Helga in Kosovo

Hi,

After this week I am half way through my internship in Gjakova. In this entry I decided to write about prices, traffic, food and travelling in Kosovo. My sister came here last Thursday and left this week on Monday. When she was here we rented a car and drove to Prizren, in southern Kosovo, and on Sunday to Skopje, Macedonia. It is super easy, or at least somewhat fast to travel from one country to another. Kosovo is so centrally located that you can choose whether you want to go on a day trip to Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece or Serbia (if you want to go to Serbia you need to enter it through Macedonia, because from Kosovo only Kosovars can enter). Everything is so close. And, in case you don’t want to drive, they have many bus companies that drive to Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, Austria, Switzerland, Serbia… you name it.

So, the average monthly salary in Kosovo is around 300€. Since the average salary is that low the prices are accordingly, with some exceptions. For example, when you go to a normal restaurant a salad is anywhere between 1 to 4 or 5 euros. And it is a huge salad! Pizza and especially pasta is ridiculously cheap, around 2-5€. Of course there are more expensive places and also places where you pay the tourist prices, but still, most restaurants have prices like these. So far I have had tasty food wherever I have gone. Even the 1€ salad I have had for lunch quite often at work.

One especially nice restaurant that we have found in Prishtina is Renaissance 2. The idea of the restaurant is that there is no menu. When you sit down they bring you straight away raki (traditional Balkan spirit), wine and a big bottle of water. After the drinks they bring about 7 different small plates with different Balkan appetizers; for example fried peppers, fried zucchini, white cheese, olives, pickled? beetroot, 4 different sorts of some kind of tzatziki, and of course bread. After these small plates the whole table gets a big salad with the tastiest tomatoes I have ever tasted. Oh and not to forget, they keep bringing you raki, wine and water whenever you ask for some more. After the salad they give some meat that has been cooked for hours. In the end, if you want, you can ask for dessert which they go and get from another store or cafeteria. And not to forget the good service and of course the price, which is 15€ per person for the whole thing.

These prices feel surreal if you come from Finland where prices are sky-high. I wonder how I will get used to Finnish prices once I go back home in August. Of course the prices over here are too high for many people, but for most tourists these prices are ridiculous.

Clothes and shoes are very cheap over here, but I have noticed that gas, some furniture, lamps and electronics have surprisingly high prices compared to the average salary. Something I find so funny is that people have great phones and cars here. I still don’t understand where they get the money for those. I guess it will be an eternal mystery for me.

However, we rented a car last weekend. On Saturday we drove to Prizren. I drove half of the way there and back. The traffic is unpredictable, and it is a bit of a challenge for me to drive here since I’ve just got my license. I was nervous to be honest, and once I had parked the car in Prizren, I noticed that my legs were shaking. However, once we were walking along the beautiful river that runs through Prizren, I forgot about my shaky legs. The town is very beautiful. It was however quite quiet since Ramadan begun on Saturday, and a lot of people, especially in Prizren, spend it. Prizren has had an important role throughout the history. And the city is in my opinion much more beautiful than many other cities in Kosovo. Before we drove home we decided to drive a bit in the mountains. It was about to get dark and we stopped for a while in the middle of the mountains. Suddenly, we noticed hundreds of fireflies. It felt as if we were in a fairytale; beautiful steep mountains, the sound of the river and the fireflies. Absolutely astonishing.

On Saturday we headed towards Macedonia’s capital. We left at 7am and we were in Skopje at 9am. So it took us only 2 hours, even though we crossed the border and had a 15 minute break! Once we got the car parked we headed to the center. There is a river running through Skopje and along the river in the center they have built some interesting big buildings. And of course statues. I have never ever seen so many statues in such small area, not even in Paris. Also, I think I saw the largest statue I have ever seen. It was the statue of Alexander the Great. I guess Macedonians have had it with people who think that Alexander the Great was from Greece J.

The city looked interesting, because the new buildings that they had built were completely of different style than anything else. It kind of looked like they were trying very hard to make Skopje look like some big central European city. It was fascinating, but at the same time it felt a bit ridiculous. I heard that Macedonians don’t apparently like the statues themselves, but the government wants Skopje to show off. However, the old town with many small bazars and restaurants was very nice! If you ever go to Skopje, you need to visit the old town. But also you need to see the statues.

Next week I will write my next entry. I want to try to cover many different things that I believe are interesting for most of you. In case you want to know something specific, you can always leave a comment under the entry. I try to do my best. I put some pictures in the end of this entry of food portions, sceneries,  of Prizren and Macedonia.

Thank you for reading this entry and have a great day!