Adventures in Europe: Prizren, Kosovo

With my flight plans sorted out, I had the full day today in Kosovo. After a lovely breakfast in the hotel, I drove an hour southeast to Kosovo's second city, Prizren.

On my way to the city, especially when I was still on secondary roads, I began noticing that Albanian flags (red with a black eagle) were far more prevalent than the "official" Kosovo flag (blue with white stars and a gold outline of the country). I also saw numerous memorials to members of the UÇK, or Kosovo liberation army (whose flag is very much based on the Albanian flag), the most significant of which was this one.

Ethnically, Kosovo is by far mostly Albanian, and I found out that when while under United Nations administration Kosovo chose its flag it was specifically prohibited to have the flag be too similar to the Albanian (or Serbian) flags. Nonetheless, many Albanian Kosovars prefer to use the Albanian flag, just as the Serbs in Kosovo often fly the Serbian flag (as I saw yesterday in Gračanica). In Prizren, a street seller sold both Albanian and Kosovo flags, but clearly was much better supplied with Albanian flags!

Once in Prizren, I parked outside of the centre as I had in Pristina yesterday and walked in. I was surprised to see that people are heating their homes with wood!

Prizren is almost entirely Muslim now, but historically it had a more significant Christian Serb population as well, and the Mother of God Cathedral is nearly 700 years old (during at least some of its history it was a mosque). Unfortunately, its future looks highly uncertain as it is clearly not being well cared for and subject to vandalism, despite barbed wire surrounding it.

From the church (which obviously I would not be able to enter!) I walked down to the little river.

It is a very picturesque setting, and I found a cafe to sit at and soak in the atmosphere.

After a macchiato I began walking up to the Prizren fortress, which sits on a hill above the city centre. The climb is quite invigorating, and gives ample opportunities for nice views of the city below.

There is also another old Serbian (fenced in) church along the way to the top.

The fortress is fun to clamber around in . . .

. . . but it was the views, both behind the hill and down into the city that I found most compelling. 

Back down from the fortress, I ate lunch, enjoyed another macchiato, snacked on roasted hazelnuts along the river, bought a postcard, and so on, before walking back to the car to leave. On the way back to the car I passed a monument honouring NATO's support for Kosovo during the 1990s.

I really enjoyed Prizren and I am glad I made sure to spend today in Kosovo and delayed going back to Vienna until tomorrow.