Updates From the Kosovo Front

So it feels like forever since I have written a post, but it's only been a few days.  This weekend was a couple  of firsts, my first Couch Surfer and my first time to Gadime Cave.  One was a little more exciting than the other.  The cave was cool and all, but there was not much to it.  It's still being explored, and since tourism is not very developed it makes it difficult to have a good solid program.  But hey, it's a marble cave and that's cool in itself.
Here is a quick glance at the entry way to the caves.  More will follow.










Well I finally located Sir Bill Clinton and took a friendly photograph with him.  He is of course located on Bill Klinton Blvd.

The Caves were pretty simple, although my camera was about dead so the flash was not working.  I improvised by using my iPhone as a torch (when in Europe, talk like a European) that helped with someone of the pictures.  So about 3 minutes after we get into the Caves, the generator goes out.  Now power outages are pretty common place in the Republic, so I didn't really think much of it.  Except that of course, I am underground in a cave.  Well this kinda changes the atmosphere of the place, really helps to get a sense of being blind.  So I ended up taking a good amount of these pictures with the only light being my iPhone.  They turned out okay, in my humble opinion.  So we are wandering around (my Surfer and I) in the dark, getting away from the group, and this goes on for about 10 minutes or so before the leaders decide to have us head back to the outside world.  Woo that was bright!  So as we wind our way back outside, the generator kicks back on.  So it goes.
They, of course, take us back down into the caves and start making up things about what the rocks look like.  It's a favored past time for Gadime Experts to swap stories on what lie the Brother's (Cave Guides) went with this time.  It's nothing malicious, but it is definitely funny to hear whatever they come up!

The "Peace Sign" that was broken by some Serb tourist around the time of the war....

Here are some shots of the town surrounding Gadime.  It's just a narrow slit inside the middle of two hills.  There is a local store, a local kebab shop, and a bus stop.  That's about all you are going to get.

The local Mosque.  I'll tell you what, they have absolutely zero hints of protest here.  It's a very moderate version of Islam, plus pretty secular.  It's nice though, cause I have learned a bunch of things about Islam and seen some pretty buildings.  Churches, no matter the faith, are usually great pieces of art.  And contain great art!  It's art within art.  (Cue Inception Music)

This is my favorite picture that I have take so far (Left).  All taken with a FujiFilm XP.  It somewhat captures how serene the area was.

The "Touist" Complex.  A restaurant and ticket booth.  Around the back of the restaurant is the cave entrance.

Some Prishtina pictures.  That's one of the main mosques in town, as well as my CouchSurfer (Right) and someone we met on CS that lives in Prishtina. (Left)  Olivier (my CS-er) is a French national who has spent the last 2.5 years traveling through Asia.  He has his Master's Degree in Communication Engineering, but quit and decided to see the world.  He had like 200k miles saved up so traveled that way for about a year, then decided to hitchhike.  He's hitched through some remote places, like Afghanistan and Iran. When we met, he had hitched 38,500km with a goal of 40,075km! (Can anyone guess what that number signifies? )  He was leaving Prishtina heading back towards Paris, so he'll make it with little doubt.  He was definitely an interesting guy,
but it made me realize that after 2.5 years of traveling, you get fatigued to the point of not being able to enjoy it anymore.  Some thing I never want to deal with ever!

A close up of the main Mosque in Prishtina.  And then the clock tower, it's an old Kullah.  Which is an old Turkish style home.  It's a tower, and basically the family lived over the livestock or guards, so in case of attack they could just pull the later and let the marauders roam on by. They are all over the Balkans, but this one has been turned into a clock!

Cake!  This was prepared by the local artisans at the store "Felini".  Or rather it is a local pâtisserie.  It's a chocolate mousse cake.  Can I get a "Hell yes, please"?

Here is a good shot of a few of us at Gege. (Which is the name of the dialect of Kosova and northern Albania) The bald guy (George, Belgian) and the guy 2nd from the left (Hubert, Polish) couch surfed with me for the last 2 nights.  They met randomly on CouchSurfing when the Bald guy was looking for someone to go with him on a road trip around Eastern Europe.  They were very social, and through them I met Bekim (2nd from the right, Kosovar) and Crystal (first from the left, British) who live here in Pristina.  The two people in between me and Hubert are two Polish CSers of Bekim and Crystal.  Then Griet (Belgian and first girl from the right), I met her through Olivier.  She is about to finish her internship in Prishtina and head back to Belgium.  

I thought some nice landscapes really help to round out the post, and just give it a certain je ne said quoi! 

Obligatory Foodie/Food Culture Post

After a hectic and totally awesome weekend, this week has seen some downtime.  That's perfectly fine by me, but since this weekend will probably rival last weekend, I thought I should do a more subdued post to keep the Feng shui of the blog aligned.  Aka, the classic foodie post.

