After Serbia, our big loop back to Sarajevo continued southeast through the two countries in the Balkans that are predominantly Albanian in ethnicity: Kosovo and Albania. As I mentioned before, I know not a syllable of Albanian ('Shiqp'), though it is in fact an Indo-European language. In fact, before the trip, I don't know that I had ever heard it spoken before. But, luckily, ingles is widely-spoken in these countries. Also, I have never been to two foreign countries where the United States is more widely liked. U.S. foreign policy has been pretty consistent when it comes to speaking up against aggression against Albanians and Kosovars, and you can see U.S. flags, streets named after George W. Bush (who recognized Kosovo in 2008), and statues of Bill Clinton (who spearheaded the NATO bombing campaign against Serbia). As an American, it's an odd feeling to not be greeted with suspicion by foreigners.
Kosovo
Pristina is the little capital of a little country, and while it doesn't have a lot for tourists to see, it has a nice little (the key adjective for Kosovo) downtown. It also has an older, ramshackle Turkish area, where we stayed.
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| Kosovars appreciate that the International Community prevented them from being ethnically cleansed by Serbia (can you spot Trum?). |
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| Traditional cradles. Are we in Turkey? Nope, look at the old dude's Qekeshe (a traditional Albanian hat). I bought one, a'course. |
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| OK. This could have been taken in Turkey. Maybe a little too risque outside of Istanbul these days, though. |
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| Bill just keeps smiling and waving to all the traffic. |
Part of the reason the territory of Kosovo was such a contentious issue, is that the most pivotal batlle in Serbian history (against the Ottomans) took place at Kosovo Polje in 1389 ('The Field of Blackbirds'). Kosovo also contains some of the most important Serbia Orthodox monasteries, including the one at Gracanica. It was built in the 14th century, its church contains amazing frescoes from that period, and it is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Gracanica itself is a small ethnic-Serb village, with a completely different feel from the surrounding mostly Muslim, ethnic-Albanian towns. The monastery caretaker seemed very happy to have someone visit, and gave us a great tour of the frescoes in the church.
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| It's a little church, but a treasure house of medieval frescoes (we couldn't take pictures inside). |
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| If you look close you can see the razor wire on top of the monastery's perimeter wall. Up until recently NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR) guarded the monastery against Kosovar Albanian vandalism/attacks. |
Albania
Have I mentioned how beautiful the western Balkans are? Albania was the only country we visited that was not formerly part of Yugoslavia, but it's mountains are as breathtaking as those in BiH or Slovenia...though sadly it's amazing lakes were chuck full of plastic bottles. Albania had it's own troubled history, suffering under the bizarre leadership of the communist dictator Enver Hoxha for 40 years. Back in the day, however, the main man on the scene in Albania was Skanderbeg, an Albanian nobleman and warrior who rebelled against the Turks, and repeatedly whipped them in battles where his force was vastly outnumbered. He defend the city of Krjue against three Ottoman sieges. Today, Kruje is a Skanderbeg-o'licious tourist trap, but has a really beautiful setting in the mountains.
Kruje
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| The New Town |
The old castle, perched high on the mountain side, was the scene of Skanderbeg's triumphant hold-outs against the three Turkish sieges.
The Skanderbeg Museum is chuck full of representations of the great hero, and depictions of heroic battles against the Ottomans.
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| The Man Himself! |
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| Get those Ottomans! |
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| Misty Mountains |
You can't have an old castle and museum complex, without a bazaar full of traditional handicrafts.
Tirana
Tirana is Albania's capital, but is a small city of around 600,000. Still, it is VERY clean (amazingly so considering the litter-choked countryside), has groovy public art and interesting architecture. It is like a combination of Italy and Turkey...in both good and bad ways. I thought I had seen the worse driving in the world, but Tirana took the cake. It combined the free-for-all chaos of Turkey, with the bicycle/scooter love of Italy. I don't know how we made it out without injury to life or property.
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| You got it all in this one shot: a minaret, funky building, cool flag, Ottoman-era clock tower, and, of course, Skanderbeg. |
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| Who doesn't love a good socialist realist mural? I certainly do. |
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| Street lights with lamp shades, a building with curves, and giant candles? |
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| They still love W in these parts. |
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