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.
