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I’m on the bus from Skopje to Prizren, typing madly on my computer as I work on a freelance assignment. My only breaks are cursory glances out the water-stained window: the scenery has been growing greener and more mountainous as we edge closer to the border.
It’s my first time in Kosovo, and I don’t know what to expect. Just the mention of “Kosovo” in America brings to mind an image of war, of death, of ethnic cleansing, of bombs. Even though this took place more than a decade ago, I’m wondering just what kinds of scars the country will bear.
We pull up to the border crossing and, in typical fashion, hand over our passports to the bus driver’s assistant. I hand my navy blue passport (still soaked and foul two years after the shipwreck), and that’s when the welcome brigade arrives.
“I love this country,” says the man, gesturing to my passport. “I LOVE this flag.”
“Thank you!” I reply, delighted at his response.
“Why do you come to Kosovo?”
“Tourism,” I say.
“Tourism!”
“Yes. Kosovo looks like a beautiful country.”
“Welcome,” the man says, beaming. “Welcome to you, America!”
This is only the beginning. The man sitting across the aisle from me doesn’t speak a word of English — other than saying “America!” and grinning — but we have a full body-language conversation. He’s married with four kids; he’s surprised to hear that at 28, I have a ring on my finger but no offspring.
He asks me for my phone number, the first of several times that men ask for it during my stay in Kosovo. It’s not pervy or irksome — they are genuinely concerned about my well-being and want to make sure that I’ll be okay during my stay in their country. It just makes me smile that most of the time I’m asked for it by men who don’t even speak English!
For the rest of my visit to Kosovo, I am welcomed in the warmest way possible — huge smiles and heartfelt thanks for coming.
It’s not hard to see why — when the Serbs were enacting ethnic cleansing on the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo, the U.S. came to Kosovo’s aid, stopping the Serbs and supporting Kosovans through to the end of the grisly war of the 1990s. Bill Clinton is a hero here.
Kosovo eventually declared independence from Serbia in 2008; Serbia chose to reject this declaration. Countries including the US, Japan, Australia, and most of the European Union (bizarrely, every EU country but Spain) sided with Kosovo, acknowledging its independence; many countries, including China and Russia, did not. See the full list here.
To this day, Serbia considers Kosovo to be part of Serbia — and that causes implications for travelers. If you enter Kosovo via an international border, as I did from Macedonia, you can’t exit through a non-Kosovo Serbian border. If you do so, Serbia will declare that you entered Serbia illegally.
If you want to visit both Serbia and Kosovo, I recommend to do either of two things: 1) Arrive in Serbia, travel to Kosovo (there is no border crossing between Serbia and Kosovo), then return to Serbia and exit Serbia. 2) Arrive in Serbia, travel to Kosovo, and exit via Kosovo.
Though I can’t definitively confirm this, I’ve heard rumblings that Serbia will not be happy if you arrive with a Kosovo stamp in your passport, so consider taking option 1 if you want to visit Serbia again on the same passport.
Prizren
Arriving at a bus stop with taxi drivers who don’t speak a word of English, I’m suddenly stuck. The language spoken here isn’t Serbo-Croatian — it’s Albanian.
That makes sense. Kosovo is a nation of ethnic Albanians — of course they speak Albanian!
Albanian pride is on display here, the double-headed eagle on a blood-red background filling signs and banners in the streets. There are far more Albanian flags here than Kosovan flags — you even see Albanian flag sellers walking up and down the thoroughfares.
Sitting in a cafe beside the faint river, I think to myself that my waiter reminds me of Tony Dovolani from Dancing with the Stars — and then remember that he’s Albanian. And that’s not all — a quick Google search tells me that not only is Tony Albanian, he was born in Kosovo.
Kosovo has one UNESCO World Heritage Site — Medieval Monuments in Kosovo — and one of them is in Prizren: the Church of the Virgin of LeviÅ¡a. My Lonely Planet chapter described the entrance as “unwelcoming”; turns out that “unwelcoming” is a euphemism for “closed and topped with barbed wire.”
Well, at least I got pictures. Does that count as visiting the site? We’ll see.
Prizren is nice — charming, as one might say — but there’s not a lot to do here, and though I love to climb to the highest point in every town, there’s no way I’m climbing to that fortress in 98-degree weather (37 C). It’s good to visit for a few hours and doable as a day trip from either Skopje or Pristina.
After half the afternoon in Prizren, I’m ready to hit up the big city.
Pristina
The bus ride from Prizren to Pristina is one of the stranger ones I’ve taken — the driver seems to pick up everyone we drive past, then drop them off after a mile or two. No payment necessary.
Pristina is Kosovo’s capital and it’s the largest city in Kosovo, complete with all the big city amenities: some great cafes and delicious food, not to mention a pretty cool hostel. And on top of that, the prices in Kosovo are nearly as cheap as Macedonia.
But for me, the greatest attraction in Pristina is this:
The Bill Clinton statue, just off Avenida Bil Klinton. It’s apparently a rite of passage for every American Kosovo traveler to get a shot with Bill — not that I saw another American visitor during the duration of my visit — and of course I joined in.
The shop next door cracked me up:
The architecture in Pristina is pretty interesting as well — among your typical Eastern European blocks, you find a few buildings that make you wonder whether the architect was doing LSD. This is the library.
Pristina has the potential to become a spot on the ever-trod Balkan backpacking trail — but for now, I found only a few other backpackers in this city and this country. Pristina is not an obvious kind of destination. You don’t come here to check tourist attractions off on a list — you come here to feel the atmosphere and get to know it on a micro level.
After being so warmly welcomed by everyone I met, the greatest pleasure of Kosovo lies in getting to know the people. That’s the single greatest part of visiting Kosovo, and one that I hope to experience again.
I’ve just got back from a trip to Balkan countries and loved it there.
Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia are on my list now, looks like a beautiful places to visit. Thanks for sharing, Kate 🙂
HOLY CRAP, THAT IS A GIANT STATUE OF BILL CLINTON
WHAT
I HAVE TO GO THERE
HAHAHAHAHA Kerry!!
Beautiful post – your description of the welcome you received and the warmness of the people is lovely; Kosovo was never really on my travel radar before, but now it definitely is!
The Bill statue next to the Hillary store is one of the funnier things Ive seen in a while. I really enjoy your posts and have become a regular on your site. It looks like a beautiful country and the kindness of the people just might make it a trip I’ll have to make.
Thanks, Bradley. That made me laugh a lot, too!
Had no idea about entering Serbia after Kosovo being a no no… thanks for the heads up!
Also, pretty sure as an American I NEED to go and get a picture with that Bill Clinton statue. So funny!
I’m planning to visit Kosovo in November and reading after your awesome experience there I’m getting pretty excited. I was actually planning to stop only in Prizren but I might consider visiting Pristina too. I just need to figure out the whole passport thing so I won’t have too many problems (but then I’ve heard so many versions of what’s the best way to travel there that I don’t know anymore)
Just go into Kosovo and out of Kosovo, like I did. No problem at all!
I found that admiration and fascination for everything American among Albanians as well. I haven’t been there yet, but I had several flatmates from Albania.
There are a lot of people from Kosovo in Italy, and in my home village in northern Italy. They are indeed warm people.
PS: that library is so cool!
Hi Kate! I really enjoyed your post about Kosovo as with so many of your travel adventures. I can give you two reasons why Spain has not and most likely won’t support Kosovo’s independence: Cataluña and Basque Country! Those two regions in Spain have separatist movements and the Spanish government would look highly hypocritical if it supported Kosovo. Not that bizarre after all!
Stacy, that makes SO much sense! Wow. No wonder.
Really interesting piece on Kosovo. I dipped into the country for an hour – the easiest road between northern and southern Albania is via Kosovo so there’s a brand new road designed just for that purpose. I wasn’t that welcomed – at least not by the other passengers on my minibus, who rightly worried our border crossing would be slowed down by the presence of foreigners. They were right.
One thing that struck me as soon as I crossed the border from Albania was the abundance of graveyards everywhere, thousands of graves, all neatly ordered, a sad reminder of that awful war. Reading your piece I’m tempted to return and spend a bit of time in Kosovo rather than zipping through as I did…
Definitely worth more time, Leyla! I wish I had included Albania on this trip — it would have made so much sense.
I felt the same friendly welcome in Albania last year. We spent a night at a nice camping in Barbullush, North Albania and there was a bachelor party next door. We were invited to join and the homeowners shared their food, their wine, their joy with us. Everybody was dancing and celebrating, even the oldest lady from the family danced with the young. The next morning we woke up with a little hangover from the wine and little sleep, and while stretching in front of the camping’s entrance we saw the same old lady sitting on her cart leading her donkey on the way. She greeted us with a fresh, broad smile when passing by. That was the moment when we really felt we should get ourselves together. 🙂
The friendliness of the people was the best thing in Albania, at least for me. 🙂
I found Montenegro to be quite similar – my friend and I were invited to beers and raki, greeted with pats on the back and told how wonderful the States is. Considering that Montenegro is about as young, if not younger, it was pretty sweet to watch a country just coming to grips with their history and looking ahead.
