Pristina, Europe's youngest capital city!

4 september 2021 - Prizren, Servië

There it is, I have finally landed. Not only in Kosovo, but also in my new reality, I’m back in full travel mode and loving it! Amsterdam, let alone work feels like on a different planet and my mind and body are back in the same place again: the old town of Prizren, Kosovo as we speak. I’ve finally left the endless pre-travel to do’s, the worries, the questions with no answers, where they belong (back home) and my new reality has really kicked in!

My reality of today consisted of picking breakfast from a hilarious menu (‘Eggs in eyes’, ‘Bakeries with eggs’, ‘crape mix’ and ‘sendwich with chicken meats’), deciphering the bus website in Albanian to figure out what time the bus was leaving (got it right in case you’re wondering), deciding were to have lunch and just wandering around town and spontaneously buying all kinds of different cookies from a café which had the best looking sweets at their counter. Now I’m waiting for the sun to set a little before hiking up to and old fortress with a great view of Prizren, at least that’s what I’ve been told. I hope it’s worth it because I’m having some major muscle pain in my legs after a big hike in the mountains yesterday and each step is a reminder of each meter I climbed up… I’ll keep that story for another blog, because I first would like to take you back to where I left it in my last story: the Austrian Airlines plane to Pristina, Kosovo.

I don’t think I’ve ever been in a plane that’s been that empty, not even a quarter of the seats were taken and at Pristina International Airport there were only two other airplanes apart from ‘mine’. Was I (almost) the only one going to Kosovo? At least one of the only tourists. In Pristina I can confirm that I have seen three in total, in Peja I’ve heard an older couple speaking German and two people my age speak Dutch and here in Prizren I’ve counted seven, that’s a grand total of fourteen tourists so far! The funny thing is that I don’t feel uncomfortable about this at all, nobody looks at you wondering where you’re from or approaches you to sell stuff. Only taxi drivers try to make a little extra money off ignorant tourists, but I guess that’s part of the game.

Pristina, the capital, felt like a complete change of scenery, I’ve rarely had such an intense feeling of not understanding or grasping a city, I just couldn’t find my bearings at first. It all felt so unfamiliar despite everybody looking so ‘normal’ and like me. This was very different from any previous experience in unknown cities in South America for example where I could literally see that I was different from everyone else and therefore it made sense that everything around me was different as well; not sure if this makes sense…

Pristina is the youngest capital of Europe and is not one to visit for it’s many cultural or historical sights. There is no unity in architecture, you can see a lot of unfinished buildings, the city feels chaotic, there is a lot of traffic and dust and I got lost a couple of times in the maze of streets. However, after my first feeling of total disorientation faded, I actually understood what I had been reading about Pristina on blogs and in guide books: Pristina’s main attraction is its atmosphere, its positive and optimistic energy, young vibe and general friendliness. I still think it’s a super weird capital city and I still don’t understand how it ‘works’, but I really enjoyed walking around and being amazed by all the weirdness. This continuous feeling of strange amazement and astonishment is exactly the reason why I loved my 24 hours in Pristina and what makes this city interesting, unique and definitely worth a visit! I could fill pages with observations, questions and impressions of this city, but instead I’ve just listed some.

Random notes on Pristina:

  • Coffee culture is huge in Pristina, you can find cafes with good coffee everywhere ranging from super simple with a couple of plastic chairs to very hipster place that could be transported directly to Amsterdam and no one would ever know.
  • The man bun and hipster beard are as widespread in Pristina as in Amsterdam, same goes for crop tops, sneaker trends, smartphone addiction and the industrial look in bars and cafes.
  • Face masks are mandatory everywhere again (since a couple of days covid cases are on the rise again in Kosovo) which created this new fashion accessory: the chin mask, worn by almost everyone. I’ve also tried the mask dangling from one ear variant but I have to admit that I don’t even mind that much having to wear a mask because of all the dust, win win I would say!
  • The city feels modern and wealthy based on how people dress, act, eat, drink and their cars but on the other hand there are potholes in the roads, electricity cables going crisscross from one pole to another, stray dogs and a lot of sand a dust from all the construction that is going on.
  • There is one big pedestrian street with cafes, bars and restaurants on both sides where people spend their afternoon strolling, eating ice cream/cake and drinking coffee, not that different from Vienna in that respect. And again I joined the fun.
  • I had the best dinner ever in a super nice restaurant called Renaissance somewhere in a residential area. The restaurant is behind an impressive hand carved wooden door, there is no sign outside and when you push the door you enter this beautiful courtyard with a chalet style house in the back with beautiful wooden beams and stone walls and floors. Food and deco both 10/10. I spoke to the owner at the end when he was smoking a cigarette outside and I was waiting for a taxi and it was really nice hearing the story behind this restaurant and just having a chat with someone and getting to know al little more about the country.
  • I have seen more Porsches, Range Rovers, Audis, B&Ws, Mercedes cars (most in SUV version) in my last few days in Kosovo than in the past year in the Netherlands and I just couldn’t figure out why people had all these big cars when houses aren’t even finished. According to the owner of the restaurant mentioned above (I was too curious not to ask) people in Kosovo lost so much during the war that afterwards it was as if people had to compensate for this loss with material things and as soon as it was possible again they bought the biggest cars possible to make up for years of suffering.
  • Everything is so cheap here, a coffee or a beer are about 1 euro and you can have a super nice dinner including a drink for 10 euro. And yes they have the euro without being part of the EU.
  • There is Bill Clinton statue and avenue in Pristina and a Toni Blair street in Peja.
  • The library building in Pristina has the somewhat questionable honour of being on the list of ugliest buildings ever. Beauty/ugliness is subjective, but I’ve seen prettier buildings…

All jokes and ‘funny’ observations/impressions aside, what surprised me the most about my first few days here, is my own ignorance about Kosovo. This country is a 3-hour flight away from my house and I didn’t know a thing about its history and I don’t mean what happened 300 years ago, but the past twenty-five years. I vaguely knew about the war in the Balkans but it’s only by coming here that I realised that people my age have actually lived through a war. And after the war ended a period of insecurity started and Kosovo only declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. While I was studying carefree in Utrecht, a new European country was being created and I don’t even remember realising this or thinking about the impact hereof. I know you can’t carry the world’s misery on your shoulders or be aware of every conflict happing on the planet, but hearing stories about cities that burned down for 70% after the Serbian army put fire to houses and other buildings out of revenge or that more than 20,000 Kosovar women were raped during the war (there is a monument in Pristina to honour these women, I don’t have pictures of it, but it’s called Heroinat), makes me feel a little uncomfortable and ashamed that I didn’t realise, let alone understand that this is the recent history of Kosovo and that the people I’m meeting and talking to have lived through this.

Not the happiest note to end with, but this is also the reality of this country and not acknowledging it would feel weird too. This story is long enough as it is so I’ll keep the beautiful mountains and the cities of Peja and Prizren for the next one!

PS: if you’re wondering why I’m writing this in English, it’s not because I turned into an international snob, but just to avoid having to write a French and a Dutch version :-)

Foto’s

7 Reacties

  1. AJ:
    4 september 2021
    Wat kan je toch heerlijk schrijven! Alsof ik met je mee loop, kijk al uit naar je volgende avontuur xx
  2. Daniëlle:
    4 september 2021
    Super leuk om je verhalen te lezen! Geniet van alle nieuwe avonturen. Xxx
  3. Huib thissen:
    5 september 2021
    ...wat een interessant en spannend vervolg van jouw reis én wat schrijf je goed en vooral leuk😄 Ik verheug me op het verdere verloop...
  4. Huib thissen:
    5 september 2021
    Pauline...toen ik je verhaal las moest ik ook beetje aan Tirana denken...
  5. Renske:
    5 september 2021
    Geweldig om op deze manier mee te genieten van jouw reis! Kan niet wachten een deel van de avonturen “live” mee te maken! Tot snel! :)
  6. Maman:
    5 september 2021
    J’aime te lire, Pauline! Je voyage avec toi. 😘
  7. Nicoline:
    8 september 2021
    Zo leuk om te lezen Plien! Grappig dat iedereen daar zulke dure auto's koopt nu. Liefs Nico