YOU GO SLAVIA! - Part 3: Mommy, Where Do Countries Come From?

Saturday, August 15th.


12:30AM...

(Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2. Seriously, you must do this if you have not yet.)


After returning from our brief city tour of Ljubljana, Peter and I waited with Peter's brother Rok at their grandparents house.

Janez is a friend of Peter's and Rok's from their ward (LDS congregation) in Slovenia. He arrived at the grandparents' house with the "Green Machine" (my name for his car, I just thought of it) around midnight. We loaded our stuff in the back and loaded ourselves in our seats. Armed with snacks and an electric cooler stuffed between the two back seats we set off into the midnight darkness of Slovenia.

The great Yugo-Balkan Road Trip had just begun...

View Yugobalkantrip in a larger map

This would be our longest driving day by far, thus the early start. You can see in the map above the blue-ish line that starts in Ljubljana, leads through the northern part of Croatia, down the length of Serbia into Kosovo. That was our route for Day 1. A little over 500 miles (827 km).


The highways throughout Slovenia and Croatia are very nice and so I slept fairly well, only waking up when we got to the border crossing and the occasional toll road stop.

We stopped for gas somewhere in Croatia.

The great thing about the Green Machine is that it runs on natural gas. Because of this, our gas mileage was excellent and the costs were very low.


I slept a bit more, waking up again when we crossed the border into Serbia. I dozed a few times as we drove through the Vojvodina watching the sun come up over hazy fields.

I was wide awake as we approached the Serbian capital of Belgrade. We didn't stop there, so I was only able to snap a few shots from the car.

There were some very modern, nice parts...

And some older, communist-era stuff as well. We caught a fleeting morning view of the city skyline as we passed over the Sava river in its last kilometer before joining with the mighty Danube. I couldn't get a picture of that. Instead, factories!

Somewhere outside of Belgrade the Green Machine passed an important milestone...

Old Yugo cars from the commie era were common sights...

We continued south through the Serbian countryside with the windows down...

Serbian uses the cyrillic alphabet and so that was fun to see...

It was a fascinating drive through the spine of Serbia...

Occasionally we would pass a cool Serbian Orthodox Church...

Plenty of farmland...

Old Yugoslav monuments...

Interesting people...

Throughout our trip as we drove we listened to the radio. We usually tried to find a station playing the local hits and sometimes the results were quite fun. Check out Serbian radio...

We stopped a couple of times for gas and Coke (Janez being the primary consumer of the latter). And once or twice we stopped when something looked interesting.

Here is Maglič Castle in the southern hill country of Serbia...

Peter and I in front of the castle...

Incidentally, this is where I got my rock of Serbia. There are two rocks pictured because I also picked up a rock when we stopped in Vojvodina earlier that morning. This way, if ever Vojvodina breaks away from Serbia (not likely, but you never know), I won't have to go back to get a rock.

Not long after we got stuck in a traffic jam as crews cleared a rock slide on the road...

But after an hour or so we were on our way again through the pretty hill country of southern Serbia...

And then we came to it...



...the border...


Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February 2008. While about 62 countries (including the US) recognize Kosovo as an independent nation, there are many others (like Russia) who don't. Serbia, of course, does not recognize Kosovo's independence and so the border crossing was a little bit hairier than normal.

When leaving Serbia there was a Serb "police checkpoint" that checked and documented our passports. They grumpily inquired why in the world we were going to Kosovo, and what business we had there. Janez did the smooth talking and we got through without a problem. We then drove a little further to the Kosovo entry point...

It was staffed by both Kosovar and UN personnel. They checked our passports and gave us our stamp on a separate piece of paper rather than in our passports (so as not to create problems with those who need to re-enter Serbia.)

Janez is a police officer back in Slovenia. He had worked for several months last year and earlier this year as part of an EU law-enforcement contingent in Kosovo. Thus he knew the area well and knew what to say and do to get us swiftly and easily through border checks and police checks.

We entered Kosovo and it was like a whole other world. There was military personnel everywhere...

The military presence consisted of troops and equipment from the EU, the UN, and NATO. The UN is still the official administrator of the region in many respects since the subject of sovereignty from Serbia is still in dispute.

The history here is a bit complicated, so I'll try to make it as simple and brief as I can:

-Kosovo has a large ethnic Albanian (mostly Muslim) population with a sizeable Serbian (mostly Orthodox Christian) minority.

-During the Yugoslav wars of the 1990's the Albanian population of Kosovo suffered attack and some efforts at ethnic cleansing from the Serbs.

-In 1998 violence escalated as the Serbian military fought against the Kosovar Albanian paramilitary forces.

-February 1999 NATO started bombing Belgrade and other military targets in Serbia until they agreed to a ceasefire and restoration of Kosovar autonomy.

-Summer of 1999 Serbia capitulated and NATO forces entered Kosovo to keep the peace.

-February, 2008 Kosovo declares complete independence from Serbia with mixed support from the international community, thus making it the world's newest independent country... sort of.

The northern part of Kosovo is mainly Serbian. More cool churches...

The countryside was quite beautiful...

Soon we entered the town of Mitrovice where Janez had spent some time. This town is divided into two parts, the northern Serbian section and the southern Albanian section.

We drove into the Serbian section...

You can see the Serbian flag still flying. Just beyond it is the bridge that separates the city with the Albanian half...

So we crossed the bridge and it was like a different city...

Here the Kosovo flag flew side by side with the Albanian flag...

We parked the car and went to a barbershop where Janez used to go when he worked there. The barbers were happy to see him and he got his hair cut along with Peter and Rok.

I had just got my hair cut the week before. Nevertheless the barbers insisted that I sit down and at least get a trim. They brought in a bottle of Coke and some cups for us to celebrate Janez's haircut and we left having made our first new Kosovar friends.

We left Mitrovice and continued south passing more military personnel...

Kosovars...

And bombed out houses, still in a state of disrepair after a decade...

You can see here a shelled-out house next to a newly built home. Many of the homes and buildings in Kosovo (and Albania) look unfinished like this. (It reminded me a little bit of Bolivia and Peru with the unfinished-building look... except these ones had roofs)...

Friendly small towns with their white mosques were frequent sights out our window...

We stopped at an old Serb monument surrounded by a NATO military contingent made up of Slovakian soldiers...

We weren't allowed to take pictures of military stuff, so I had to be sneaky...

We went over to the monument and climbed to the top...

Then we were back on the road. It was nearly 5pm and we had been going since 12:30AM. Luckily we passed James Taylor selling fruit on the roadside...

Finally we came to the outskirts of Prishtina, the capital city of Kosovo. We visited some outlet stores near a NATO military base. There were soldiers everywhere...

We went into one small shop and found Omega watches, Oakley sunglasses, among other name-brand items on sale for only a few euros. I'll let you decide if they were real. The machine guns, however, were real, though not for sale...

No guns, but a lot of other weapons were available. Notice the chinese throwing star on the second shelf to the left. I felt like I was being mugged by a store shelf...

We visited several of these outlet stores. They were very nice, air-conditioned and usually flying more flags outside than Epcot Center...

Inside was all kinds of junk from China you could buy for pennies...

And bootleg software, DVD's, and CD's...

It was funny to see all the NATO soldiers packing machine guns doing their shopping...

Sunglasses were bought, windows were shopped, and then we were on our way again to the big city.

Prishtina!

We stopped at a nice panorama point...

I got my Kosovo rock...

And danced a jig...

Then we drove into the city. We knew we were coming to the center of town when we saw the large sign with Bill Clinton...

This was Bill Clinton Boulevard, one of Prishtina's main thoroughfares...

We drove down Bill Clinton Boulevard and learned quickly that there are no traffic laws in Kosovo, merely traffic suggestions. It was quite chaotic especially at the roundabouts. Many Kosovo drivers don't even bother with registration and license plates. It's impossible to take a rental car into Kosovo and no insurance company will cover you once inside the country.

We drove very carefully.

Janez took us to a few more outlet stores. We passed fortified UN bases...

And found a large toy store...

Chuck full of toys. Made in China.




I thought this next picture summed things up nicely: plastic kids toys for sale and in the background a barbed-wire fortified UN military base...

It was back to Slick Willy Street...

And time for dinner. We found a little cafe selling traditional Albanian food and enjoyed a proper Kosovan meal...

While Janez worked in Kosovo he attended the small LDS "group" congregation that met on Sundays in the home of an American also working for the EU in Prishtina. Most of the people in this small group were workers for one of the international organizations.

Janez wanted to pay a visit to this American couple, the Sweeneys, while we were in Prishtina. So we went to their apartment and they invited us up and gave us some Mug root beer to drink.

We got talking and it turns out that the Sweeneys are not only American but from West Valley, my home town! In fact I went to high school with their son Todd Sweeney and my dad was in an elders quorum presidency with brother Sweeney years ago. Small world!

After having a nice visit with the Sweeneys, we drove to the house that would be our accommodations for the night. The occupant of the house was another LDS friend of Janez's, a Belgian who worked for the EU (I think). He had a very nice house, and we rolled out our sleeping bags and slept great after a really REALLY long day...

.............

We woke up the next morning to a beautiful sunny Sunday and we quickly cleaned up...

Bid our one-night house goodbye (notice the security cameras)...

And loaded up again in the Green Machine...

We headed back into Prishtina to see a bit more of the city.

The Kosovars and the Albanians love the USA. Everywhere we saw American flags flying side by side with the Kosovo flag...

Our first stop was a sleepy bakery where we got some breakfast...

We drove downtown and passed some remarkably nice and modern buildings (considering there was a war here a few years ago)...

Garbage was a problem...

Everywhere we went, the nicest areas were the gas stations. Immaculate, Modern, and Unleaded...

We parked the car and set off into the city...

Bootleg CD/DVD shops were everywhere...

Rok, Peter, and I at an old Yugoslav monument...

A typical street scene...

The Good Stuff Center next to what would appear to be the Bad Stuff Center...

We passed a large government building where photos of missing persons were posted on the fence outside...

There was a large statue of the Albanian hero Skanderbeg.

Remember, Albanian is a very unique and ancient ethnic group that has lived in this region for millenia. Their language is completely unrelated to the other languages in the region. All of this made the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo the step-child of the former Yugoslavia.

Here is the national theater, in a sad state of disrepair...

We took a stroll down Prishtina's main walking street, "Mother Theresa Boulevard" soon to be renamed "George Bush Boulevard."

At the end was a statue of one of the early freedom fighters in the Kosovo War. We're used to seeing statues of war heroes in European cities, but not usually war heroes who were born in the 60's and died in the 1997...

We then came to the famous "Newborn" sign unveiled on Feb 17, 2008, the original Kosovo Independence Day. Can you spot the tourists in the letters?

I had asked some guy to take the above picture. He just kept taking photos as I walked back up to him to get my camera...

Nothing like some good political graffiti...

EULEX is the European Union Rule of Law Mission which Janez was a part of and which has been helping Kosovo's law enforcement arm. There is still some resentment of foreigners in Kosovo, and some accuse EULEX of catering too much to Serbian interests, hence the graffiti.

While Kosovo is relatively quite safe these days, sporadic incidences still occur, like this one just a week after we were there.

Here's a Kosovan Freedom Fighter celebrated on this building...

Mee-OW!

One thing we noticed after awhile is that the Albanians LOVE carwashes. We saw them everywhere throughout Kosovo and Albania...

We left Prishtina and headed further south to the town of Ferizaj where Janez also worked for awhile...

There wasn't a lot to see here, but the people watching was first-rate...

We paid a visit to one of Janez's good Kosovar friends whom he worked with. It was our lucky day because this friend just happened to be having a BBQ in his backyard when we arrived (unannounced).

They served us a wonderful Kosovar meal of grilled meats, pita bread, fresh cheeses, and marinated peppers. It was delish...

This cute little girl had one of the creepiest dolls I had ever seen. Unfortunately I snapped the photo just moments too late to see the doll's face. I think it was possessed.

We then met a few of Janez's friends at a cafe "downtown" and they chatted for awhile. I took a stroll around the block to have a look around.

In Ferizaj the Mosque is right next to the Serbian Orthodox Church...

They bring chopped wood to the bakery since the ovens are still fueled by fire...

I got a kick out of this poster, look closely...

More interesting people...

The Orthodox Church was actually used as an assault point during the war with Serbs barricaded inside and shooting from the windows. There were still bullet holes in the buildings above the cafe where we were sitting across from the church. I tried to walk into the churchyard but only got a few feet before a guard stopped me and refused to let me go further...

August is Albanian wedding season and about once an hour we would hear horn honks and see cars zooming down the street with flags and ornaments...

Late in the afternoon it was time for us to head on and so we took in our last images of Kosovo and drove away towards our next destination...



Here you can see the three cities we visited in Kosovo as well as the Serbian castle (at the top) and our next destination to the south...

View Yugobalkantrip in a larger map

After a little more than a day and a half, our road trip had already yielded a bounty of bamboozling experiences. I found Kosovo to be an especially fascinating country and my experiences there were one of a kind.

My tribute to Kosovo...

Up Next: The Land of Alexander the Great, Swimming with the fishies in Europe's oldest lake, partying like it's 1999, and Nate puts on the war paint!

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