I found rural Montenegro (up near Durmitor National Park) to be more like Macedonia. The coast, though — much more modern and like Croatia.
Loving your recent series on these Balkan countries. We hadn’t planned on visiting when we went to Europe, but your posts have me rethinking that strategy…
It’s a different kind of Europe. I’ve always wanted to visit the Balkans, and I loved them just as much as I thought I would.
I’ve always wanted to get to Kosovo! So happy to hear about the good experiences you’ve had there.
Really interesting post, Kate. I hadn’t heard of the Kosovo/Serbia entrance issues – a good thing to keep in mind!
I love meeting such warm and friendly locals! Also yes, it totally counts as visiting the site. We won’t tell anyone 😉 Great post.
Happy travels!
Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania are next up on my travel list. Did you feel safe in Kosovo? I heard a rumor (of course its a rumor) that taking busses there is not the best idea as they sometimes get robbed. Did you hear any stories like this? It could be from several years ago and I’m not sure how seriously to take the warning.
I felt very safe in Kosovo — and had lots of people looking out for me. 🙂
Wow, we never thought of Kosovo as a destination, but it sounds interesting. Hopefully some day we’ll make it.
Dear Katie,
Im glad you had a good experience in Kosovo. And, you shared it. I was impressed when I returned to Kosovo from USA and saw Bill Clinton’s statue -but we Love him :).
Wow! Cool. To be honest, Kosovo is somewhere I’d never have considered to backpack through, but hearing how hospitable everyone makes me change my mind! Thanks for the info, super interesting.
I would love to see what Kosovo is like now. Being a post-war country probably doesn’t help much with tourism, so I hope that more tourists will go there in the future to help with its recovery.
That has to be one of the best welcomes ever! Kosovo is not one of the places I’ve thought about visiting (which is true of a lot of the interesting places you’re posting about recently) but it might be worth it just for the friendliness. I could pretend to be American :o)
Kosovo looks like such a beautiful country! I love travelling places that are less developed like Northern Laos and parts of Sri Lanka. They have a beautiful innocence to them and you get to see what a country is really like!
I love the statue of Bill Clinton!
I’m gutted I didn’t have the time to visit Kosovo and Macedonia when I was in Serbia…. I heard similar stories of warmth and hospitality.
Regarding the passport thing, I’ve been told that if you rock up to Serbia with a Kosovo stamp they simply ignore it or cross it out and restamp it/stamp over it with a Serbian entry stamp of the same date…
Good to know, Andrew. Thanks.
Dear Kate,
with my deepest regret, I must say that I am withdrawing from your fan page. It has been wonderful reading about your journeys, but this article calls it offs for me. Unfortunately, I found it biased, one-sided, and insulting. I was 18 and in Belgrade when Serbian CITIZENS were bombed uninterruptedly for 78 days by stealth planes. I was 6 when my family was forced by the Albanians to leave Kosovo, just like many other Serbian families.
By no means do I expect from you to get involved in the local conflict, but at least spare the readers like me poorly informed and biased journalism.
Thank you,
Vanja Bokun
I’m sorry to hear that, Vanja.
Well said Vanja
Am out too
I love that you were able to glean from the guy opposite you on the bus that he had four kids and that he was surprised you didn’t have any despite being engaged just through body language communication. Those are the moments that my faith in humanity is restored!
Holding your hand up for various heights is helpful!
I can’t believe some border control agents are so weird about how you entered the country. Ok, so they might have issues with Kosovo’s independence, but surely they can see when a traveller has innocently crossed a border on an extended trip through Europe!
What a wonderful glimpse into a unique country! I want to explore Eastern Europe so badly. So many quirks and rich histories.
Random question: Where did you get your sunglasses?! They are lovely!
Hahaha. From the high end boutique known as H&M.
On my recent Balkans trip, I chose to circumvent Kosovo because I had heard of passport control issues and was mistakenly under the impression that it still isn’t entirely safe. I can’t tell you how many backpackers I met on the trip who had been to and absolutely loved Kosovo! I don’t know when I’ll make it to the Balkans next, but Kosovo, as well as Sarajevo and Novi Sad, are high on my bucket list. I LOVED the Balkans and can’t wait for an opportunity to return.
I’m sorry you missed it, Kirstie. I definitely felt safe there — not least because of all the people who offered to look out for me!
That library is TRIPPY. Thanks for sharing your photos and experience!
Kosovo, what an interesting place to visit. seems so classic and friendly to me.
Glad that u liked Kosova. I wish everyone a wonderful stay here. Tell u the truth i never noticed the Hillary store, and that is real funny lol.
This is a pretty cool artical. Kosova is where I was born. And I’m going there this July. It’s pretty interesting that some Americans actually like to visit Kosova. I find it kinda a boring lol. Although I hope to see some Americans in my flight lol.
I must agree with Vanja – this article though interesting from a travel perspective, was highly biased against Serbia. You should do more research than simply parroting words such as ‘ethnic cleansing’ and just taking the western and NATO spin at their word. I’m an American who travels throughout the world, in Belgrade now, and it sickens me to think about what the US and NATO were doing to the beautiful city and it’s people only 15 years ago over something that was none of their business; a civil war in essence that resulted from over 600 years of history involving the Serbs, the Ottoman, and then the Albanians who became majority in Kosovo during Ottoman control, and seemed to do their fair share of damage once returned to Serbia in the early 20th Century. I don’t care to take sides, but I get quite annoyed with Americans who know little and just repeat what the govt and media tells. At least you’re out there traveling and trying to be aware, but do more research.
I agree with vanja because obviously she is serbian, and i would not even bother to debate with a serbian on this, even a 11 year old living in Belgrade commented -Kosovo is Serbia- on my congratulation post for Kosovo joining UEFA. I mean 11 year old kids in Kosovo go to school and play, and they are not taught to hate serbians and have no knowledge on this topic whatsoever…
Back to your opinion – albanians were on balkan before slavs , before ottomans and basically before everyone else in balkan, except Greeks. ILLYRIANS were albanians. Albanians were being expelled by their land from the slavs who came to balkan at that time. But lets assume that i am wrong, how come that after the seperation of Yougoslavia, Serbia was the only country who had war with other countries trying to leave Yougoslavia aswell ( Croatioa, Bosnia , Kosovo )
Are you saying that Croatia is also Serbia ? Or also Bosnia…. lets just label the whole balkan SERBIA only so that these people could finally be happy…
But still i am not happy with what happened in Belgrade, and i am actually really sorry for the families who lost their beloved ones. But i just want to remember Vanja that at that time that Nato bombed Belgrade, Kosovans were being killed all over the country and the world did not even have a clue what was happening there. Until UK and US came to help us…. What happened in Belgrade is not even 5% of what happened in Kosovo, only at that time ( not to mention historically )
Anyways this is a travel blog and i dont want to bore anyone with these stories, i am Happy for you Kate that you had a good time in Kosovo. You are welcomed anytime again 🙂
Visited Kosovo this summer, I can assure still the same…peeps r very welcoming
🙂
Enjoyed your message about Kosovo
It was all Yugoslavia in 1977 when I traveled through there from Athens, Greece to Beograde to Salisbury.
I remember the countryside being rich and green, all long before the Balkan War during Clinton’s presidency. Also remember the people on the train and in Beograde as being very friendly. None spoke English that I met until I got to the Moscow Hotel in Beograde.
Keep traveling and writing
Dear Kate,
did you ask yourself why the Church of the Virgin of LeviÅ¡a is “closed and topped with barbed wire”???
I WAS your fan and I am so dissapointed with this article.
One really pleasant advice for you: read and learn more about history and then write something….
Considering that more than 90 % of the population in Kosovo are muslims, i must say that there are more than enough churches and cathedrals in Kosovo who aren/t even being used, only from officials from serbian government who also dont give a damn about the serbians living in kosovo but they just want to come here and go around kosovo as if they were angels and nothing happened in Kosovo.
200 meters from that Bill Clinton statue you can find the largest religious building in Prishtina ( a katholic kathedral ) , and just behind that library from Katies photo[s , whose architect was doing LSD 🙂 you will find another orthodoks church build on milosevic rule. And as i said we are MUSLIMS, not catholics but MUSLIMS. How do you expect us to be ok building more churches and cathedrals than Mosques, and that even in the center of our capital city. when the muslim prayers have to pray on the street sometimes. ( FOR BAYRAM / EID )
Swiss goverment banned Mosques in Switzerland, and they have a much bigger percentage of muslims in ther country as we have all other religous other than muslims. And no one argues with that….
I dont blame Swiss, its their country and they are catholics so everyone going to switzerland should know that and deal it . OR DONT GO THERE AT ALL.
Same goes for Kosovo, albanians are muslims and do not expect us to build churches all over the country only so that katholic visitors could have some buildings to visit when they come here..
Everyone is invited and welcomed, there is much more to do here rather than visiting Religious monuments.
where did you stay in Kosovo? i am interested in traveling their from Macedonia in the summer and would like to stay overnight.
I stayed in the hostel I linked above — Buffalo Backpackers in Pristina.
While I think Kate has good intentions, and this has been addressed in prior comments, I feel compelled to echo the informed and heartfelt sentiments expressed by Vanja, Eric and Maja above.
I am a Belgrade-born Serbian, and speaking as such, I find your characterization of Serbs and the nuanced history of Kosovo tragically disappointing and unfair to say the least.
I am also a (proud) American citizen of 23 years (lived all across the U.S. since I was 8), and have done quite a lot of traveling myself – internationally and to most of the states. Speaking from that perspective, I find the extent of misinformation and lack of even the most basic research/understanding of the region and people that you visited/wrote about to be (1) embarrassing (as it reinforces the international reputation of many Americans as ignorant/uninformed), and (2) objectively appalling in its flippance and utter lack of sensitivity to context.
You seem like a nice girl with good intentions, Kate. I just recommend taking heed of this feedback – as well as that of Eric, Vanja and Maja – and considering it for your future travels and related posts. Best, -Urosh.
Dear Kate,
The reason why those churches are surrounded by barbed wires is because those “friendly” Albanians destroyed many of them and would attack any historical Serbian structure given the chance. Churches get ransacked on a daily basis, have graffiti sprayed on them or are used as urinals, but I guess that you did not care to learn anything about that. You can search and see this pillage for yourself on Youtube, their news portals film it like they are proud of what they have done to UNESCO heritage.
The Serbs live in enclaves and fear for their lives because they often harassed and bullied by the Albanian population. My mother’s family had to leave the area due to such abuse and the Albanians took over their house and land, even though they had no right to do so.
Your knowledge of the area is quite disappointing and biased. I strongly suggest that you undertake some proper research before you visit a region, rather than go around taking pictures of something you have very little understanding of and think that you look “cool”.
Sincerely,
A disappointed reader
Totally agree with your comments Aleksandra, Urosh, Vanja, Eric and Maja. I think Kate should have conducted a little more research when compiling the information for her blog.
Kate, you say, ‘when the Serbs were enacting ethnic cleansing on the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo.’ What about the thousands of Serbians who, during the Kosovo conflict, were displaced from their homes, only to see a family of non-Serbians move in and take over the home. Seventeen years later those homes have either been destroyed or continue to be illegally occupied.
Kate, you also mention, ‘the U.S. came to Kosovo’s aid.’ Yes, they certainly did that. Two names spring to mind, ‘diplomats’ Madeleine Albright and William Walker.
And Kate, to say the Bill Clinton statue is your greatest attraction in Pristina…Well, I’m quite saddened by this. However, it’s not your fault.You’ve just been misled and hoodwinked by the world press and media.
I stumbled upon your article before my visit to Kosovo and it gave me some confidence that I’ll do well there as a solo female traveller. 😉 Things are changing there for the better, I totally fell for this place, especially Pristina where I spent 4 days. I absolutely loved it, just like other, smaller towns (Peja, Gjakova, Prizren). As much as the political situation is still complicated, I met a lot of young people there who are really working hard to let the bygones be bygones.
I’m guessing you didnt come across too many Serbs while you were in Kosovo. Ahhh, good ole genocide
…
Guys,
Kosovo is nothing but hateful, criminogenic, nothing-to-see bumfuck. I recently made a short trip there, and I could not believe the level of corruption, from local shop owners to border police officers. Do not event think about driving into this failed country with out-of-state tags. You will get pulled over by police asking for bribe without hesitation. On the way out, when I persented my US pasport to the border customs officers, they saw an opportunity and tried to fine me for a non-existing traffic violation! When I objected and refused to pay, they began bargaining and eventually asked me to buy them coffee. I gave them ten bucks just to get my passport back, and dissapeared as quick as I could. The whole experience was very stressful. Trust me, you will spare yourself a lot of trouble if you skip Kosovo and go to some other nearby country instead.
Bob