Prizren in the Late Afternoon

I decided to take my camera out this afternoon since it seems like it's been a while since I've been out taking pictures. The first thing I did was to walk down to the river, which is about 5 minutes from my apartment. There is a mural (painted by a woman Kosovar whose name I still don't remember, but I do remember that she's not from Prizren) along the banks...

After I crossed the river and took a few photos of the mural, I started walking up towards the castle. In the picture below you can see a Serbian Orthodox church that was heavily damaged in 2004. Once you get closer to the church there are all sorts of KFOR signs telling you not to photograph it. I'm not sure if that means they just don't want people photographing it up close or not taking pictures of it at all. I figure they must just mean don't take pictures up close because otherwise, how would you know?

This is another bombed out building on the same street. A woman walked by me as I was snapping shots and tsk-tsked me. I don't think they like people taking photos of the bombed out buildings.

I walked up to the castle (and I didn't take any pictures of the Serbian Orthodox Church on the way up). This is one of the castle's sidewalls with the remnants of a T and O, part of TITO that, when lit up, could be seen from all over Prizren at night.

An overview of the castle remnants with Prizren stretching off into the distance. There were a few people wandering around the grounds,but no cows this afternoon.

A view of the sun setting. To the left of this photo is Albania, and to the right stretches Kosovo.

This is a shot of the Serbian Orthodox Church you're not supposed to take photos of from close up. It's surrounded by razor wire, and you can see the KFOR vehicles parked within its walls.

This picture shows the main mosque and in the center is the catholic church. As far as I know, this is the main catholic church for Prizren and it's in use (but, of course, I could be wrong).

I was sitting beside a bunch of small white flowers. I took a bunch of pictures. Not many turned out so well because the flowers were white and didn't show up so well against the background of Prizren and the river.

Walking back down into town I had to again pass the church (on the left). The sunset was beautiful, but it was a bit hazy.

Back across the river, the main mosque is on the right, the orthodox church in partway up the hill in the middle, and the castle is just out of the photo on the hill to the left.

This is one of my favorite streets. There's a tiny waterway running alongside the really uneven cobblestone pathway between the two sets of buildings.

Kosovo in the News

Another reason I'm lucky to be in Prizren and not in Pristina is that there are sizable Turkish and Bosnian populations here as well (this brings more diversity than is typical in other areas and great food). The numbers thrown around are that, ethnically speaking, Kosovo is about 90% Albanian, although there are larger numbers of Serbians up north. The issue of Kosovar independence is often in the news (before I left the US Kosovo frequently made NPR appearances). This morning when I opened up my email, a friend of mine had forwarded me a BBC article about Kosovo's path to independence:

Countdown Begins for Kosovo

In a completely unrelated piece of information, I went to the grocery store yesterday and for a bit less than 3 Euro (about $4.20), I purchased the following items:

1L of milk
1 loaf of bread
2 carrots
1 potato
1 really large beet
1 onion
1 lemon
2 individual cups of yogurt
1 kilo of salt

Not bad, I don't think. I found a shop that sells sliced sandwich bread imported from Germany, but, to tell the truth, I really like the locally-made bread (it's sold in loaves, like french bread, and is unsliced). If I really get a hankering for sunflower-seed bread, though, I know where to get it.

I've also realized that I didn't need to bring a year's worth of toothpaste and toothbrushes. In Japan, it was nearly impossible to find a decent toothbrush or toothpaste (ever tried sakura-flavored toothpaste? Wouldn't recommend it). But here...man...there's more kinds of Colgate available than in the US! I've also seen several places that carry the toothbrushes I like (the Colgate 360, if you're interested). The one thing I haven't found is floss, but I brought that along with me so it's no problem.

There's also plenty variety of shampoos (Pantene, Garnier, Nivea, Palmolive, plus other brands I'm not familiar with), soaps and body washes, hair colorants, facial products...I haven't been into a pharmacy to see what types of medicines are available, but I also packed along cold medicine, ibuprofen, and pepto bismol, so hopefully I won't need to make a trip.

