Day 6: Prizren, Kosovo

Chinese Version / 中文版本

After the crazy fun night out of last night, I still managed to wake up in the morning. Because I had repeatedly asked R not to be late, I could not be late either. I quickly took a shower and got ready before our appointed departure time. Matteo had also asked me to wake him up when we were drinking in the club last night, however, I thought it was just drunk talk, I left him sleeping in his bed at last.

On the way to the town center

No GUN please

The bus from Pristina to Prizren takes around 2 hours and the fare is 4 EUR. R and I talked a lot during the bus ride, regarding his life in Madrid and how his life changed after he has moved to Germany.

As advised by the local people, we got off the bus before the bus arrived at the main bus station. Nevertheless, R needed to get the timetable of the bus to Montenegro. We still had to walk to the bus station, but couldn't figure out the way without a map. Then a friendly Kosovar couple offered to drive us to the bus station. (Thank you so much!!!) In the end, there was no bus to Montenegro, didn't know if it was a Sunday or there's simply no international bus at all.

Kosovo Force by NATO

 Bistrica river running in Prizren

Later on, we continued to walk to the town center. The scenery along the way is unbelievably picturesque. All the houses are built with the orange-colored roofs, and there's a river flowing in the town center with stone bridges in between. In addition to the big mosque and the fortress on the hill as the background, I can officially say that Prizren is one of my favorite old towns in the world.

The mosque in the town center

Unexpectedly scenic

Taken on the stone bridge

The first thing we did in Prizren was to climb up to the fortress, whereas I hadn't had any breakfast beforehand. I was exhausted to death once we got on the top of the hill. Luckily the way wasn't that long, otherwise I must have died. 

From the top of the hill, the scenery is even more breathtaking. Besides the panoramic view of the town, we could overlook the snow mountain in the far back and the expansive scene of the whole city.

View from the fortress

The other side of Prizren

We spent some quality time on the top of the hill, then we descended back to the ground. Instead of walking around the old town, we chose to sit down and had a pretty late lunch outside of a local restaurant. In Kosovo, people mostly eat something very similar to Turkish cuisine, such as burek and kebab. So, we ordered some chicken kebab and spent some time enjoying the sunny weather before leaving.

Picturesque view

I was pretty impressed by this one-day trip to Prizren. Not only because I had a good company, but Prizren is genuinely a spectacular town. Moreover, there're not flooded with tourists. Except the soldiers from NATO, all the people we saw are locals. I wish I could come back there in the future. Hopefully it won't be spoilt by foreign tourists and Prizren can retain her authenticity.

Sheep-herding on the hill

Sheeps

Since there was no bus to Montenegro, R took the bus with me back to Pristina. On the inbound bus, we watched a super weird TV show, which might be considered as 'comedy'. Perhaps we didn't speak Albanian, we didn't find it funny at all. But the people on the bus cracked up so loudly, making us feel even odder.

When we were walking back to the hostel, I discovered that I lost my scarf, maybe on the bus. It made me feel very miserable for the whole walk. Until we got back to the hostel, I laid on my bed and felt so remorseful about the loss of my scarf. Suddenly, R came to me from the male bathroom with my scarf in his hands. I was shocked and then I recalled that I put it in the male bathroom while I was drying my hair there in the morning. In fact, I forgot to wear it and was hurried to leave the hostel with R so as not to be late. I am toooooooo lucky, ain't' I? From now on, I believe I will cherish my scarf as much as I can.

Time to leave Prizren

Sunset at the bus station

P.S. Matteo woke up in the morning and we were nowhere to be seen. Then he decided to take the bus to find us in Prizren, in vain. I felt quite embarrassed when he told us this incidence, as I deliberately didn't wake him up (of course I didn't tell him the truth)......