 Albanian pot roast - a very similar, yet distinctive take on the classic.  It is pretty standard, yet a little spicier.  Plus the two pieces of meat that I could not figure out, I suspect some sort of beef cut.  There is very limited pork here. (Muslim nation)  This was accompanied by a delicious cabbage salad, which was like a sauce-less cole slaw.  This was a standard lunch serving.  I should mention that Albanians eat super large portion of food, very similar to Southern style.  The difference is they are all skinny.  (At least here in Kosovo)

This was my first apartment-cooked meal.  Just simple noodles (Bowtie and Macaroni as the Mac bag was emptied)  with some fresh peppers.  A red one that wasn't spicy or sweet, so I have not fully figured out what it is.  Then a super spicy green one, it kinda lost a lot of color while cooking it.  Think pizza-box peppers, but 10x spicier.  So delicious.  Then to top that off, yellow bell pepper.  These are all fresh and seasonal, there is a market outside my building where I work.

Cannot forgot the ingredients for washing everything down, so I went with this Pilsner.  Peja is a city in Western Kosovo.  It's a standard beer, it's good on a similar goodness scale as Budweiser.  Which they do sell the Czech Budweiser here, so I'll be sure to stock up.

 After concerns for my mainly vegetarian diet, I broke down and cooked breakfast for dinner.  They are all brown eggs, with a different shade yolk which weirded me out a little.  Clearly did not stop me from devouring it.  The top is part of a spinach Byrek, a traditional meal.  It's a thin and flaky pastry that usually is filled with cheese, meat, or spinach.  And the left hand side is some sausage that I picked up from the store.  Very easy to cook and super filling.  It might be hard to see, but I a wedge of Happy Cow cheese on there too.  See below for more.

 Happy Cow cheese, does it remind anyone of anything?  Well I purchased the salmon flavor.  It was intriguing, the picture at least. The cheese itself was delicious.  Instead of a salmon flavor, it was more a smoky flavor that one usually gets with lox.  Definitely worth a purchase if you can find it.  It would be good on a bagel, that's 100% for certain.

Rahovec Weekend Spoils!

To continue the trend of breaking up food with liquids, I present to you the aforementioned wine and raki that was purchased in Rahovec.  The far left is a Cabernet Sauvignon (my personal favorite), followed by bootleg, then bootleg raki, then finally a Vranac.  I have had a sampling of them all, and they are all delicious.

Finally, the Salads (sallatë in Albanian)  

Sallatë Greke.  Cucumbers, tomatoes, chunks of feta, olives, a little bit of lettuce, and lightly tossed with some olive oil.  This is my main stay, pretty much my choice for about 90% of my lunches.  This one in particular is served out of the Restaurant Lion, which is across the street from my office.  It's very good, very large, and most importantly: very inexpensive (1.8 Eur)  

Sallatë Shope.  While I did not take this photo, the salad looked about like this.  But bigger.  Much much bigger.  It looks awfully similar to a Sallatë Greke, but there are a few difference.  No olives, no lettuce, and no chunks of feta.  However it does have a brined white cheese.  I had never heard of brined white cheese before, but it was good!  It was light in flavor, especially as it was shredded.  


To make things easier and to teach with this blog, I have thus quoted Wikipedia:  

"Brined or pickled cheese is matured in a solution of brine in an airtight or semi-permeable container. This process gives the cheese a good stability, inhibiting bacteria growth even in hot countries. Brined cheeses may be soft or hard, varying in moisture content, and in colour and flavour, according to the type of milk used; though all will be rindless, and generally taste clean, salty and acidic when fresh, developing some piquancy when aged, and most will be white. Varieties of brined cheese include feta, halloumi, sirene and telemea, a variant of brinza.  Brined cheese is the main type of cheese produced and eaten in the Middle East and Mediterranean areas."

Rahovec and my new apartment

So this weekend (and every September) was the Rahovec Wine and Grape Festival.  I just happened to stumble upon this event through Couchsurfing.org and then confirmed it in my guide book.  It was a great find and was a really enjoyable day!  To get a reference of where Rahovec is in Kosovo!  I jumped on a bus and was there in like an hour and a half.

 The scenery started to change from the brown hills of Pristina to the mini forests and mountains that make up the perimeter and largely the southern end of the state.

 Our biggest hold up was the cow road block,  they decided to cross at their own leisure without any regards to my wanting to be off that bus and into Rahovec.  As we got into the rural areas, shepherds and livestock were all too common.  Mainly kids with their cattle sticks. (not as elaborate looking as the one Sarah got me, but I was father away)  It was a little bit of a teleporting back in time.

 This was just a town with a roundabout.  We passed through it and was there long enough for the driver to smoke a cigarette.  It's really interesting because the bus will pick people up on the side of the road and take them as far as they need to go.  It's like a public transportation across the entire country.  It'd be super weird if Greyhound picked up people on the highway and dropped them off the grocery store all while traveling between like D.C. and Philadelphia.

 This was my first glimpse of wine country.  It's an Eden-esque looking place, just came up over the mountain and bam, deep valleys that were lush and green.  This country just solidifies that Pristina is a little bit of an ugly town.  (If you are worried that I might offend, that was the first thing I was told about Pristina when I landed.  " It looks better at night.")  I took this picture, not on the bus, because I decided to get off at the wrong stop.  So I started walking, downhill, for about 20 min before I stopped to get directions.  I wasn't toooo far off, but was still about another 20 minutes walk from the town.  I set off on my way, but I think the guy I got directions from was a little worried about me cause after about 10 minutes of walking, he pulled up next to me and gave me a ride the rest of the way.  The official festival is a small affair, though I gathered that Friday and Sunday were the bigger of the two days! Shucks.  Well after I got into the festival, I immediately set off to try some of these wines.  Because it is also a grape festival, you can sample the grape types that then become your wine.  They have so many different types of grapes, and it was cool to eat a chardonnay grape then drink some chardonnay.  It was at this fist company (Stone Castle, which is largest in Kosovo and 3rd largest in Europe.  Or so they claim)  that I met Elivera.  She was dressed in traditional Rahovec apparel and started translating for me.  She took me around to the different tents, then to her uncles tent to try his fares.  It was good stuff so I bought a bottle of wine and a bottle of raki.  Unbeknownst to me, I had actually purchased 2 liters of each.  Her uncle had a small operation and no ability to bottle.  So I was handed two old 2-Liter Coke bottles each filled up with wine and raki respectively.  It was a bootleg start, but a very Kosovar start.  After that I was led to the SHL, which is a youth organization in Rahovec.  They do all sorts of things, like projects for cleaning, school help, activities, classes, job postings, etc.  They are trying to improve the lives of the youth in Rahovec.  (It's a poor region with little else besides wine)

One of the youths, Ramadan, gave me a great synopsis of their organization which is all youth led.  It's a really cool set up they have, one that hopefully can maintain it's usefulness.  He was telling me that they were trying to stay occupied and not end up spending all their time at a cafe drinking, like so many others had done.  He then led me around town and told me all about Rahovec.  He was a really cool guy, and I plan on heading back down there to see them again before I leave.  He led to a private winery, and I sat around with the owners, Ramadan, and some Albanian tourists drinking wine and talking about the whole process.  They were all really accommodating and tried to keep me involved with the conversation.  I had read that Rahovec has the nicest people, and if yesterday did anything, it confirmed that statement.  Everyone went out of their to help me, they force fed me wine, and included me in all the aspects of the day to help me get a full Rahovec experience.  It's definitely a proud region of Kosovo.  After purchasing a bottle from Daka, we moved on to see more of the city.  Next stop, a off shot sect of Islam that's a little radical (in their process of worshiping Allah)  in the eyes of the rest of the town.  They are about 100% Muslim in Rahovec and because of this there was some extreme fighting that happened here.  Continued below.

 It was a winery that was being build up, they get their start up funding from the EU, UN, and USAID.  The whole goal is to improve tourism in the region.  They are all ready competent wine makers and nice people, they just need the business to help keep them afloat.  Rahovec is a must see for anyone coming to Kosovo during the non-winter months.

 This is a Balkan specific piece of equipment.  It's for the production of Raki.  Raki is something of an art form for the residents of Rahovec.  Everyone produces their own batch and they all swear that theirs is the best.  It's potent stuff.  Very interesting flavor.  I might have a few bottles stashed away in my apartment.

 The above and right pictures are from the same private winery.  It was just a house with all the equipment and they buy local grapes to then turn into wine and raki.  The guy on the right was very gracious to host us in his home, the others are Albanian tourists that also were there for the festival.  They were trying to kill me though.  If you notice, that wine glass is basically full.  I had been sipping on that for about 30 min, to get it down to a manageable level.  I felt bad, but to avoid being on the floor, I opted not to finish it.  It was their Vranac, which is a local grape that's realllllllly good.

Here is the outside of the place of worship.  They allowed me to tour the place but not to take pictures inside.  It is directly next to the main mosque of the town.  I was unable to go into the main mosque cause it was prayer time, and we had little time to waste seeing everything.

 The views from the town were breathtaking.  My camera does not do it justice.  It's rolling hills, vineyards, and all surrounded by mountains.  Also, there are grapes everywhere, just random vines that sprout up here or there.

