We slept really well, watching the tower across the way blinking its Morse code through the night. According to Gemini’s AI the code was for the message, “I love you” in Turkish, the Galata Tower sending it off to the Maiden’s Tower on the tiny island between the two sides of the city. 

Downstairs we had a Déjà vu breakfast – same setup, same coffee, same finger-burning eggs, even the same background music played. The staff around us looked tired and unhappy – it must be a tough place to work. 

Back upstairs we did our final packing and then gathered our stuff and checked out. The staff at the checkout was Turkish Nicholas Cage, who greeted us whenever he saw us by slowing closing his eyes and then opening them again. 

It was a long trip to get to the airport – we followed the same pathway we did the day before yesterday, just backwards. Getting on the metro with our suitcase meant a quick security check – that was new. Gemini AI had lied to us on the amount of lira we needed for the airport train, so our cards were rejected at the gate and we had to go back and top them up. There was a friendly staff member working there and he explained the situation, so I guess it is pretty common. 

We could sit down on the train bound for the airport, less jockeying for seats which was nice. Then after the long ride on the train we had to go up the escalators and walk the long distance to the airport. It was nice not using cars but it did seem like there could be a more direct way to get to and from the airport.

We were able to check in right away, and said goodbye to our suitcase – see you in Osaka (hopefully)! Waiting in a pretty long line in immigration to leave, and behind us a very stressed out lady cried out “Come on!” at the staff – she mumbled that she was running late for her flight. I’d hate to be in her shoes.

Then we got through security, and we walked around the inside of an airport we know pretty well. We knew enough to avoid the Bottega prosecco bar where they charge champagne prices for simple prosecco in a gold bottle. We were hungry so we stopped at a sports bar that was serving food and drink. Kuniko had menemem, a Turkish dish with peppers and scrambled eggs, and I had a monte christo sandwich that wasn’t bad. We had a beer and some Turkish Chardonnay with our meal, really trying to stretch out that vacation feeling. The staff were super aggressive about pushing us to order more alcohol and trying to take away our plates, even when I was reaching for food that was still on them. The restaurant was almost empty – calm down, people! We paid in cash, no tip.

Then it was a matter of walking around until boarding time came. The economy area of the boarding gate was full so we went and sat in the priority area – nobody cared. Then we boarded and sat in a crowded plane. Passengers were interesting – the woman in front of us was traveling with two kids and was extremely frustrated with them. Another woman across the aisle couldn’t figure out how to buckle her seatbelt – she had to try a few times to get it worked out. Later in the flight an old lady asked the man in front to move his seat upright so she could get out, but the guy stated that it was his right to recline and she would have to accept that – but later I noticed that he moved his seat, maybe after thinking about how much he sounded like a total dick.

We arrived in Singapore right on time, and the airport was pretty empty. We passed lots of people laying around on the floor passed out but looking dead. Like someone had shot them and their bodies had just dropped. We had a couple of cappuccinos and waited patiently for our flight to board.

In the boarding area seats were limited, but we saw a young Japanese couple spread out over five seats – a rare case of Japanese people behaving rudely. We asked the boarding staff if it was possible for us to change our separated seats to a pair that was together, and miraculously two seats appeared just as the guy checked. Nice!

The flight to Osaka usually takes six hours, but we arrive about 40 minutes early! The airport was really busy because people were coming back from the Obon holidays. I was glad they had a permanent resident line. Our suitcase finally showed up, and then it was the usual pattern of bus, train and taxicab to get us to our door. Since we had arrived on Sunday we had only a little time to prepare for the week, so it was roasted veggies and a bottle of champagne to celebrate while we unpacked. 

Another great summer holiday! We are trying to figure out our future summer travels – the heat in Europe this summer was eye-opening. Maybe it is time to check out other seasons and destinations.

We had made a plan the night before to get up super early and go see the Haifa Sophia mosque, as it showed on Google Maps as being open 24 hours. But overnight I realized that this might actually be the opening times for people who are praying, and a quick check confirmed that visitor’s hours were from 8 am. So no need to get up super early – we could sleep in. Kuniko slept really well and all signs of a fever were gone, so we were back to full health. We went downstairs to see what our hotel’s breakfast might be like.

When the elevator opened at the hotel lobby a man was sitting nearby and he gestured towards the door to the adjacent restaurant, Big Chefs, where we had drinks and manti the previous evening. We grabbed a table and waited patiently for the staff to come over and explain the plan. When they arrived, the plan was this – order coffee and wait for food to arrive. You had to pay extra for cappuccino upgrades, so we stuck with the standard coffee. While we sipped coffee the staff were just getting ready for the day. They were smoking outside, arranging some equipment, and eventually one came by with a sheet of paper. It was a list of guests at the hotel, and we all got together to try to figure out where we were on the list. The print was tiny, and the morning was early, and so it took a surprisingly long time to work things out.