The other thing I'm enjoying about shopping in Kosovo is that it's really nice to be able to read the labels of things I'm buying. Even if they're not in English, it's less time consuming to figure stuff out than it was in Japan. (Obviously I'm still in the honeymoon stage with being here...we'll see how I feel about labels in another two months or so which will be about the time my feelings about being here will probably be in a slump.)

The Kindness of Strangers

I've been amazed by how nice total strangers have been to me. Take, for example, the people I met to hike with on Sunday. We met again at 7:15 am Monday morning to go up to another fountain called "White Water" (it has a similar name in Turkish, Albanian, and Serbian). On the way up to the fountain, we stopped to pick wild apples which are good to make vinegar and compote. We also stopped every now-and-again so that someone could point out a particular tree or type of plant to me. We have plans to make the weekend hikes a regular thing. It's great.

Two of my hiking companions at the "White Water" fountain.

After walking to the "White Water" Fountain, we went back to the Pasha Cherchme Fountain, which we had visited on Sunday (you can see the fountain on the far left).

The horses have their front two legs tied together so that they don't run away. I was mortified, but everyone else thought it to be a normal method for peasants to use to keep their horses within a general area.

Another example of random kindness: On Monday, as we were walking, we ran into another guy that one of the men knew. After we stopped and exchanged morning pleasantries, they told me that the guy owned a travel agency/photocopier shop (a common combination, I've noticed).

Later in the day, I had to send a fax so I set out to find his shop, which I did easily. He recognized me and said that he could fax my documents to Pristina. I waited for him to finish up with some other customers and then he sent my fax for free. I went back yesterday to send a fax to Greece. At first he said I should go to the post office to fax it, but when he saw it was only one page he said, "Ah...this, this one page, it is no problem! I will do it!'

And he sent that one for free as well. I tried to pay him, but he wouldn't take my coin. To top it off, he offered me coffee as well! I refused because I had somewhere to go and it was too late in the day for me to drink coffee and get to sleep at a reasonable hour. I told him I'd happily have a cup with him next time (I'll just have to go earlier in the day).

When I arrived home in the afternoon, what should be waiting for my on my stairwell but a post of meat and peas in tomato sauce. A delicious dinner treat from my landlady.

I don't know what I expected from Kosovars, but it wasn't this. I am very pleasantly surprised.

(What doesn't pleasantly surprise me are the layout problems I'm having with this post. Apologies.)

Explosion in Pristina

Prizren isn't immune to unrest, but I'm glad that I wasn't in Pristina this weekend.

The BBC story: Deadly Blast Hits Kosovo Capital

The B92 story: 2 Die in Pristina Blast

The Foreign Woman who Runs

In the mornings, I've been trying to get out early to take a run up to the castle. Since I go at about the same time nearly daily, I see many of the same people. Same thing yesterday. I was out flitting around and I ran into a group of 4 women I've seen a few times and exchanged mir monjeses with (good morning in Albanian). A little later on, I came across a guy I've seen a few times, too. I had stopped and was checking out a barb-wire-ensconced apiary when his walking companion said, "Hi. I heard that you're the foreign woman who runs."

"Yeah. That's me."

"My wife has seen you a few times."

"Oh? Is she one of the ladies who walks here every morning?"

"Yes. Would you like to join us tomorrow morning?"

Yeesh. Would I ever. So I met this morning, at 7am, with three of the four ladies, the husband, and the husband's friend. And we went for a bit of a hike. Turns out, the husband works for the UN in Pristina doing translations (Albanian, Serbian, and English), his friend owns a shop that specializes in Roman coins, his wife has recently lost several kilos due to her morning walks, one of her friends is currently fasting for Ramadan, and the last lady, well, I'm not sure what her story is, but she has a car and smiles a lot.

We immediately deviated from the usual path going up to the castle. As we started walking, the husband asked if I was in good shape, and then I understood why he asked me that: The path sliced right up the hillside and was quite steep. Undeterred, I easily kept up with him although we had to stop every few minutes to let the rest of the women catch up.

Our walk took us up to a fountain (a pipe pouring water into a concrete tub), which had a nice view of Prizren and surrounding villages. I didn't take any water from the fountain because I've been warned over and over again not to drink the water in Kosovo although I did cup my hand and took a few sips. My companions, however, brought water bottles to fill. Supposedly water from this particular fountain is good for the stomach. Not one to neglect my own stomach, though, I tried a new kind of berry (very tart and a bit bitter), and somebody found me a wild pear to take home and let ripen (the thing is tiny! It's about the size of a quarter). All-in-all, we were out nearly 2.5 hours. A nice way to start the day and meet some new people!

Tomorrow we're going to walk up another path that will take us somewhere with something having to do with white water, but I'm not really sure what that means, exactly. Heh.

Feed the Mash

My landlady keeps bringing me food. Although I must say, today that totally saved me. I was down at the American Corner (one of the places where I teach) for about 5 hours. Because it's Ramadan, I didn't want to eat anything in front of anybody (I felt it would have been rude). By the time I arrived back home around 4:30 I was starving. Completely starving. As I was unlocking my front door and thinking about what I would eat, I noticed a lidded pot on my steps.

With great anticipation and hope I peeked inside and to my stomach's delight, my landlady had left me a generous helping of beans and meat. I ran with it straight to my stove, heated it up, and enjoyed every last bite of it.

A little while later she stopped by with a pitaika for me (I'm not completely sure of the spelling). It's a special bread made during Ramadan. In the center there is egg with cheese. Yesterday, the baker's wife very explicitly told me that it's not like pizza. But it's like pizza.

It rained a bit yesterday. Actually, there was thunder, lightning, and buckets of rain. Afterwards, I went out into the garden to take a few photos.

New Family

I am in a pretty good situation. Although I have my own apartment, I share a garden with my landlord and we use the same entrance to get into our housing compound. He is also my colleague at the Faculty of Education. Both he and his wife have been wonderful to me. The day before yesterday we walked up to the castle ruins.

While we were up at the top, we also saw cows (and a fair number of pies) and a KFOR vehicle had driven up, briefly interrupting a group of children playing soccer.

My Place

My building (I'm on the second and third floors)

The living room

The living room from the other direction, and the kitchen on the right

Kitchen close up

The bathroom

The bedroom

The washer (yes, it's in the bedroom)

Views from my bedroom balcony as the light fades

Morning Walk

This morning when I woke up around 7:30, the power was out. Unable to make tea, I dressed and decided to head up to the ruins on the hill. A few days ago, I had coffee with the man who organizes my high school class and he showed me 'the long' way to get up to the top. It took about an hour, and I was surprised that it did take that long. The path wound up a valley and took its time getting to the ruins. I came down a much quicker way, but I didn't end up walking by one of the bombed churches I wanted to see. Perhaps I'll try to walk up that way later.




A view of the ruins with Prizren off to the left. The building in the immediate foreground isn't part of the ruins. I'm not sure what it is. There's nothing organized about the site. You can walk around freely, being careful not to slip or fall off the walls.



This is the view of Prizren from the ruins. Most of the roofs are red tiles. In fact, I've seen very few tin roofs and nothing shingled.

In the center of this shot is the mosque I live near. My apartment would be to the right. And, yes, I was woken at 5am this morning. I wonder what happens if the power is out at that time. I bet they have a generator.

A cemented-in cannon up at the ruins overlooking the town.

As for the flora, I think these are some kind of pods with bugs inside. I didn't want to bust one open to see.

I think this is the first honest-to-goodness, real live snail I've ever seen. In one Frog and Toad story, Frog writes Toad a letter (or does Toad write to Frog?) and the delivery man is a snail. That's my experience with snails.

