Kosovo

I heard that Kosovo is still very pro American so I was eager to see what that felt like. I caught the next ride out of Skopje’s bus station and settled in for a few more hours. I arrived just as the evening was falling. There wasn’t much to see so I made use of the bus WiFi and reserved a bunk at a Hostel in the city center. The hostel was, of course, on the other side of the Pristina from it’s bus stop. I have learned to not judge a place by its bus station but was pretty happy that I wasn’t going to be staying in the concrete apartment block neighborhood surrounding the bus station.

I had finally thought ahead and downloaded the map for Pristina to Maps.me so wasn’t totally lost once I got out of the maze of Apartment blocks headed north. I was very happy to see that it was a nice straight line too. It was getting dark and starting to snow and I just didn’t want to get lost like I usually do. Most of the walk was on a wide pedestrian boulevard. There wasn’t anything quaint about it really. Mostly just retail stores closed for the day and a restaurant or two but it was still nice enough.

The side streets seemed to be where the real action is at. First things first though. I had to find my Hostel. The Hostel was on the main boulevard which was nice. Its entrance was not though. I had to find my around back cross a parking lot, walk a crumbly footpath before even getting to the door in the side of a nondescript wall of cement. There was a small sign and a dimly lit stairway that I climbed a few flights up past what seemed like offices. I rang the buzzer to what looked like the Hostel and walked into a comfortable living area and got checked in and shown to my bunk. 

I dropped my bag and headed back out to see what was happening. I zigzagged along the the boulevard looking in windows, checking menus and finally settled in to the Taverna Tirona. It was very lively for a Wednesday night. It looked like a post work crowd. I had a local beer and watched the customers lit up when the came in from the snowy night. It was quite nice but I still had the money issue to deal with and hadn’t found and ATM to replenish my Euros. I headed back to the Hostel but was pretty happy with what I had seen so far. I headed back to the bunk and went right to bed.

Hostels can be hit or miss on value for dollar versus annoyance. As I am way past the target demographic that most hostels are going for, i generally feel begrudgingly welcomed. Assuming I am just an old smelly dude sucking the hipness out of the room. Cant really argue that but since I usually travel during quiet season, my money serves a purpose;. The bright side is they usually stick me in a bunk room all to myself whenever possible and it is almost like having my own room. 

I woke up to a cold morning with nothing really planned for my Kosovo visit. I had walked all over the downtown area the the night before. I strolled a little further afield but aside from a few coffee shops, I couldn’t think of a reason to stick around. Don’t get me wrong, it was a nice place. There weren’t any bullet holes or blown up buildings like over in Sarajevo. I pretty much only saw it capital’s mainstreet so who know what the other parts look like. I am looking forward to when I can put some planning and forethought into a more extended stay. I collected my bags and headed back to the bus station.

I have heard it might have changed but when I was here, the status of Kosovo was still in dispute. I couldn’t hop a bus for the short ride to Belgrade. I would have to reverse my trip all the way to Sofia. Which meant that I might as well visit Bucharest to avoid a huge back track from Belgrade. The next few days become a blur. My google maps couldn’t even keep up. They didn’t record anything for my remaining stay in Europe and they record everything.

I finally got into Sofia around 9pm and was tempted to get a hotel but there were rumors that there was an overnight bus to Bucharest. The bus station ticket agents were closed and all the schedules were in Bulgarian so I pushing my luck. Somehow, I found a ticket window that was selling tickets.for a midnight bus. I couldn’t figure out the stop location so I just hung around groups of people standing in the road with luggage. Hoping the bus that rolled up had a destination sign in a language similar to English. 4 or 5 waits later, I was on the bus and hoping for some sleep. Didn’t get it but I did have wifi to get a room in Bucharest.