Breakfast arrived on a big tray, and there were lots of little plates of food. There was cheese, olives, sausage, some bread rolls, some cucumbers and tomatoes, French fries, butter in honey, some jam, and a boiled egg. The boiled egg must have just come out of the water – it was so hot we were burning our fingers trying to peel it. I’m not complaining about the breakfast, but I do prefer choosing my own items. I would have chosen fewer things and we could have avoided some food waste.

After we finished breakfast we went back to the room to get ready to go out for our last day of sightseeing. We took the train to Venznecilar station, and were surprised that the way up and out of the metro was only via elevators – there were no escalators at our exit – that seems dangerous during a disaster… Once on the surface we walked across the campus of Istanbul University. The buildings of the university were beautiful, we saw plenty of cats playing and it was nice to leisurely walk through without a bunch of students around. 

From there we walked on regular streets for about 20 minutes, passing so many mosques along the way. Kuniko kept thinking the dramatic mosque that we were heading towards was the destination, but nope – still more to go. Finally we arrived in the area that I remembered from our first visit, a large plaza surrounded by the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. 

It had been 13 years since we had been here, and some things had changed. The grounds were now more decorated, with fountains, green lawns and a sort of Disneyland feel. They looked nicer and ready to accommodate a higher level of tourism. Last time we saw the Blue Mosque but didn’t have a chance to check out the Hagia Sophia mosque, so this time I was there to see it. It is under construction (and will be for the next 10 years I heard) so we had to look past various structures and equipment to see the beauty underneath.

First we had to get tickets and get checked out for following the dress code. Kuniko had brought a scarf to cover her head, and our legs and arms were covered – the fashion police at the entrance checked us out and gave us the thumbs up. Some Asian ladies were stopped at the entrance – one of them was wearing see-through pants! I don’t see a lot of women wearing see-through pants but to see one trying to enter an Islamic holy place… that’s weird. People without coverings were pointed toward a shop that was selling covering fabrics, and they weren’t cheap.

Inside we walked through the upper levels of the mosque. The lower levels were reserved for prayers. There were staff all around who looked a little bored. They had little to do but watch the tourists and pet the cats. At one point Kuniko’s scarf slipped off her head and the guard very politely asked her to be careful to keep her head covered. Another guard helped an American tourist with a shawl that he was wearing over his legs – he had shown up in shorts and had to tie a shawl over his legs for modesty. 

Inside the mosque were mosaics with the image of Jesus, often accompanied by images of kings, mayors, and governors that had contributed funds to the maintenance and repair of the mosque often the years. It turns out these images predated the building as a mosque, and when it was converted they plastered over the images – inadvertently preserving them for the future. It was jarring to see but very interesting.

After the mosque we went back out to look again at the exterior of the Blue Mosque. It was still stunning – I was glad to see it again. We did a short walk through the plaza and then caught the light rail from Sultanamet station towards to waterfront. We had planned on taking it all the way back to our hotel, but the train stopped at the water. Rather than wait for a transfer we decided to walk and enjoy the views instead.

There was lots of sunshine but the days felt cooler here in Istanbul, maybe because of the breezes off the Bosphorus. We strolled over the bridge passing fishermen catching mackerel. After the bridge we then stayed on the water to pass through Karakoy, full of nice hotels, security guards, and expensive-looking restaurants. We also walked by the Museum of Modern Art, more mosques, and a few military guards carrying assault rifles. These security points were a little out of place – we felt safe until we saw the big guns.

We slowly walked back towards our hotel, using the Galata Tower as a guide. Next to the tower we stopped at the SHOW market to refill on kefir, and also found big bottles of freshly squeezed OJ. I bought one and started chugging it right outside the store – it was so delicious. We saw a lot of orange squeezing machines through Istanbul, and it made me think I want to get one someday. 

We passed the base of the tower, and at this time of the day there were far fewer people lined up. Rather than go inside we sat outside a restaurant that had sparkling wine by the glass – Kuniko bought us a couple of glasses (expensive!) and the server gave us a small tray of nuts and olives to go with it. It was rare on this trip to find a place serving sparkling, and it was nice to sit at the high table and watch all the activity around us. When it came time to pay the bill the server (who looked a little like Rebecca Black) let us pay by card. Nice!

We stopped at one more store on the way back, it was on the street dominated by Muslim shops but they had Turkish wine for sale, including a bottle of bubbles. We bought it (the whole bottle cost about half the price of the two glasses we just drank) and brought it back to our hotel fridge to chill out.