Four Pictures

I went out with my camera around 6:30 tonight, but the light wasn't as good as it's been in the evening. I live about a five minute walk from the river that runs through Prizren. On the otherside of the river is a hill with pre-Roman castle ruins on it. I'm hoping to go up to it tomorrow. I think I know how to get up there. It can't be that difficult.



Not such a good shot, but up on top of the hill are the beforementioned pre-Roman ruins.

This picture is part of a mural down by the river. The artist, whose name I don't know, is famous throughout Kosovo, but she isn't from Prizren.

This is the main mosque in the center of town. This isn't the mosque that's blasting into my room at 5am. I suppose they have people nearer to them to call for prayer.

The minaret down at the bottom of this street is the minaret the loud speakers I hear are attached to. I live down this street and to the right. I'll take more pictures of my area in the next few days.

Arrived.

I've made it. I'm in Prizren. I've mostly settled into my apartment; I've figured out the washer; I put all of my stuff away; I bought a clock radio; and now I've got the internet connection all sorted out. When I arrived in Pristina on Monday, it was in the midst of rolling blackouts: 3 hours on and 3 hours off. These blackouts ended yesterday, but the power still goes out with some regularity I am told. It went off this morning between 8-9am, right after I finally figured out how to use the washer and was looking forward to a shower.

My apartment is fine. It's two stories and I think it was built to be two studio apartments. The kitchen and bathrooms are tiny and the water pressure is intermittent, but it'll work. I have nice views of a little park in front of the apartment and there's a mosque nearby that does a call to prayer at 5am. My landlord has a variety of fruit trees, most of which are done, but the quince and meddler (I have no idea what a meddler is...some kind of small fruit with 5 or 6 seeds inside) trees have yet to bloom. He and his wife have taken great pains to show me around, take me to the store, and walk me through town.

There are castle ruins that overlook Prizren. I haven't been up there yet, but I hope to this weekend. I'm still adjusting from jetlag and people keep offering me coffee and tea at all hours, which doesn't do well for my sleeping habits when I'm drinking espresso at 8pm. My landlord's wife also keeps bringing me sweets, which is very much appreciated, but it's been a lot of food so far. Heh. I asked if they could find out if there were any gyms.

This will be a good place.

Pristina

My first full day in Kosovo has been busy: Two trips up to the US mission compound has taken up the bulk of my day. Pristina reminds me a lot of Sofia. There's trash everywhere, cars are old, and it's really tough to cross the street. I haven't taken any pictures yet because I feel really conspicuous whipping out the camera. I may just wait until I arrive in Prizren to start snapping. Prizren is about 90 minutes south of here, and I'm leaving tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to it.

As an unrelated side, Futurama has been dubbed into Albanian (it's on the tv now).

Tired

Tired...but I'm in Pristina, Kosovo and I arrived in one piece. Perhaps, more importantly, all of my luggage arrived, too...all 160 lbs of it. I'm not sure what I did right, but United didn't even charge me the $127 they could have for my third piece. But I did have to sit on the tarmack in Reno for 75 minutes. Is that a fair trade?

When I arrived at my hotel, the power was out. I guess there are rolling blackouts right now because one of Kosovo's power plants is down. Luckily, there was hot water. So even though I couldn't see what I was doing, I was able to take a hot bath in my kidney-shaped tub. :) And now that I'm waaay tired and have managed to stay up to a decent hour (9pm), I'm going to bed. (The power is back on...luckily my mom had given me a purse-sized flashlight to take with me!)

I can't believe I'm actually here.

Balloons

Balloons
Originally uploaded by kirsmas

090907_07191.jpg

090907_07191.jpg
Originally uploaded by kirsmas

Imagonna miss my Skeena

Imagonna miss my Skeena
Originally uploaded by kirsmas

T Minus 16

In about 16 hours I'll be up, up and away. Please check back in the next week or so and hopefully I'll have the first Kosovo photos up.

Wish me a safe journey and I'll be in touch soon!

Balloons are up

Balloons are up
Originally uploaded by kirsmas