Day 8 Intrepid: Prishtina

After breakfast I walked briefly to the Old Stone Bridge over the river that flows through the centre of town hoping to get a people-free photo. No such luck. The bridge was populated by dogs - 3 large dogs of the many that lie around the streets in the sun. Yesterday, one bemused us when one it sat howling at the evening call-to-prayer from the nearby mosque. One would have thought it would be used to it!

We take a day trip to Prishtina the capital of Kosovo which is currently reinventing itself as a major commercial centre in the region.

We first visit the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Serbian Orthodox Gračanica Monastery built by Serbian King Stefan Milutin in 1321. The interior has the most beautiful frescoes. We had an excellent local guide who really explained it well.

Next we head to the nearby Bear Sanctuary – a 16-hectare area of woodland providing a 

home for rescued so-called ‘restaurant bears’ that were kept in tiny dilapidated cages next to restaurants for the purpose of attracting customers. 

We do a walking tour of the city of Prishtina: the Catholic Cathedral, the interesting University Library building, (another) Mother Teresa Square, a Skanderbeg Monument (again), the NEWBORN Monument (which was unveiled on the day Kosovo declared its independence in 2008), the brass statue of Bill Clinton (thanks for the President’s role in ending the war), and stroll the main boulevard with its extraordinary number of bookstores. 

Finally we visit the Gazimestan Monument at Kosovo Polje (Field of Blackbirds) which the country is named after. This monument is guarded by the Kosovo Police (following a handover by the NATO-led KFOR) and we handed in our passports to enter. The memorial commemorates the important 1389 battle of Kosovo – a skirmish that led to the Ottoman Empire finally taking control of this area of the Balkans. Nearby is the tomb of Sultan Murat, leader of the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century. 

But this was also where, on 28 June 1989, Slobodan Milosevic (who had assumed the presidency of Serbia a few weeks earlier) addressed more than one million Serbs assembled in Kosovo Polje. Milosevic invoked this event to assert Serbia’s claims to Kosovo, as “cradle” of the Serbian nation, over those of its overwhelmingly Albanian population. 

It was for Kosovo that NATO went to war for the first time, one decade later, with an aerial bombing campaign that in June 1999 ended Serbia’s deadly repression of the Kosovo Albanians.

It was a long drive back to Prizren (albeit on freeway 120 km/hr) returning at about 7:30 p.m.
I have a nasty cold that I have caught from others on the tour. It’s been an arduous day for me.

Fortunately we have clean washing that the hotel has laundered and we finish last night’s bottle of red wine (that we didn't finish at dinner) plus a cheese sandwich made at breakfast and the birthday cake Sando gifted me yesterday.

Now watching Andy Murray play Stan Wawrinka at Rolland-Garros on the TV. 

Walked 9.5 kms.