For lunch we walked just up the hill from our hotel to eat at the Galata Lily Lounge. It was a great atmosphere, eating at our table on the hillside on a wooden platform, under the shade and feeling the breeze. I had Efes beer, Kuniko had some Cabernet Sauvignon, and we ordered up some kebab wraps. The owner of the place was happy to see us – he gave us some hummus and bread to snack on, and later some baklava for dessert. It felt like VIP treatment. The leisurely pace was nice to watch people walking up and down the hill. Trucks would drive up the one way street and stop to make deliveries, causing a temporary traffic jam. One guy guided a big trash bin downhill, in effect riding the bin as it rolled, barely in control. 

As the temperature started heating up we headed back to the room to chill out and take a nap. Later we woke up and popped open the bubbles while we tried to remember our activities for this journal. Out the window we could watch tourists on the top of the tower, looking out over the sea.

Later we decided to go to a place called Ficcin for dinner. Our maps had it just north of us, so we walked along some side streets following our map, dodging some traffic and construction along the way. We peeked down the street and saw a shop with Ficcin on the window, but it looked closed. We walked down the street a bit to investigate, but no luck. We actually stepped into the empty Ficcin shop but it looked closed, and I could hear someone snoring in the back. Felt weird.

But then Kuniko noticed that there were tables lining the street, and then other signs said Ficcin along the way. Turns out the whole street is the restaurant, and we were able to get a place to sit at the end of a long table that was marked as reserved. It pays to eat early! The menu had English and big pictures of the dishes, and the vibe was a little touristy. With some red wine we had some salmon rolls (so-so), lamb casserole (pretty good) and beef manti (yum). 

This was sort of our last main meal of the trip, having been traveling for two weeks, and so it served as kind of a recap session about the things that happened, but also about our future plans, places we want to go, and how happy we are to be together. We spent the time laughing and joking, holding hands, and soaking in where we were in the world and in life. 

Next to us a couple finished up dinner and stood up to leave, and only as they started moving did I realize how close they were. For better or worse they had to listen to our conversation. But the guy gave Kuniko a warm smile as he left, and hopefully they had as much fun listening to our goofy stories as we had telling them. 

We took a different way back to our hotel, down a big shopping street that we’ve seen a hundred times in other cities. The same brand shops – we could be anywhere. But a streetcar ran down the middle, and I remembered this place from 13 years ago.

Back near our hotel we went outside to sit on the benches and watch the sunset. It was even marked on our map as a “Sunset Point”. There were lots of smokers out there, one guy brought beer and a Bluetooth speaker, but his soundtrack choice wasn’t bad. While we waited there a big school group came through. They left via a bunch of small taxis, and I’d have hated to be the teacher in charge of the logistics of that trip.

Finally the sun dropped below the horizon, spreading orange across the sky. Kuniko ducked behind my shade to avoid the sun’s last rays. We did a lot of sun ray avoidance on this trip, so it was a fitting end to our long journey. We went back up to our hotel room to get the last night of horizontal sleep for a while. 

When I woke up I was remembering a crazy dream. I had been tasked with teaching an 8 hour class with no preparation whatsoever, on the topic of how to prepare PDF files. The crazy thing was that the dream went on in real time, and I remembered teaching the whole first hour or so. Maybe I went to bed too early last night. 

We showered, packed and checked out of the hotel – we were leaving too early to get our breakfast – and then walked out and around the corner to meet our taxi. It was marked as “Pink Taxi”, and the driver asked our names and then loaded our suitcase in the back. He was a really friendly guy, and it was a very smooth ride through the city and then out to the airport. 

Along the way Kuniko spotted a rainbow, a smaller version of the Statue of Liberty, and everywhere we looked there were apartments and office buildings under development. It seemed to us that Pristina was a fast-growing city. As we approached the airport I was surprised to see how large it was. 

As we moved through the different stages of departing the country, it felt like lots of kids were looking at us. Maybe it was just us, but every time I looked up at some family passing by the kids were watching us. Weird. It was also a strange feeling to be passing through an airport – usually our trips having us moving through a lot of countries by air, but this was our first flight in about two weeks.

When leaving the country at the immigration desk the officer said something to me that I couldn’t hear/understand, so I was leaning forward trying to hear it and she repeated herself, and again I couldn’t hear, and then finally I got the message – “Scan your boarding pass here”. This was a new process in our experience, but by the end of it both me and the officer were grinning about how silly the situation was.

Kuniko had done some research on the airport, and she had heard there was no toilet paper available. She had meticulously prepared some backup tissue and wet wipes for each of us, but when I finally used the restroom there was indeed some TP left on the roll. Still, it is good to be ready for anything.

While waiting I had some coffee and Kuniko had tea, also a big wedge of “fli”, a layered potato and cheese pastry that looked great but tasted sort of blah, perhaps a food that is made to fill stomach space rather than wow you with flavors. 