To continue, after the mosque we headed to the local museum.  It was eye opening, because it's so laid back compared to US/Western Europe museums.  The cases were unlocked, it was perfectly acceptable to pick up the items, and in the case of clothes: common place to see people trying them on.  All the curator/staff did was come over and explain things.  Rahovec due to it's fertility and location has been inhabited since before the Roman times.  There was a bronze statue that was uncovered within the valley.  I got to see the mayor of Rahovec, he was visiting the museum at the same time we were.  Pretty standard looking mayor.  After the museum, we all jumped in a van and headed a little out of town where one aspect of the festival was being held.  It was a grape gathering contest, which was being filmed by an Albanian film crew.  There were 3 SHL teams and 1 Albanian team, armed with pruners, and their task was to collect as many grapes as possible in 10 mins.  It was a mad dash, and was entertaining to watch.  The rest of us onlookers sampled grapes that were straight off the vine, nothing beats stuff that fresh!  Unfortunately the 3 SHL teams lost, but valiantly.  The Albanians were weirdly good at collecting grapes, so then these were collected to head onto the next set of the games that was to be held later.  In addition to this, there was also the Queen of the Grapes beauty pageant and a contest to stomp on grapes the fastest/best/Iamalittleunsure.  I unfortunately had to miss those last two events because the last bus back to Pristina left at 4.  I was beat tired by this point, it had been a real early morning and had gotten quite hot as we had walked through everything.

 I left with Ramadan and we headed over to the Youth Center.  It around the corner from the bus station so we rested for awhile as he showed me the place.  They had classrooms, big open spaces for parties and karaoke, a dance studio, an art room/ weight room, computer labs, guest rooms, balcony and all.  It was really well maintained and you could get a sense that the kids there really tried to take care of their space and were fiercely proud of it too. I definitely plan on trying to support them as much as I possibly can, it's rare to find a group of kids (all in and around High School aged) so motivated to change their stars.  It was something that you could get on board with and probably does wonders to keep the kids motivated and to help them get out of Rahovec.  Story continued at bottom.



Left, are some gourds that were found and used years and years ago in the Rahovec valley.  They reminded me of the ones that are used as bird cages back in the States.  However, here they are used for gathering water.

 One of the SHL teams hard at work trying to cut as many grapes as possible.

 I for some reason could not get a good picture of these tractors.  They are very communist (Matt and Sarah: they remind me of what y'all described as in use in China) looking.  It's basically a seat, an engine, and handlebars.  It's a tractor-motorcycle hybrid.  They were everywhere, they can go everywhere, and just chugged along up and down the mountain roads.

 Everyone likes shocking things.  This is a Turkish squat toilet.  I've been warned about these but had not seen one yet.  I found this in the bathroom of the bus station. They are more common in the rural areas, not so much in places like Pristina.  It's all about angles, balance, and your stance.  For the curious: http://migrationology.com/2011/08/how-to-use-a-squat-toilet-like-a-pro/

This was the winding road that snakes around the hills and mountains outside of Rahovec.  The bus took these curves like a champ, though there were plenty of overtakers in nicer sports cars.









To finish, I met some really cool friends down in Rahovec and plan on meeting up with them before I leave.  They are some really cool kids that really have a plan to help themselves get through the hardships that they have seen in their lifetime.  At one point (and no picture could capture it) as Ramadan was giving me a tour, we walked by a building and he pointed to some damage to the building and said:  Those are the leftovers from the war, they are specifically not repaired to remind everyone of what had transpired in Rahovec.  (The UCK made a stand there, and the Serbian forces took the city by force)  That building was an apartment building and the damage was a bunch of bullet holes.


Here are some more pictures from my adventures:

 Statue in the middle of City Park.  It's a memorial for the UCK soldiers that gave their lives for the cause.  There were memorials all along the road to Rahovec, that were well taken care of with fresh flowers put on these graves.  In the guidebook, it claims that even now there are still people who are missing in action and loved ones that were never found.

 Daka, the private winery that I visited.  They are a small, but personal operation.  Very delicious wine.

 This is the main mosque in town.  It's a couple hundred years old, but has been renovated.  It took some damage, like everything else, in the war.














I want to give a plug for SHL,  I hope that they can maintain what they are doing there.  Every single one of their members was intelligent, friendly, and driven to help make Rahovec better, in addition to improving their own lives.
 http://www.shlkosova.org/index.php?id=44

Ramadan and myself at the grape cutting (Below)

After getting back to Pristina, I decided it was time to head in and see the nightlife.  I found an Irish pub that shows football games, I was ecstatic about that.  It was here that I met a teacher from Seattle who had just gotten here to start teaching at the American University Kosovo, an American KFOR soldier that was headed home today, and some really cool retired UK cops who worked at OSCE.  I will definitely be running into these guys again and look forward to it.

Today was the big moving day.  It was easy and I am settled in nicely.  I really think I lucked out with this place, plus now I am in the city!    This is my apartment: