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: