Kosovo Impressions

This is a blank post to highlight my experiences in Kosovo that I wrote for the magazine, Vagabundo.

Take a gander, if you haven't all ready done so.

http://www.vagabundomagazine.com/kosovo-impressions/

Also, beyond my article, take a look at my friend Zac and his adventures through the region.  Him and his girlfriend stayed with me in September, a part of their journey, overland, from Lisbon to Auckland (mind you, there is some water/air travel here.

December 11th, 2012

So to get everyone up to speed, here is this past weekend looked like: 

1) Friday night was a jazz concert put on by the US Embassy.  The Ryan Cohen Quartet (look them up!)   This was again at TV21.  It was a smaller event than the election party, not an open bar either, but was still a lot of fun and a nice dose of culture.  I ended up meeting the Ambassador, and actually talking to her for a little bit this time.  She has invited me to meet with her to discuss being an FSO!  (I met with the Political FSO here, Bryan, who was a tremendous resource and a very nice guy)  Hopefully between these meetings I will learn all I need to know to pass the test in February and get through to the next rounds of things.  

2) Saturday, a two part series.

       a)  Saturday afternoon, I went with Michael to the Skena Up Festival.  It was an international student film festival, all of them were shorts.  Being here showcased a lot of great potentials, a positive future about the movie industry, and just generally good movies.  It was free, relaxed, and fun.  

      b)  Saturday night started with dinner at Andrea and Michael's flat.  It was a pre-Pub Crawl dinner, so it was El Paso Tacos, chicken and veggie stir fry (over rice), cheesy bread, roasted cabbage, and loads of water.  It was a nice base for our adventures that night.  The Irish put on a 12 Pubs of Christmas pub crawl every single year (or at least this year and the previous one) and it is always quite the hit.  While we didn't finish the crawl, we opted to skip a few places and head over to the Irish pub, there were still about 40 people out to have a great time.  A great time was had by all.  A rough morning was had by all as well.  Still, I got to see a lot of places that I didn't know existed or rarely visited.  Plus I met a lot of cool new people and just had a blast in general.  

3) Sunday:  Brunchday/Funday

My friend Dan is leaving tomorrow to go home (and get married 2 days later)  so we went out to brunch on Sunday to this little place near my house.  It was fair, though I think we didn't go about the menu correctly.  The Bloody Mary (which came with the meal) was good, it was almost real!  That night we met over at Dan's apartment as he gave us gifts, things from the KFOR PX and his leftovers, while we talked about our adventures here, watched Discovery channel, and enjoyed each other's company.  Dan is a good man; he made my first few months here a lot more interesting.  I would definitely call him a friend, and I hope that I will be able to make it out to DC to visit him and his soon-to-be wife!

On the same coin, I wanted to direct everyone's attention to some great things that my friends have done while they have been here.  First off:

Jason, my co-worker's boyfriend who I has become one of my closest friends here, wrote a great Op-Ed for the Seattle Times.  I would like everyone to take a second and read through it.  I've also listed his blog, which is one of my favorites to read. He is a lawyer, so he uses big words.  You've been warned.  

1) Seattle Times

2) Legally North of Babylon 

Michael, another close friend of mine who is a writer for Ask Men, has a few submissions a week on the current trending Internet topics.  His style of writing is entertaining; I believe he is going places.

1) Expat Diary (From here you can link to his other stuff)

2) In Prishtina


Pictures are en-route.  I swear 

Ulpiana and Gračanica

Shadows and Ruins

So Laura, Jason, Andrea, and I grabbed a cab out to Gračanica and Ulpiana (not to be confused with the section of Prishtina) which are right outside of the city. They are next to each other and are the closest Serb Enclave. The city of Gračanica is known for the monastery there. It's not the same size scale as Decan, but it's still a pretty important place.  Close to Gračanica  is Ulpiana.  Ulpiana is a set of Roman-era ruins, complete with human remains.  A little eerie, but probably one of the cooler things I have seen since I got here.

Bonnnnnnnnnnnes

So we get out to Ulpiana, it's a field. It's not an archaeological site proper. There are farms on all sides of it, and a lonely, drunk, and (coincidentally) Serbian curator. He begins by yelling at us about taking pictures, no pictures allowed! Well that's how things go in most museums and ruins, so we oblige him and continue around the area. He leads us off towards the back section of the ruins. This was the old church building complete with tombs/catacombs. Here is where things get interesting. He shows us the human remains. I am talking full bodies, hands, limbs, skulls, etc. And we can take pictures. That's the part that blows my mind. The walls/ruins are way too fragile for photos, but human remains? Those are solid. Indestructible really.

Remainnnnnnnnnnns

We head back into town after gawking at bones and trying to communicate with the nice Serbian man, straight to the monastery. The frescoes inside are well preserved and great. The worst part about this trip was that the gift shop was not open, and there are a few gifts that I need to pick up for people! Still, the Monastery is so serene. It's surprising how well a 10 foot wall can block out all that is going on around you.

The Monastery

We leave from Gračanica, trying to find a restaurant called Ciao. It's highly reviewed, but none of us actually know where it is. We stumble across it accidentally and are a little wary of the outside. It looks run down and dirty. This gnawing worry leaves us as soon as we open the door to this beautiful, rustic, and Western style inside. All fear turns to enthusiasm as soon as we see the menu. Pork. Pork. Pork. More Pork. I personally went with the bacon-wrapped grilled pork chops. I mean of course I chose pork wrapped pork, it was the first time I had seen pork in 2+ months. I gorged. Jason had pork sausage that looked fantastic. He gorged. Laura had pork Gulag. She didn't gorge, because she's a lady. Jason and I gorged for her. Andrea had chicken, it looks appetizing and healthy. I preferred the pork. Writing this post is making my mouth water.

We ended our evening with some Rakija (from Montenegro) and tea over at Jason and Laura's. It was a successful day.

Shadows and Ruins

Prizren and Thanksgiving

So I want to first off apologize to all of my followers with my absence.  It has been a hectic time for me, with work, travel, and the weather, so I got a little behind with it.

So I left off right after Bajram, so I will try to remember all that has happened between now and then.  This is definitely going to be a 2-3 post update.

So the first weekend of November saw me visit the city of Prizren.  It is an old town that has retained a lot of its Turkish heritage, through the various wars and occupations.  It's a stunning city, with a river meandering on through.  The city is tucked at the base of some smaller mountains, though there were snow capped mountains in the distance.  Prizren is in the bottom left corner of Kosovo, near the Albanian border.  I was in Prizren for a CouchSurfing event, a meet up of sorts, which people came from all over the Balkans (and the rest of the world) to see old friends and make new ones.

This was definitely an interesting adventure for me; I rode down with two people I had never met.  A German police officer and a local Kosovar who works for the local telephone company were my fellow passenger and driver respectively, but it was far from awkward and was quite an enjoyable ride.  Every nationality and ethnicity was present when we arrived.  It was organized by this really cool girl from Serbia, who had been organizing these for 12 years.  There were Serbs, Albanians, Kosovars, Turks, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Croatians, English, Scottish, Australian, Kiwis (New Zealanders), Americans, and Italians.  I think that covers everyone, but needless to say it was quite the spread.

Besides making good friends (specifically: a Croat named Bojan, a German named Dori, and an English girl walking from England to Istanbul), two things stood out to me.

1) The Hike-   We hiked around 2 hours to a clearing out in the mountains that had a great view of the city and the surrounding snow caps.  It was exhilarating and welcomed.  The air was fresh and pure; it was overall a fun adventure.  When we came down the mountain, we stopped by the old city wall that towers over the main part of the city.  The sun was starting to set, so the views were breathtaking.  I was literally inundated with breathtaking views, it rocked my world.

2) When her fellow Serbian friends asked "Why are you hosting this event in Kosovo, it's shit!"  She asked them "Have you ever been to Kosovo?"  When their response was clearly no, she responded, "This blind hatred it stupid, you are stupid, please piss off” (She was taught by the Brits).  It was such a refreshing dialogue rather than the typical hatred between these two Republics.

So it was a nice weekend to visit another Kosovar city and get out of the grind that is Prishtina!

The week after was the Election, to which I had secured an invitation to the Embassy's gala event.  It was a grand ole time; I shook hands with the Ambassador, enjoyed Samuel Adams beer, and was in a good mix of American and International company.  I even woke up to watch the election results, but it was cold and rainy (and 4:30 in the morning) so I did not make it over to Jason and Laura's for their election breakfast party.

While I did not travel the following weekend, I did have a chance to get to know a great Canadian couple that I have become fast friends with.  Michael is a writer who followed his girlfriend Andrea, Political Affairs Officer for the UN, to Kosovo and continues to write.  We ended up hanging out at the Irish pub and then going to see Skyfall (Which I enjoyed immensely) with a whole mess of UN folks.

Since we did not have the week off for Thanksgiving, we opted to have it on the 24th instead. Our idea was for the Americans to produce the food, and our international friends produce the alcohol.  So much fun was produced that night.  That Saturday, which will live in football infamy, was an epic day.  While we did not kill our own turkey, per my previous post, we did have a good sized bird courtesy of my friend Mackenzie and her connections at Camp Bondsteel.  I personally made ajvar deviled eggs (turned out PHENOMENAL, to be humble), mashed cauliflower, and roasted beets.  I think three dishes is a good amount to make, but it was not even close to a fraction of the feast that we had.  There was turkey, two things of mashed potatoes, two things of stuffing, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, brownies, stewed curried pumpkin deliciousness, cranberry sauce, my three dishes, and plenty more that in my food (and nothing else) induced coma.

That was just the food.  We also had a whole mess of Raki, wine, and mulled wine.  The mulled wine I think killed about half of the international community; Jason might have been a little heavy handed with the Brandy (think like my eggnog a few Christmases ago).  It was delicious, but strooooooong.  The party was a great success; delicious food, plentiful drinks, and wonderful company was in abundance.  It was a true Thanksgiving.  We even had a second Thanksgiving the next night to over indulge again!

Pics soon to follow, my adventures in Greece to follow as well.

Holiday Weekend

In case anyone was worried, I was not harmed or affected by the violent demonstrations that took place in Prishtina this past week.  To be perfectly honest, I didn't even notice them.  I only heard about them through BBC and from other people here.  The weird thing is that I work just up the road from where they took place, but heard nothing! 

http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/22/14622010-protesters-clash-with-riot-police-in-kosovo?lite

This weekend marked the celebration of the Islamic holiday known here as Bajram (Pronounced, Bai-ram).  It is known as the Festival of the Sacrifice, and for those who can afford it/are very traditional celebrate it with friends and family.  It goes that to properly celebrate it, one purchases a sheep and takes it to the butcher to be cut.  The sheep is cut into 3 pieces, one to be eaten by the purchaser (and immediate family), one piece to be given to friends and other family, and a third to be given to charity.  It's this part that really is commendable about this holiday.  Charity is such a large part of this community, it is especially striking if you were to look at it as a percentage of their income.  For those who do not participate, it is a day off not to be taken for granted.  

It is a little bit eerie, though, throughout the entire Friday morning and afternoon.  It was entirely quiet and desolate, the sky played its part by adopting the Winter Grey to help round out the look!  It's a weird sensation to be in the middle of a capital city, on the main street, and it to appear empty!  It was a little unsettling, but fascinating at the same time.  But, unfortunately, this silence was broken by the discharge of firearms throughout the city. (though more prevalent towards the edges of town)  This is a sign of celebration,  to shoot your weapons into the air!  It is odd to be sitting in the middle of the Central Park and hearing rifles, pistols, and automatic weapons being shot up into the air.  I've heard my fair share of gun shots living in Atlanta, so I wasn't taken aback too much, but it's still a little strange with America having so many ordinances in place to prevent something like this from happening!  My friends and I had come to the Central Park area to find the scenes of the preparation for Bajram, as we had heard this is where the sheep were being prepared for families to pick up.  The Lambchop Massacres (as I affectionately coined it) were witnessed by one of my co-workers and her boyfriend, so I might be importing some of their evidence in once I get a chance to talk to them some more.  

Oh, I forgot to mention, that myself and 2 other Americans got second place in Trivia on Thursday.  We were awarded with a round of drinks, we opted for a shot of Sambuca.  It was my first time drinking it, but I will admit it was rather a pleasant beverage.  It would be perfect as an after dinner sipping "cocktail", similar to Limoncello or Pear Schnapps! 

The rest of the weekend went rather smoothly (outside of GT Football), though it is definitely starting to get colder.  I have looked at this week's forecast and it there are lows in and around freezing.  So I am pumped for that!  However the strangest thing is that Daylight Savings Time ended this morning, so until November 4th, I will actually only be 5 hours ahead of GA rather than the standard 6.  Oh time zones and daylight savings time...

This upcoming weekend I start my travels again, I will be spending the weekend in the city of Prizren.  I have heard good things about this place, so I am excited to finally see it.  I might even get to see some snow!  This month we are also planning a trip to Albania for their 100th year Independence Day, so that could be a once in a life time event!  

We have tentatively decided on a Thanksgiving festival, with some potential and talk about purchasing a turkey, live and gobbling, that will go from start to meal.  I can't think of a better way to spend my first Abroad Thanksgiving, besides kicking it old school.  

Dečani or Deçan: A Serbian Monastery in an Albanian sea

After this weekend, it will be harder to write as much as I did for Ohrid.  For this, I am thankful.  (I am sure a few of you out there who braved the non-picture posts feel about the same)  This weekend's destination was the city of  Deçan (pronounced Dechan), a little town between Peja and Gjakova which is famous for the Vioski Decani Monastery. (Високи Дечани for my Cyrillic readers)

A First Glimpse of Vioski Decani

I had originally planned to make it to both Peja and Deçan on Saturday, but my 9:00 wake up did not leave that much time for such a thing.  9:00 seems early, so Joe, how did you run out of time?  It comes down to the bus system of Kosovo, (and I suspect much of the Balkans, aka Fmr. Yugoslavia and former Warsaw Pact-ers) while surprisingly phenomenally efficient and reliable, follows Franklin's old adage:  Early to bed, early to rise, blah blah blah.  The first bus to most places is roughly 5:30, while the last bus is generally around 18:00.  So unfortunately, getting up at 9:00 means there has been now 3.5 hours of missed buses.  It's a problem that I am slowly learning to rectify.  I've digressed.

So I make it out to Peja and everything is going great until the most horrid and unexpected incidence occurs - our bus becomes the local school's field trip bus.  I'm talking 40+ 8, 9 , or 10 year old Albanian kids that just overtake our bus like a plague.  Am I being too harsh?  It might seem as such on the surface, but not when you've lived through it.  And by through it, I mean in the midst of it.  I couldn't move quick enough to change seats and get out from their evil clutches.  It even included a kid getting sick and puking everywhere (although not on me, just around where he was seated), to complete the memory.  The teacher offered his apologizes profusely, but the damage was done.  My brother has a certain famous quote that popped into my head, one that you'll have to ask him to repeat as I do not have the rights to reproduce it, that surmised the situation and confirmed:  I'm not ready to have kids.

Roughly 13:00 rolls around and I jump off the bus at the first indication of being in Deçan, which is a one round-about town, starving for some lunch.  I stop by the first restaurant with outdoor seating, coming in contact with my first language barrier problem to date.  Luckily, with the aid of my Travel Guide/ Phrasebook, I was able to mumble Albanian/make hand gestures/point a lot through ordering a pleasant meal of soup.  It seemed like a pretty traditional soup too, so double score!  I cannot say with 100% certainty of what exactly I was eating (a problem that can occur with a late night run to Taco Bell, too)  but here is my guess:  cabbage wrapped chicken/beef sausage in a delicious broth of I'd guess the beef variety.  It was thick and delicious, accompanied by a huge loaf of fresh baked bread and cabbage salad.  It + coffee was 3 Euros.  Kosovo is a lovely place.

I decide to walk the rest of the way to the monastery, supposedly a 30 min walk from the main roundabout.  However, the sign pointing the correct direction is a little ambiguous and I end up taking my third right instead of my 2nd one.  (To translate for those of you not in Germany circa '07, I went left instead of straight)  After about 20 minutes of walking down the main road (between Peja and Gjakova) and realizing that my destination, in a valley tucked between heavily forested mountains, is clearly not in this increasingly flattened landscape.  I head back and am presented with some absolutely gorgeous views as I recount my steps back to the roundabout.  It's the same Spanish-style tile roofs (At this point, I might as well call it Balkans-style)  with towering peaks rising from behind them.  These peaks, which are all around the monastery, are apart of the mountain range that forms the natural border with Montenegro.  Western Kosovo is of high acclaim for it's raw beauty.  I finally make the right set of turns to set forth on my journey, with the help of a nice old man who helped me through the fork in the road, in the right direction towards the Monastery. 

The Town of Deçan

Background: The charter founded the Monastery in 1330, and construction was completed in 1350.  It was picked by the Serbian King King Stefan Uroš III Dečanski and he is buried there as well.  He had passed away before his monastery was chosen.  

The correct path is a winding forest path with jagged mountain peaks as a backdrop so if you are in-country, aim for that!  You will also know you are on the right path when you come across a military check-point, complete with Jersey barriers, camo-netted bunkers, and Italian KFOR guards.  I had read that there was a presence there, but they waved me through like it was nothing so I didn't think much of it. About 10 minutes of walking later, I still hadn't found the monastery so I stuck my thumb out to hitch a ride.  Low and behold, success!  However, my elated feeling of successfully hitchhiking was deflated when I realized that after about 10m we were there.  I just felt like a lazy American, however my driver just laughed with (or at) me and left me to enjoy.    I ran into problems when I tried to walk in the monastery without surrendering my passport, small issue that was sorted out easily.  There just so happens to be a military base so the first round of checkpoints was mainly for vehicles since the turn-off for the base was back there.  So after all this, I finally headed into the monastery.

I'm on the road to Deçan

The monastery was really quite pretty, the frescoes were in such great condition.  That is a perk of a continuously active monastery, there were no periods of time where things could rot and be destroyed.  Plus this is definitely a big site for the Serbs and the Orthodox Church.  It might be one of the reasons that they are so eager to reabsorb Kosovo back into the fold;  I can't substantiate that with facts/figures/surveys/etc yet, but it feels as much.  (It's a part of the history of Serbia, though)  I spent some time conversing with the Monks, who were friendly and spoke very decent English.  They grow their own grapes, make their own wine, and produce their own cheese.  Of course, as a Madden this was all the push I needed to buy a bottle of Red and some cheese.  However, they had 3 different types of cheese:  Goat, Sheep, and Cow and I was not very interested in the latter one.  I don't know which one I got, whether it's Goat or Sheep's cheese, so it'll be a fun adventure to taste it trial-by-fire style.  

Views from the Road (If I ever release an album, that is so the name of it)

The cool part of this Monastery was talking to a Polish KFOR guy, they were touring the region.  They seem to do a good job of getting these guys off base and allowing them to view the country.  He was a neat guy, who spoke pretty fluent English.  

Here is the start of the tour:

Virtual Tour 2012

Chandelier and Soldiers

Dome Frescoes

Raining indoors?

The Ever Popular Bicephalous Eagle

 The pictures are blurry cause my hands were shaking with excitement from being in such an acclaimed monastery.  Or I am just an awful photographer in low light situations without a flash.  YOU decide!

The Massive Front Door

 This is shot just right from the bunker that the soldiers spend their days in protecting the monastery.  It's camo-netted and there are tiny "murder holes" (an ancient term, but somewhat fitting) that you interact with the soldiers.  Or if you are me, I just walked into their guard shack and chatted away with them.  Tensions are seemingly low.

The Perfect Backdrop

 On my way back into town, I struck up a conversation with a fellow backpacker. (I'm the weekend type) He was a Scottish bloke who just graduated with a degree in photojournalism and an interest in international work. (He has an internship in Palestine in December, a freaking gold mine!)  He definitely had career path that paralleled mine, though he had come to Kosovo for 2 weeks to do a project on Orthodox Churches here.  We both were intrigued by the military base, as a helicopter was flying around trying to land on base.  
When you are on the monastery grounds it is serene, like there is no where else beyond the walls.  The reclusive mountain setting coupled with it being an active Church really compounds upon each other to create an atmosphere that writers can only dream about when they have writer's block.  Then out of nowhere, a military helicopter buzzes the place and upsets the balance.  I am not blaming the pilots, they are just trying to land at the base, but it's a hold out from the war time that is hard to imagine.  
 We struck up a good conversation about life, politics, philosophy, human rights, etc which really made the trip back a whole lot nicer.  He was headed off to Gjakova and I back to Peja, but there is a chance I will run into him again in Prishtina.  

 The Monastery is hidden by those trees, but this was my favorite shot of the surroundings.  In the foreground is the vineyard that produces some tasty looking wine, complete with the ringing of cowbells (it's not an MSU game, Mark) by the estate's marauding cattle.  I never saw the goats or sheep, but there is a lot of forested areas that one cannot visit.

 By the time I got back into Peja it was roughly 17:00, so with only an hour to explore I decided to come back another weekend and headed home.  I was a complete waste when I got back here, my biggest accomplishments were choking back the tears after watching the GT game and getting a good night's rest.

I finally finished up my article and proposal for a travel magazine that I hopefully will get to be a part of in the coming few weeks,  so everyone keep your fingers crossed!  And hopefully this upcoming weekend I can do a bit of networking on the UN bus that I am taking to Sofia, Bulgaria!  Everyone cross your fingers again! 

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! 

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: