The 9 AM bus was cancelled.
The 10:10 bus never arrived. Waiting for more than an hour, we all just pounced
on the first vehicle that had the word PRISTINA on its windshield. It could
have been an ox cart for all we cared, we just didn’t have the patience to wait
anymore. Apparently, it doesn’t matter what your ticket is for. It seems as
though buses, mini buses, and mini vans just get their half of the ticket and
maybe exchange it for cash at the office later on. When in doubt, just ask the
driver.
Pristina was more like a filler destination. Kosovo briefly entered my travel hitlist when they declared independence and included Philippine passport-holders on their list of visa-free travelers. When they removed us from that list a few months later I was, like, fuck Kosovo? But as with most countries in the Balkans, you are allowed in if your Schengen C visa is valid for multiple entry. It’s really tempting if you find yourself in Skopje, you know. After all, how long is the bus trip? 2 hours? Up the country count, yes?
Crossing land borders in the
Balkans is a tricky adventure. Macedonia did not stamp my passport going out.
Kosovo did going in. And then I didn’t get any more stamps even if I exited
Kosovo and entered Macedonia again. It’s not that big a deal because I’ll
surely get an exit stamp flying out from Skopje’s airport anyway. For other
people, though, it might pose a problem. I really have no idea what you should
do. Perhaps getting off the bus and speaking to the immigration officer is an
appropriate solution for that?
There is nothing much to see
in Pristina, if you go there on your own, that is. I’m sure that if you know a
local he or she will be happy to show you places that are worth seeing. I
don’t. This is not to say, though, that the young nation doesn’t have much to
offer. They have several UNESCO World Heritage sites, some of which are not so
far away from the capital. Unfortunately, I can’t give any tips because my
excursion here lasted no more than half a day and I didn’t really dare to go
far away from the city center.
What I wanted to do was take a
stroll along Bill Clinton Avenue. Yes, Bill Clinton has his own avenue here. ‘MERICA!
I’ve read somewhere that Kosovo is truly appreciative of what the US and the UK
have done for them to establish their sovereignty in the region. Not every
country is happy, though. Spain, for example, does not recognize them as a state.
Why? Because giving them that recognition means that Madrid would also have to
extend the same to Catalonians and the Basques. At the end of the day, it’s all
about politics.
I did end up at Bill Clinton
Avenue after walking for a while. There you will see the Mother Theresa
Cathedral at one corner. It’s hard to miss because of its size, but it seems
all too modern to warrant a tourist’s attention. I wanted to go in for a change
but it was under construction so I just took a not so flattering photo and
left. A few backflips down the road is a place called Newborn. That very word
is spelled out with sculptures of the letters along the sidewalk. Young people
love hanging out there.
That’s also where three
teenagers saw me, pointed a finger, and laughed loudly. Thanks, children. That’s
the personification of ignorance right there. I don’t want to generalize, of
course, but that prompted me to include Pristina on my list of xenophobic
cities I probably won’t visit again. I understand where it’s coming from,
though. The only other Asian I saw there that day was a Taiwanese girl on the
bus who disappeared as soon as the bus parked at the station. Such experience
leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
In that same area is a queer
looking building. You climb a series of colorful steps and you end up at a
square with that structure as a backdrop. Its presence is imposing, although I
really had no idea what it was. I thought it was the library described on
Wikitravel as the one that looks as though it was built with Lego bricks and
enveloped in chain mail, but it seemed clear that it wasn’t the same building.
My guess is that it is a museum of sorts, but since I went on a Saturday, I
just assumed that it was closed.
The only other place I went to
was this pedestrian street at the city center itself. It wasn’t that full of
people for a Saturday afternoon. There were a couple of statues here and there.
There was also a big yellow Lego brick standing at one spot of the park. It was
an odd mix, but sort of cool, to be honest. And in the absence of anything
touristy to do, I then opted for something “extra-curricular” before hopping on
the bus going back to FYROM. All good, but I’m not coming back anytime soon.
[PRISTINA] The Kosovo Daytrip
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