town – incredible views, minarets everywhere,
squeezes in beside the bell towers of orthodox churches and a synagogue. Ivan produced a bottle of honey rakia and
glasses for shots as a reward for those who did the walk, and it was just
divine sipping the rakia and looking over this amazing town.
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