Day 5: Pristina, Kosovo

Chinese Version / 中文版本

Today is another travel day, meaning I was taking the bus from Skopje to Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo. The bus schedule to Pristina is quite frequent, it departs every hour from the main bus station in Skopje. I took the 10 a.m. one to get to another country for less than two hours. 

When the bus was lining up for border control in the Macedonia's immigration, the driver gathered our passports and handed them to the officers. Crossing border in the ex-Yugoslavia countries is not as easy as expected, because of the complicated relationship between Serbia and Kosovo. Based on the information I read, Serbia will not approve my entry if my passport have the stamp of Kosovo. As a result, it's time for my British passport (BNO) to do its magic again. According to my horrendous experience in Argentina, I should have used the same passport all along. Nonetheless, this time is completely different, it will only be feasible to cross border with 2 passports. Therefore, I did the same thing as what I had done in Argentina. I first handed my HKSAR passport to the driver, and then used my BNO when we crossed the Kosovo's border. Miraculously, it worked with no obstacle!!! Due to this smooth process, I will have no more worries in the rest of the trip.

The busiest area in Pristina

There're so many football's merchandise in the Balkans

One of the tallest buildings

One of the many ugly buildings

Once the bus arrived at the main bus station of Pristina, I immediately went up to the ticket office to check for the bus schedule to Prizren and Peja. However, the staff in the ticket office didn't speak English. I ended up going to the travel agency to get all my answers, when the guy in the travel agency was the only one who could speak little English in the entire bus station. 

Afterwards, I took the taxi to get to the hostel I am staying for these nights. As stated by many travel guidebooks, the taxi waiting in the main station would cost more. For budget travel, tourists can walk outside of the bus station to hail the cheaper taxi. Since I was carrying my heavy backpacks, I couldn't bother to walk anymore but took the taxi from the main bus station. It eventually cost around 5 EUR.

This mannequin is too funny! 

Kosovar people need to cram into such small place, too

Starting my walk on Bill Clinton Boulevard 

The hostel I am staying is Hostel Han, which is located very centrally in the city. Except the lethal staircases I needed to climb, the quality of this hostel is pretty good with all the new renovations. The extra plus of this hostel is the curtain of every bed, which provides enough privacy for each traveler, a very thoughtful gesture. 

I settled my stuff and was ready to head out for the day. I first went to the famous Bill Clinton Boulevard, which is obviously named after the president of the U.S.A.. At the end of the road, there is even a bronze statue of the president and the poster with his face being hung up on the facade of the building. 

A bronze statue of Bill Clinton

A poster of the president is hung up on the wall

The whole boulevard is named after Bill Clinton

Then I walked back to the direction of Mother Teresa Square and went to another popular sight - The National Library of Kosovo. The owner of the hostel told me that it was the ugliest architecture in Pristina. When I saw the actual thing, yup, it's very ugly! It is covered by the dirty oxidized steels and decorated with some big and small light-bulb like domes on top. There is simply no aesthetic but it looks rather chaotic. And I don't get much of the irregular shape at all, what message do the architect want to convey? In spite of its bizarre outlook, it somehow makes Pristina very special as we do not usually see such weird and unattractive building during travel. Maybe this is the reason why it is a signature building in Pristina.

The church next to The National Library of Kosovo

The ugliest architecture in Kosovo, probably in the world as well

The housings in Pristina look like the public estate in Hong Kong

Contemporary architecture series: University campus

One last look of the ugly library

The longer I wandered on the street, the more tired I became. I didn't know if it was due to jet-lag, but I certainly hadn't felt that much of weariness in Serbia and Macedonia. After walking for an hour or more, I gave up and headed back to the hostel as I couldn't bear standing on my feet anymore. 

Surprisingly, the bed of this hostel offers a heavenly aura. It feels even more comfortable than my own bed at home. Hence, I laid on my bed for I didn't know how long. I just didn't want to move.

The donut store on the Mother Teresa Square

In spite of the unappealing look, it tasted very good

National Theater

Mosque

After the reluctant but necessary dinner, I went back to the hostel and decided to chill in the common room until the time of going to bed. This was where I met R, Matteo and Stefan, they come respectively from Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. Matteo and Stefan invited everyone who presented in the common room to go to a local party together. Initially, I was quite unenthusiastic about going to a party while I have been feeling really worn out for the whole day. After several persuasions by different person, I was convinced and agreed to go with them. (At that moment, Stefan cheekily came to me and said, "Girls always need to be asked for several times..." I was dumbfounded. In fact, I don't admit I am an indecisive person and for sure not a high maintenance girl, I was just TIRED for no particular reason!!!!!!) Anyways, they are really fun people to hang out with and I didn't regret to go out with them. Before walking to the party, we went down to the convenience store to buy our own beer, BYOB!

Kosovar version of Agnes b.

Clock tower

Moon in the afternoon

National museum

The party was actually thrown by some expats who are currently working at Pristina. The party holders invited other expats too, seemingly we were the only tourists there. We got to know many people, who are working at different kinds of organisation in Pristina like United Nations and university research. 

The party was mainly about chit-chatting and networking. I mostly talked with my hostel mate R, as he is from Madrid and I am a fervent Spanish football fan. Ironically, he doesn't like football and doesn't give a damn to the tension between RM and FCB. All I could say is that he just took it for granted and showed no appreciation to being born in this marvelous country, what a waste! (Just kidding) 

When we started to get comfortable in the party, the party holders suggested we should all go to a beat-box concert together. The concert took place at a pub near Pristina City Stadium. Except it was filled with cigarettes' smokes and I was almost suffocated to death, going to a beat-box concert was actually a brand new travel experience for me. The concert was amazing, though it was so different from what I have been listening and the other concerts I have seen before. 

When I thought the party was nearly over, they didn't let it stop. We changed the party's location and ended up going clubbing near the national museum. I had never thought I would go clubbing during this trip, especially with my pair of converse and other inappropriate outfits. It reminded me so much of my clubbing experience in Pamukkale and Havana as well, those are not the place for clubbing and I had not even been prepared!!! Because I am so not a clubbing person, I eventually just left for the hostel with R.

No parking???

So hilarious!!!!!!

When we got back to the hostel, it was already 3 in the morning. I hadn't expected I would take part in any nocturnal activity in Kosovo, especially on the exact day that I felt very much exhausted. Time to bed now, and then I will go to Prizren with R 7 hours later.

Another modern architecture

Fruits are very vital when I go travel, because I don't eat raw veggies salad