The bus has become my TARDIS, I am travelling through time and space. Granted we're all doing that, it's something I become more conscious of as the bus trundles along dusty roads, eventually depositing me in a strange new world.
Day 1
Prishtina
Not exactly a strange new world, it's become a familiar right of passage where the bus dumps me on the side of a busy road. I get off feeling like a child lost in a supermarket having gotten too far away from my mother's apron strings. Then I remember that I'm an adult and can take responsibility for myself. But perhaps not without technology as I open up Map.Me offline maps and twirl in a circle as I get the pointer on the map to send me in the right direction.
I made my way to my hostel passing streets with bunting and American flags, then a statue of Bill Clinton on a plinth and a Hillary's boutique selling women's power suits. Bemused, I assumed there would be a walking tour that would put a lot of this into context for me. But not for that day, I managed to hot foot over to the hostel before the heavens opened and without having to quick change into my all weather attire. It's a lot like when a transformer goes from a robot to a car except the amount of swearing and the sound of rustling unbreathable fabrics.
I’d booked myself into a hostel that was a flat in an apartment building which I thought I'd sworn never to go back to having not had the best experiences in them previously. This one turned out to be the exception to the rule, it didn't feel crowded despite there being beds for 20-30 people. The common area was cosy with netflix playing in the background and some deep grooves in the well used sofas. Despite doing very little the day before and glancing out the window to see a drizzle against a grey city backdrop, I wholeheartedly decided to waste another day, deepening the grooves in the communal comfy sofas.
The common area was busy with other people escaping the rain or waiting around until their time of departure. Here we go again another chance to fuck up chatting to a new group of people. Generally you have to make the first move to get the ball rolling, there may be a few false starts but eventually I can get a rally going (nailing this tennis metaphor).
For once someone else started the conversation with me. My tattoos are pretty extrovert which clashes with my own temperament but they cause a fair amount of comment from people. In this instance it was a 'sorry we're staring at you we're looking at your tattoos'. In actual fact I've grown accustomed to this, having reached the point where I tune it out and rarely notice anymore.
After that there was some general chit chat and talking about our routes and places to visit as backpackers do. On this occasion it was pretty helpful as I'd been running low on recommendations, the pins in my Google maps were getting sparse and starting to worry I'd have to do my own research on where to go next.
I settled myself into the worn grooves of the sofa and hoped inspiration would strike to help me keep the promise I made to myself of writing down my experiences. True to form I didn't get very far with Netflix on the telly providing an easy distraction up until the moment I heard a familiar voice from reception. Bryony who'd I'd spent the previous week with came through the door. I'd exaggerate the coincidence of seeing her hundreds of kilometres from the last place I saw her, but the truth is it's not uncommon to bump into the same people, especially those travelling in the same direction. Although apparently we were neighbours in the hotel the previous night in Skopje. Again not so much of a coincidence, we both said we needed a break from hostels and we're both on a budget. The cheapskates we are, we separately booked the cheapest non-murdery looking place available in the city.
We caught up and had a bit of a duvet day watching TV, playing UNO and shithead. I was grateful for the rain, downtime can be elusive and far too few hostels manage to curate a common space for people to truly relax. Ultimately you're in a place for a limited time and there's a temptation to fill all your time with all the sights, before you know it you're knackered and a bit of a zombie.
Day 2
Having not gone more than 50 metres from the hostel the previous day and not knowing what sights to take in, I defaulted to starting with a free walking tour. It was very helpful to get my bearings but as free walking tours go it was just adequate. The recent history of the Balkans is something that's been quite captivating, but a lot of the historic sights have been lost making it a little more difficult to engage in the history when you're looking at a concrete building.
After the tour I whiled away a few hours in a local gym that was in an amazing building of a brutalist style and had me walking around it several times to find where the actual entrance was. A significant building due to the training of their gold Olympic medalists, seemingly specialising in mostly judo.
For the evening the plan was to meet Bryony and some guys she was talking to on the walking tour at a local restaurant called Soma. When I turned up I noticed the guy from the walking tour but that Bryony hadn't turned up yet. Shamefully I walk straight into the restaurant avoiding them for the moment. Having not spoken to them really on the walking tour it felt weird to jump onto their table without Bryony despite both of us being invited, then having the additional stress of eating in front of people who aren't eating seeing that they'd finished their meals. All these reasonings and anxieties passed through my brain which I blame for my antisocial actions. So when Bryony did walk in I then had to pretend that I hadn't seen them and that I'd join once I finished my food; sidebar the food was particularly good not even with the air of lies I'd created soured the taste.
After eating I moved to join them and had a pleasant evening of conversation and cocktails. In the end I knew deep down there wouldn't have been a problem if I joined them from the start, but my reasoning in the moment my anxieties were strong enough that caused me to isolate myself rather than endure the 5 minutes it would take to get around the small talk.
We made our exit needing an early start to catch a ride for a hike the next day but resolved that if we were in Berlin we would go out to one of the techno clubs despite it being neither of our scene. But I'll try anything once.
Day 3
The early start was no lie. We'd been tipped off about a Facebook group who were organising a hike to one of the national parks. It looked like we could get picked up in Prishtina and then dropped off in Prizren, ideal.
Reading through the post on the Facebook group we jabbed Ismail Qemali into Google Maps and made our way to the meeting point. We blindly followed our technological overlords safe in the knowledge that it will never fail us. Standing on the corner of Ismail Qemali street searching for a school landmark and a tour group but finding nothing. Even doing a second search Google Maps assured us we were in the right place and then conferred with Maps.ME eventually finding the school was on the other side of the city.
Plans in ruins but not depositing any money the only real loss was a lie in. Resigned to the fact the day wouldn't be spent in a national park seeking nature, we continued on to the bus station and made our way to Prizren without the detour.
Prizren
I think I'm an A to B kind of person. I thought I took things in along the way but this notion was dispelled while travelling with Bryony, who had a knack for hunting out strange plants, birds, insects and stray dogs. Her attention to the world around her was in league of her own. Despite having a sketchy confrontation with a group of strays the day before and now being slightly more wary, it seemed to last all of 2 minutes when spotting a scabby loansome puppy on the way to the hostel on arriving in Prizren. Fuck, it was adorable looking into its eyes even my ice cold heart thawed a little. Not enough to touch him though, one minute you're stroking a stray the next minute you're eating something with your hands and inviting a family of parasites to live on your tongue. Disengaging from the pup invoked a guilty heart wrenching feeling as it clambered along behind us for a while and then stopped with its big puppy eyes bearing into our backs as we walked away.
We had a little trouble getting into the Ura Hostel needing a keycode to get in and no one answering the whatsapp messages, but bypassed that by pinching the door code off an acquaintance. Despite the relaxed reception area it's possibly one of the most comfortable hostels to stay in on the Balkans trip so far.
Prizren strangely didn't offer any walking tours despite seemingly having a more touristy vibe compared to Prishtina, thus I headed out and had to roam around and see if I could stumble into the sights. By this point I've given up Googling the things to do, all too common it'll come back with churches, monasteries, mosques and forts. Check check check, Prizren had the mosques and forts covered pretty well.
The enthusiasm for those sights has started to wane, but in the evening we headed up to the fort for a sunset view. The fort was perched up high on a nearby hill we walked around the long way to get in a mini hike we’d otherwise missed out on that morning. But still managed to get stung by reading the maps slightly wrong and taking us though some steep under growth literally clinging on to small trees to make it to the top. The hard work was rewarded with a beer as the sun dipped behind the mountains.
Day 4
I was running out of pants. With the hostel having a relaxed reception I found the person on duty too late to use the hostels laundry service. Wow David this is some keen insight into the fantastical travel experiences you're having.
While Bryony chose to go on a hike and had a wild encounter with a bear cub. I chose to find facilities to wash my clothes, I'm guessing I might have walked as far but failed to trackdown any laundrette. So the highlight of my day was finding a shopping centre and doing some price comparisons and making a judgement call on what would be the most comfortable but reasonably priced pants. Oh why didn't you just wash a few pairs in the sink, alright smart arse, there wasn't anywhere to hang them in the hostel and also generally frowned upon by the staff.
No joke, that's all I did that day.
Day 5
We set our sights on making a move to Peje for some forestry, nature and hiking. We’d been recommended to split the journey by spending a few hours in Gjakova and seeing their old bazaar. Having seen the old bazaar at Skopje a few days ago, I was a bit hesitant about how much I was going to enjoy it. I love slow travel but when you're only a few hundred kilometres away from all the other places you’ve visited the difference in the sights gets to the macro level.
Gjakova
We arrived in Gjakova on another hot day in the Balkans. I enviously eyed Bryony with her small day backpack and waitrose bag containing all her belongings, and cursoring my packing decisions for this whole trip. At the time of packing I was proud of my restraint and now the sun beat down on me with backpacks front and back embracing me on one of the hottest days of the trip so far. This is less than ideal. Resigned to having to lug my possessions around and sweat already beginning to trickle down my spine, we set off from the bus station in search of the old town area.
My approach to exploring is like bees picking flowers, I look down a street and check for something to draw me down, like colourful facades, interesting architectural patterns, the smell of a bakery or an intangible vibrancy. Sometimes it works and I guess other times you don't know what you’ve missed.
