My Last Group Vacation- Kosovo

Kosovo may not seem like the perfect vacation for anybody, especially for Americans.  But on August 7-9, a bunch of Americans decided to take one of our last (for me, my last) vacation with each other before most of us COS.  Kosovo may not offer much (it was a war zone only about 15 years ago), and the only tourist attraction most Americans know about when they think of Kosovo is the Bill Clinton statue in Prishtina.  However, for a group of Americans with a low number of vacation days, little time in the summer, low funds near the end of our service, and a craving for some typical American dishes, Prishtina was the perfect destination for some bonding time before we split.

Some History

Many people my age have an idea of what the Kosovo issue was but may not know the full story until doing a bit more research.  When I was younger, I remember hearing about the conflict on the news, but I had no idea from what the violence stemmed, who was fighting whom and why, or why the United States and NATO were involved.  As I mentioned in many previous posts, the conflict in Kosovo stemmed from the breakup of Yugoslavia, much of it a reaction of a large influx of Albanians in Kosovo.  I am still not sure why Albanians eventually became the majority in the territory, but some resources online suggest that the demographic change shifted during the Ottoman times.  If this is the case, Kosovo became part of Yugoslavia (and not a part of Albania) most likely due to its historical significance to the Serb people (the Serbs’ loss to the Ottomans in 1389 brought about Ottoman rule until that Empire’s breakup). 

However, during the breakup of Yugoslavia, Kosovo’s Albanian population boomed (to over 80% in the 1990s), and under Milosevic their rights within Kosovo were limited, putting them at disadvantage for employment, basic human rights, and reducing some of the regional government’s autonomy in Kosovo.  Despite these issues, Kosovo did not deteriorate into turmoil during the war among Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia.  However, according to Samantha Power’s “A Problem from Hell”, NATO’s hesitation to intervene militarily in Bosnia encouraged Serbia to invade Kosovo and to drive about 1 million people from their homes.  NATO reacted immediately in 1999 by bombing parts of Yugoslavia (see my previous post on visiting Belgrade).  Kosovo was liberated, and although many Albanian Kosovars returned to Kosovo, the Serbian invasion forced many to flee to neighboring Albania and Macedonia and remain there instead. 

Experiencing Prishtina

Seeing the other side of the conflict in Belgrade, experiencing the Albanian culture in Sarandë, and hearing about Kosovo from Macedonians here, I was always interested in experiencing Prishtina myself.  A British bloke who we once met in Prilep told us that Prishtina was his favorite city of all those he visited in the Balkans.  His reasoning is predicated on misfortune- many countries do not recognize the Kosovo passport (or Kosovo as a republic), so the youth in Kosovo are often unable to leave their country.  Therefore, Prishtina is an amazingly fun and young city at night.  As we discovered, scores of people fill the main boulevard (Mother Theresa street) on summer nights, and after midnight many catch a taxi with their friends to ride to the outskirts of the capital where all of the clubs are located.

There were many buses to Prishtina, and on Friday we took a 3-hour bus from Skopje to Prishtina to arrive at Han hostel.  On the way to the hostel, I decided to try out my Albanian with the taxi driver.  I tried to keep the conversation simple, mostly because I am only halfway through the Albanian language book, and I still cannot use any of the past tenses (I often joke, “Do or do not.  There is no did”).  After confirming with the driver that the hostel was far from the bus station, he continued to ask me a whole bunch of questions, none of which I could decipher clearly.  I managed to tell him that two of us in his car were Americans, while the other two were Germans who were sharing a cab.  He then proceeded to speak in German with the other passengers, since he worked there for some time, and I let the conversation slide.

Reunited at the hostel, we proceeded to B-line for Sabaja, an American-owned pub that serves bacon cheeseburgers and craft beers (including IPAs).  Since most beers in the Balkans lack a strong infusion of hops in their beers, drowning ourselves in IPAs, made cheaper by the Happy Hour, quenched a long-standing craving. While sitting at the bar, a few Peace Corps volunteers serving in Kosovo serendipitously ran into us, and we continued to compare our Peace Corps experiences.  I was able to speak with one volunteer who was also interested in foreign service and continuing her ambitions by pursuing graduate school immediately after her service, and from our conversation I was able to finally decide on 3-4 schools that I will apply to through the course of this autumn.  We followed the Kosovo PCVs around Prishtina before ending up at a cheaper restaurant that served typical kafana foods and low-priced beers and rakija.  After eating a mediocre Shopska salata, we decided to call it quits and head back to the hostel.

It was a red kind of day

Despite waking early on Saturday to explore Kosovo, a few of us PCVs took a couple of hours to get ready before we finally left the hostel.  Even though we departed at 11AM, the Mediterranean restaurant at which we wanted to eat was closed, so I chowed down on a doner while others filled their bellies with a chicken Parmesan sandwich.  We then decided to drink coffee and people watch for a few hours as we waited for an RPCV who once served in Prilep and currently worked in Prizren.  From there we did a blitzkrieg of sight-seeing through Prishtina, seeing the new Mother Theresa cathedral, the main library, the Bill Clinton Statue, and then returning to, you guessed it, Sabaja.  At night, we chilled again with the PCVs from Kosovo in their rented apartment and played some games. 

Prishtina was neither overwhelming or underwhelming, but a nice Balkan capital with friendly people (especially towards Americans).  I think what really made this trip for me was the ability to spend one last weekend alone with some of my closest friends from Peace Corps.  The trip made me ponder what our lives would be like when we return to the States, and how much of our relationship we can keep intact despite being reunited with our past friends and living far from each other.  It was also a small preview of COS conference, which was recently held in Berovo on August 12-14.

On our way to explore the city

But Dave was leading us and got us lost

Skanderbeg 

Chick-Parm-San

Dave and statue #1

Main Library

Dave and statue #2

Inside the Mother Theresa Cathedral 

Stacioni i trenit

A Sith Lord's temple

Sabaja Beers

Red Rain- A 1 Euro Energy Drink made by Royal Crown

Chilling with the Kosovo PCVs