We waited in the sunny airport, watching a lot of families walking around. Since the fli wasn’t great we ate some of the chocolate that we had been carrying around (for more than a week!) and spaced out. Eventually we got the call to board. The trend of lots of kids continued as we waited down the boarding tunnel. 

Behind me a large older guy was really close, and kept edging closer and closer. Eventually when we turned the corner to the go through the plane door he sort of slid ahead of me, ending up between Kuniko and myself. I thought that was odd – Kuniko and I had been talking and I couldn’t believe he was that caught up in his thoughts to miss that we were together. I couldn’t resist calling ahead to Kuniko (in English) and telling here that this guy seemed to be in a big hurry and maybe we should let him pass. The guy heard and told me that he wasn’t in a hurry, and then let me pass him to be with my wife. The flight attendant was watching carefully to see if there would be any trouble but hopefully that guy will pay more attention to his environment in the future.

The flight itself was really smooth, and only about 70 minutes long. They did a lunch service, and we saw that there were bottles of wine on top of the service cart, so when they asked us if we wanted something to drink we said white wine, and the flight attendant did a double take. I am sure that we were absolutely the only people to have wine on that flight – but hey, vacation is vacation! Unfortunately this time our Turkish Airlines lunch sandwich wasn’t as good as the last one – I still can’t get over how delicious that simple melted sandwich was.

We landed at Istanbul airport on time, and then a long taxi to our gate. From there we had to walk a very long distance to get to central immigration and enter the country – and there were long lines waiting in front of us. We managed to get into a good line and got past pretty quickly, and we were the first people from our plan to reach the luggage carousel. Two suitcases were on the carousel but that was it, with our flight listed as “bags incoming”. We stood there and waited for almost 20 minutes, with no other bags coming out, until finally our bag popped out and it was all over. That whole plane full of people and apparently we were the only ones to check luggage to Istanbul.

Our walking wasn’t finished yet. It was about a 15 minute walk to get to the airport train station on the M11 line, and then we went down four sets of escalators to reach the ticket gate and platform. The ticket system was a little complex – we had to buy an Istanbul Card and top it up without knowing how much the train ticket price was – sort of non-intuitive. But in the regular city metro we could use our own credit cards to pay at the gates, so this Istanbul Card was a problem only for the airport line.

We lined up for the train, each of us lining up on one side of the train doors so that people would be able to get out of the train first. Surprisingly many people lined up right in front of the doors, blocking the exit of the current passengers which is like Train Riding 101 basic knowledge back in Japan. Then when the train pulled in everyone started cutting in line and any semblance of etiquette was out the window. 

I steered our suitcase towards the bench of available seats, and as I did a guy sat down and then tried to hold a seat for someone else – but nobody was there to take it. Kuniko already had a seat and so I sat down in the empty seat. Just as my butt hit the seat a lady showed up from the other door, apparently the couple had spread out to try to get a better chance at a seat. But in the end we stayed put and the lady took her guy’s seat. It was cutthroat on the Istanbul metro!

Luckily we had a seat since the ride from the airport to the next metro transfer was about 30 minutes. The train was pretty standard in design, made by Hyundai Rotem. One thing that was unusual was the amount of warning signs against breaking rules – no music, no food, cameras are operating, etc. 

Finally we reached our transfer station, Gayrettepe. There was no scanning of our card upon exit. A guy trying to be helpful urged us to tap on a transfer box, but we had plans to use our credit cards from here and kept going. From there it was a solid 15-20 minutes walk to the M2 transfer station. Again with the escalators – 3-4 times we had to go down, and by the time we reached the platform we missed the train and had to wait only 6 minutes for the next one. It was only 4 stops to our destination, Sishane station. While on that train a family of YouTubers got on, all wearing the same t-shirt and with dad filming the car interior (and passengers!) which seemed a little rude. We also noticed the pattern on the train doors had a hidden design that looked an awful lot like the Chinese symbol for Korea – maybe an Easter egg from Hyundai?

Back up many escalators and we found ourselves right in front of our hotel, The Continental. The guy checking us in spoke in a very mysterious way, subtly building the drama so that when he finished we were expecting something more. We went up to our room (#502 – same as in Tirana!) and were pleased with the view. There was a great view of the skyline and Galata Tower, along with the strait and the mosques in the old town on the other side. Wow!

We definitely needed a drink after all this travel and walking around, so we walked down the street near our hotel looking for a likely place. The sun was hot, and so we ended up choosing the restaurant that was adjacent to our hotel, called “Big Chefs”. The waiter who seated us was very polite and he checked carefully to make sure we were in the shade, there was an empty chair for Kuniko’s purse, and then made a nice gesture of dispensing the wet towelettes. Behind me the couple sitting there had a cute cat sleeping under their table – Kotor is not the only city with lots of cats on this trip.

I had some Tuborg beer, we had three different white wines by the glass, and a plate of crispy manti – everything was great. It was good to relax after having been moving all day. After our second glass of wine we were both feeling the bliss of travel. This was our second time in Istanbul and we had big sightseeing plans – just a couple of places we might want to visit. This stay was sort of forced on us by Singapore Airlines, who rescheduled one of our flights, but it felt nice to just relax in a place we know and not having to worry about fitting in a bunch of stuff. 

Upon paying the bill we had some trouble figuring out the tipping – each country had different culture about it – and finally I think we ended up not tipping with both us and the waiter confused. We decided to walk around in a different area, and found ourselves having an early dinner at Comedus, a wine bar that I had identified as a possible destination. The staff recommended two different red wines by the glass (that were excellent) and we had salmon bruschetta and also a pastrami sandwich that were really well made. The music was good, and again we were sitting on a terrace enjoying the view of the historic avenues of Istanbul.

Still later we walked over towards the Galata Tower, a dramatic landmark that we used throughout our stay to figure out where our hotel was. The street leading up to it was full of shops selling kebabs and touristy goods – it was packed with people. The line to climb the tower was impressive as well – everyone was here to go to the top. We stopped at a market to buy some kefir and water, tea and cookies for souvenirs. We also went to see the Cat Museum of Istanbul but it was not free as listed on Google Maps. It looked like a bit of a trap so we contented ourselves with petting some of the cats lying around nearby.

We had one more stop for food and wine, at a touristy restaurant right under the tower. We had Turkish Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, and also some sort of European style egg rolls in a pepper/tomato sauce – yum! This was a lively stop – a huge family was sitting next to us, with all the kids bored out of their mind. Cats walked to and fro under all the tables, hitting up customers for food. A lady near us with an impressive chest got a lot of attention from the restaurant staff. After one guy came by they all sort of came by with one excuse or another to service their table.

Finally we went back to the room to rest up. Kuniko was tired out and feeling slightly feverish but I was excited by the sunset over the skyline, and the illuminated mosques in the distance. I went out on my own to take lots of photos, and then came back to head to bed early. We left the curtains open to watch the tower lit up in the distance, starting to flash a light occasionally which looked like Morse code. What a day!

Our alarm went off at 5:15 am and we rolled out of bed to shower and get dressed. Our plan to beat the heat today was to do the majority of our city-walking and sightseeing early before breakfast. The sun was already coming out as we left the hotel, but there was nobody on the pedestrian thoroughfare – just a lot of pigeons walking around.

In fact the more we walked the more we saw how birds were snacking on dropped food from the night before, bathing and drinking in the fountains, and enjoying life without humans around. 

Our first stop was to check out the “Newborn” monument, a sort of evolving art structure to commemorate the birth of the country. Nearby was a sign for KUSA, an organization dealing with the relationship between Kosovo and the USA. It was fun to say the name – it means “stinky” in Japanese. Also nearby was a statue of Madeline Albright, for her help with the formation of the country during a turbulent time.

From there we followed our GPS to another part of town, still seeing absolutely no one. We took a shortcut across some abandoned looking rail tracks, then climbed over a retaining wall to find the Abe Shinzo Park, the first park we’d seen outside Japan that was dedicated to a Japanese prime minister. The park itself was tiny, but we did recognize some of the plants from Japan. Somebody was maintaining the park, but it sure was small and easy to miss. 

Next we walked quite a ways past big office buildings and new apartments being built. This area seemed to be growing fast, and the buildings and streets were more modern than other places. Despite this we had to skirt past a group of barking stray dogs. We were starting to see more pedestrians going to work, and so it felt a little safer and the dogs didn’t seem aggressive towards humans.

Next was a big statue of Bill Clinton, former US president. Above the statue was a big billboard showing a photo of Bill and commemorating his achievements for Kosovo. Under the statue a woman was selling vegetables out of boxes. I could see down the street a Bill Cafe, but there weren’t many other people around. It did really feel weird to have politicians from your own country memorialized in someone else’s country.

From there we circled back towards the center of town, heading towards the Mother Theresa cathedral. It was an easy-to-spot landmark, but as we got closer it was a little hard to figure out where to find the entrance. We made a wrong turn into a closed off parking area, but a nice guy gave us directions and got us back on track. There was a lot of construction going on around the cathedral – we weren’t sure if we were supposed to even be in there, but other people were walking through so I guess it was OK? 

Past the cathedral we reached the National Library – this was one of the main reasons I wanted to visit Kosovo. The building is really distinctive (some would say “ugly”) but I really liked the design of it. Up close it was a little dirty and it could have used a little more maintenance, but it was still impressive.

Beyond the library we could see a cathedral, and at first we started walking directly towards it, but the pathway petered out into grass and weeds, and so we decided to backtrack and walk around another way. The closer we got to the cathedral the more it looked empty and abandoned, with the grounds covered in trees and weeds. However there was still a bright gold cross at the top of the cathedral. Kuniko theorized that it was a Serbian church and later we found out she was correct. It was Christ the Savior Orthodox Cathedral, and it had been abandoned for political reasons, and rumored to just house wild dogs these days. Interesting!

We had a little time to kill before breakfast was served so we walked across town to visit a different Maxi, this one was Maxi 13 and it was open 24 hours. Unfortunately it wasn’t that impressive, so we headed back to eat breakfast at our hotel. Breakfast was actually served across the street from our hotel at a restaurant called Margo Bar. We sat outside under an arbor, and enjoyed the cool (for now) weather. 

The breakfast was big – at first we thought we were selecting from the menu but it became clear that we were able to have everything if we wanted it. We started with fresh croissants with cherry jam or Nutella, and then coffee, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and I had a mozzarella sandwich with pesto, Kuniko had an omelette with ham. There was an option for dessert on top of that, but we were full. One of the staff asked us if we were tourists (why, yes… yes we were!) and when we said we had come from Japan he said that it was his dream destination. 

Full of food we decided to go back and rest in our room. Once again we went into siesta mode, and since we had such a big breakfast we decided to skip lunch and stay in under the air conditioning, having TUC crackers and sipping some of the wines that we had purchased. 

Once the peak of the heat had passed we went back out. We stopped at a nearby souvenir shop to buy a keychain. The shop staff didn’t have change for the 20 Euro bill I gave her, so she had to run outside and find it somewhere else. We walked down a busy road, away from the pedestrian area. This road had a few mosques, and some interesting towers and statues here and there. We tracked our way via the GPS, and it led us down a narrow backstreet that wasn’t paved – were we on the right track?

We were – the dinner restaurant we were aiming for was open, and we went inside to get a table. The restaurant was called Liburnia, and we sat underneath an arbor with a breeze flowing through. It had some pretty rustic decorations, and I could spot a big roasting fire in the back of the place. It felt like a place that was off the beaten path.

But the menu had English, and the staff spoke English, so we were fine. We ordered some wine and beer – the wine came in a little 250mL carafe. We also had the veal on yogurt, and the Liburnia marinated lamb. 

The marinated lamb was awesome. It really blew our minds – the sauce almost reminded me of BBQ sauce, and the meat was cooked on the bone, with some mushrooms and other veggies scattered around underneath. This was easily the best dish of the trip. Kuniko said it was worth moving to Kosovo for this dish alone.

As we were gushing about the great food more and more customers were trickling in. Not far from us two guys who had been there before us were still there. They had ordered food and they picked at it while spending most of their time smoking, looking at their smartphones, and holding a full-voiced conversation with someone. Normally I’d be annoyed but here it was just part of the unique atmosphere.

Eventually it was time for us to go. The place accepted credit cards (good news) and the waiter came with the bill – he made a joke about the total being over 100 Euros, but it was actually quite reasonable. What a great meal!

After we walked back towards the area where we were staying. Past the live music stage – it seemed like they’d be doing more music tonight. We went over to “our Maxi” to get some souvenirs for our coworkers and students. I picked up a box of peanut bars that were made in Kosovo – the cashier had to ring them up individually, scanning the same peanut bar 18 times. 

At the hotel desk we ordered a taxi for the next morning – it would cost 20 Euros to get us to the airport. Then we headed to our room.

I had considered going out with Kuniko to have a glass of wine and people-watch outside, but when we opened the door to our hotel room a big fat fly zoomed into our room. It became a big production to flush it out, and by that time I figured we may as well stay in and take it easy tonight. I was in bed early, while Kuniko was up surfing the web. I remember hearing the faint sounds of music while I was half asleep – most people in Pristina were partying while I was dozing like an old man.

I had a little trouble sleeping, tossing and turning that was probably due to sleeping on such a full stomach. The bar/restaurant was right above us and sometimes the scraping of chair legs jolted me awake. Because of that I ended up sleeping in later than usual, but we had plenty of time before our bus departed.

We went back upstairs to get breakfast, and they had a similar spread of food as yesterday. This time I knew I wanted to concentrate on that OJ and coffee. There were also some corn muffins with cheese baked inside and topped with seeds – excellent! We had a different server this time, who was all smiles when talking to me and pretty much ignoring Kuniko. I felt like many times on this trip staff that we met were not used to being treated with smiles/kindness by customers. Speaking of smiles, the mom sitting next to us with her kid was looking miserable as she smoked a cigarette and ignored her son. When her husband showed up they ignored each other – the child was too young to notice the tension. 

After breakfast we organized our luggage and then went and checked out. I was using the elevator with the suitcase and pushed the up button to get out, but the elevator instead went down, and surprised the older Asian couple – they had to wait until I went up again. I was surprised there was a whole other floor below us. 

We did our best to avoid sunlight as we walked back the way we came the day before yesterday, back to the bus station. We had our tickets already, so it was just a matter of finding the right bus. There was a giant digital departures board that was broken, so we asked a security guy and he told us we’d leave from the #4 spot. When we got there, we saw three Japanese people also riding the bus, but they didn’t acknowledge us at all. The bus door was open, and we showed our ticket to the driver who was standing outside. He gestured that we could board the bus, and we sat down inside. With the bus engine off there was no air conditioning, after a few minutes it was too hot for me and I went outside to wait on a bench.

While waiting there I went ahead and bought an eSIM for Kosovo as it was the only country not covered by our data plan. That turned out to be a good decision later on as we would need it to find our next hotel. While waiting many people came up to the driver and asked questions – he was trying to eat and looked like he was sick of answering so many questions. Maybe if the departure boards worked then this would not be an issue? 

Eventually it was time to depart, so we got on the bus as the driver started it up. Another guy jumped into the bus and sat blocking the door, so it looked like we had another copilot situation. As the bus left the terminal we eagerly adjusted the air conditioning vents, but nothing was coming out. Also, the copilot left the bus boarding door open. And then it hit us – there was no air conditioning – we are just going to drive to another country with the doors and windows open.

The bus was pretty old. It looked old from the inside and the outside, with a faded “Free WiFi” decal on my window. I joked with Kuniko how much fun it would be to ask the driver for the WiFi password. We were lucky the bus was even running. The window next to meet had a lot of water trapped between the panes, flowing back and forth with lazy waves. With the door and overhead emergency exit hatch open the drivers fired up their cigarettes, and we were in for an eventful two hour ride.

The driver got on his phone while driving – one hand calling, the other steering and holding the cigarette. Occasionally on the way he suddenly pulled over and someone jumped on the bus. As we passed the Muslim quarter the bus pulled over and a guy passed over a big package of what looked like takeout food. Much further down the road they pulled over and were handed some kind of packages that looked like a courier delivery. I guess that was what the phone calls were about.

As we left the outskirts of Skopje the heat was rising fast. In some of the intersections there were mothers or young women begging cars for money. I couldn’t imagine how hot and stifling it must have been out there, and what it would be like to depend on that activity for your source of income. 

Eventually we got close to the border, and I was eager to see how it was going to work out. Kosovo is a country according to half the world, and a breakaway region according to the other half. But before we got to the border the bus pulled up behind some cars that were decorated, and I think everyone was surprised when a bunch of people got out of the cars and started dancing. 

It felt like a Bollywood musical but I noticed that the car right in front of us had a “Just Married” sticker covering their license plate. The cars were blasting music, drivers were getting in and out, the women were shaking bangles, waving Albanian flags, and it felt like we were truly in a completely different country now. The drivers honked their horn but it just blended into the celebratory honking ahead of us. Behind me a local woman was talking loudly on her phone to her friend and holding the phone to show her friend what was happening – the phone was right next to my ear as she did it.

I took a few photos and a video too, but we had to be careful because the background was an international border and the guards who would have to sort all this out. 

As we inched forward I could see the guards processing the wedding party members, and they didn’t seem like any of this was abnormal. Eventually we got to the front, and a border guard got on the bus and started scanning passports. Kuniko’s scanned correctly and she could keep her passport. Mine didn’t scan correctly so the guard kept it. It went like that with the other passengers, and the guard took about half of our passports with him out the door. The bus started moving forward and there was a tiny flare of panic, but he pulled over to wait. 

Behind me the lady asked Kuniko something in Albanian, and Kuniko explained that she didn’t understand, then the lady said, “Italian? Spanish?”, and Kuniko told her that I spoke Spanish. So I talked to her a bit in Spanish but she clearly didn’t understand me. She tried a little Italian with me but I couldn’t understand her, but I got the feeling like she just wanted to reassure us that the passports were coming back. 

And sure enough the copilot came back with all of our passports. I retrieved mine from the pile, and we were back in business. The bus started towards Pristina and we were in our sixth country of the trip. 

The road in Kosovo that we used was pretty nice. It was a big elevated expressway, in perhaps the best condition of any road during this trip. Below us we could see that they were building a new railway, and the expressway and the railway both followed a narrow river towards the city. Some capital was being invested here.

Somehow the driver knew that some passengers would want to get off earlier than the others, so he pulled over now and then. During one of these stops a car pulled out in front of us and I thought that it was all over for our crappy bus. But the brakes worked and disaster was averted. Farther on we saw police pulling over cars with a similar method to what we experienced in Albania. The copilot closed the door when we passed the police and then opened it again once we were safely past. 

Finally we arrived at the bus terminal and parked out front. We got out and retrieved our suitcase, and then headed over towards a long line of taxis waiting right next to the terminal. But something was off, and Kuniko figured it out – they weren’t taxis but cars for student drivers, and we were hoping to catch a ride from a driving school. The cars had a board on top that said “Autoskola”.

So we walked through the terminal and noticed right away how it looked cleaner and more modern. There were signs and digital displays and comfortable seating. We then went out the other side, until a guy approached us and offered us a taxi ride. We took him up on it, loaded the suitcase into his car and we were off to central Pristina.

On the ride to the hotel the guy chatted with us, he recommended a “bear experience”, which was some kind of bear sanctuary outside of town that didn’t sound that appealing to us. Looking around us the city looked a little cleaner than the previous cities, but basically the same architectural style and now and then a few American brands were advertised. It cost 15 Euros to get close to our hotel, but the entranceway wasn’t immediately clear. We walked around until Kuniko saw it – without the GPS or internet it might have taken a lot longer.

I waited downstairs while Kuniko confirmed the location, and then once we were checked in I lugged the suitcase up some stairs and into our room. This room was nicely designed and looked comfortable – it was my favorite room of the trip, I think. After dropping off our stuff we went out to catch a drink – the main pedestrian street outside was wide and lined with cafes and restaurants. We had a little trouble finding one that had the right combination of shade, credit card acceptance, and boozy menu, but eventually we landed on a place near our hotel. 

I had a Peju beer, and Kuniko tried her luck on a margarita (this was her third attempt). I said that the third time would be a charm but in fact the margarita sucked. I promised to make a better one for her once we got home. 

Nearby we found a supermarket called Maxi. According to my map there were a lot of Maxi stores in the area – ours was Maxi 3, but nearby was Maxi 18, so it is a big chain. We liked the market – lots of different products and all the price tags had the flag of the country that produced the item, so it was great for souvenir shopping. We came back here often, and we started calling it “our Maxi”.

We bought some snacks, water, and some airplane bottles of local wine to try.  While waiting to check out a guy approached and I think he was asking to cut in front of us, not sure but since we didn’t understand he waited instead. The clerk was clearly someone who hated her job – she looked ready to quit any moment.

Back in our room we went into siesta mode, along with a little wine tasting, eating the Tuc crackers that we had received all the way back in Sarajevo from the hotel, and laughing about the wild bus ride to get here. Eventually our hunger got the best of us and we decided to go out for an early dinner. We are always eating early, unlike most Europeans who head out for dinner at 8 or 9 pm. We are usually asleep by then. 

I had two possible restaurants to try. We walked by and checked the menu at the first one, but it looked a little snobby and I didn’t see many traditional dishes on their menu. So we went next door to the other one on my list, and it was perfect. The restaurant was called Shpija e Vjeter. It was a narrow restaurant under the shade of some trees and an awning, with a stylish homey vibe thanks to the decorations and lighting. We got a good table sort of half inside and half outside.

We ordered some beer and wine, and while waiting for our food an apple fell from the tree high above us, luckily missed my head but rolled across the floor towards some other customers. I was about 30 centimeters from re-discovering gravity.

The food arrived, and it was awesome. We had shrimp buzara (“buzara” is a kind of cooking style we saw throughout the Balkans), and a beef muscle casserole which tasted a lot better than it sounds. Everything was tender and delicious, and we were very happy to be where we were.n

Behind us the staff put a little edelweiss aroma into the big fan blowing through the area. Kuniko was surprised to see the staff smoking and chilling right out in front of the customers, something you’d never see in Japan.

After dinner we walked along the big pedestrian street – it was apparent that there was some kind of festival or event happening. There were food stands and booths to buy souvenirs, a small Ferris wheel, and a carousel. Lots of young people were stepping out and there was a lively vibe. 

We stopped for a drink at a bar that looked relaxed and comfortable. Inside a couple of guys were sitting at a table, and one of them had a cat on his lap. So cute! After we ordered our drinks and went back outside to wait for them we saw the two guys walking away, and the guy was bringing the cat with them, holding it in a strange way. Hmm…

I had some red wine and Kuniko went for another cocktail, this time a sex on the beach. It was another strikeout, with an odd artificial taste to it. No more cocktails in Europe, I think. When paying the bill the staff said that it was cash only, and I realized I only had a 100 Euro bill in my wallet. I told him the bad news, but he had good news for me and he was able to break the bill and make our life easier the rest of our stay in Pristina. 

We walked to the other end of the pedestrian boulevard and they had a big stage set up for some kind of live music later tonight. Hopefully we’d be able to sleep! There was also a statue of Skanderbeg on a horse – he does get around.

We made a final visit to our Maxi for water, wine, souvenirs, and deodorant, and then back to our hotel to get to bed. As I was falling asleep I could hear the faint sound of live music but it didn’t stop me from conking out.