The Week in Prizren

Some random shots from around Prizren. Many were taken today, Sunday, but some are from earlier in the week.

One day midweek, maybe Wednesday or Thursday, it was super clear when I woke up around 6:30 am. It's pretty rare to see the mountains that are being pointed to by the black arrow. Usually it's too cloudy or smoggy. Those hills form Kosovo's western boundary with Albania.




A view of the Orthodox Church with Mt. Pashtriku in the background. The weather this week has been funky: some rain, some snow, some sun. It must be March!




It is fairly common to see men and/or women set up on the street corners in neighborhoods selling vegetables. On offer she had spinach, potatoes, and a few other odds and ends. Most of the produce grown here is organic, mainly because no one can afford the pesticides. I must say, it is a pleasure to have fruits and vegetables taste like fruits and vegetables!

One of my favorite indulgences is chestnuts. There are three or four guys that set up grills around the main Shatervan area. A euro will get me about two handsful worth of chestnuts. The last few times I bought some, they weren't cooked all the way through. Today, however, they were perfect.

My mosque, the incredibly loud mosque near my house, is on the corner that used to be known as the fish market. The fish sellers were banned from selling there, but the past few weekends the fish men have been back selling their fish. I'm a little hesitant to buy fish from a blue plastic bag on the corner in front of the mosque, though.

There are for sale signs up everywhere. This one looks like it's just for an emply lot. I wonder if the trash is part of the deal.

For lunch today I ordered the mixed meat plate. The chicken and beef was too dry to eat, and the sausage and meat patties were too greasy. The potatoes were good, though. I felt like having meat for lunch and a big ol' plate of meat was what I got. It was about as appetizing as it looks. Man, seeing that glistening sausage now is grossing me out a little.

For dessert, I went to my favorite place: Sultan. When Sultan has fresh baklava, it's beyond out of this world. Today I ended up with a stale piece and a fresh piece. Of course, I ate both, but I ate the stale one first and saved the melt-in-my-mouth fresh bit for last. Mmm-mmm...baklava.

There is one place in Prizren where one can rent skis for the day. I'm not sure what the prices are and the busses up to Bezovica are infrequent. But one could go.

For these last two photos, I was questioned by the cops. This is the Levisja Church, which is one of the Orthodox sites in Prizren. Like the Orthodox Church in the main square, it is bubble-wrapped in barbed wire. Taking photos of the building itself isn't problematic, but the police didn't like that I took a photo of the lock. As I was taking this I got called over to their car and asked what I was doing and why I was doing it. I'm not sure if they believed me when I said that I like to take pictures of locks, but I do, so I don't really care about their reaction. Plus, there were no signs indicating that photos are verboten. I do generally try to avoid interactions with the police, though.

And that was bits and pieces from my week.