We did a loop of the mosque and I perhaps on gave it a glance having had too much exposure from religious sights for them to really grasp my attention. As I waited on the street for Bryony a carpentry shop caught my eye. While inspecting the details of the work the carpenter noticed us and ushered us into his workshop and got the full tour of his work and photos of his family, all through the medium of body language. His work was beautiful but exiting the shop without purchasing anything feels a disservice to the welcome and friendliness he showed us, but I'm not really in the market for ornament cribs even if they've come first place in a competition.
On this occasion I feel we got to see what Gjakova had to offer. When we were there, there were only a few people milling about presumably all locals not spotting any tourists; for once I got the feeling of being off the beaten track. This feeling was contradicted as we walked down a main street which had bars running either side of the bazaar already pumping out dance music into the street despite only being midday with few patrons. I didn't fit in with my preconceived interpretations of Gjakova thinking it of a quiet town and then bam a street that wouldn't be out of place in any tourist trap.
Peje
Pulling into Peje the mountains stood tall overlooking the town. For me, an indistinct burden lightens in the presence of mountains, I take a deep breath in and then out and some tension leaves my body I wasn't conscious of. Basking in my new found enlightenment, I stepped off the bus with Bryony following me out holding a load of electronics I'd forgotten on the seat. In my moment of transcendence I'd cast off earthly tethers. Actually, stuff enlightenment I don't fancy tackling a six hour bus journey without headphones and a phone.
We briefly parted ways, she decided to check out the tent situation in a different hostel, something which I'd already discounted. I didn't feel like paying to be cooked alive, but tempting enough for €5 a night.
Happy with my air conditioned dorm, Bryony eventually turned up deciding not to become as succulently cooked as a chicken in a bag quick meal.
We'd come to Peje in search of hiking, however the trails aren't on the doorstep, our nice host offered his services separately on check-in and comparing notes it seems like the price was different for each person ranging from €50 to €75, a hefty price. Fortunately a guy we shared the dorm with informed us of a public bus and then can wait around for the return journey in the afternoon or hitchhike back.
Day 6
The following day we got the bus up into the mountains and dropped off at a lonely bus stop far from much of anything. By declining our hosts' transport services we endured a lengthy, rather boring climb up a road that snaked high up into the hills. The road was officially a part of the Peak of the Balkan which is a ten day hike through Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro. But it being all tarmac at that point it was a bit of a disappointment, Bryony still managed to enjoy the nature, quickly spotting some caterpillar cocoons and remarking that she's pretty sure you'd be poisoned if touched.
The tarmac finally ended in a small village spotted with chalets, from that point on we found the more typical walking trail and headed into the wilderness. It's not a hike I'm in a hurry to recommend, being in nature and the mountains is the enjoyment here, but not the most spectacular hike. A short 8 kilometres one way but with a hefty 950 metres of elevation gain gets the heart pumping and the lungs pulling in vast volumes of air.
Up until this point I hadn't jumped into the sea or a lake, and peering into the murky water of the lake I didn't fancy this being the moment. Dipping my hands into the cold water, I imagined wading in and getting to crotch height and knew I didn't want my bollocks disappearing up inside myself. That and I'm pretty sure the lake was infested with black leeches so even if my bollocks remained outside my body the leeches would likely bleed them dry.
We stopped at the lake for a bite to eat and had a hiking group for company. Feeling fresh and willing to walk a little further, I had my nose in my offline maps trying to see if we could maybe walk the majority of the way back to Peje. It's something I would generally just do, trusting the routes inputted into the maps. But fortunately I had the sense to ask the hiking groups guide if the route was well marked and safe to do. I got an emphatic no, don't do that. He said that it's not well marked or the markers may be misleading as some guides remove them to basically enforce the need for guides.
Doubling back it was, rather than getting lost in the wilderness. We descended back the way we came and had a little luck as the rains opened when we arrived back at the tarmacked road, saving us from having to navigate slippery rocks. Karma gives with one hand then evens it out elsewhere as our knees get a good battering, feel the shock of walking down a steep road for several kilometres.
We hitchhiked back to town, I acted all controlled and blasé but in truth it was the first real hitchhike I'd done, well one where I'd actually had to put my thumb out. A lovely Belgian couple pulled up in a tatty rental car, and we made our way back to Peje. I find small talk tough and I knew this was going to be a large component of hitchhiking, you want a lift somewhere and the driver wants to help out and have someone to chat to, a fair exchange. Some people can chat engagingly with complete strangers and seem to know the steps to a dance I'd never learned, when I try to do the same I feel like I'm out of sync, stepping on my partner's toes. Not resigned to this being my fate I will continue to dance and hope one day I'll learn the steps.
My time in Kosovo came to an abrupt end and the next day I had to speed walk to the bus station to make sure I could get a connection to Albania. I said my goodbyes to my travel buddy, thankful for the company and the laughs.