I had traveling with people for the past 3 weeks now. Now I'm alone again!
Rozaje
From asking around, I had heard that one of the easiest ways to get into Kosovo is to go to the town of Rozaje in Montenegro and catch a taxi from there over the border. So that is what I did. I got up before 7AM to catch a bus from Belgrade, and I arrived in Rozaje around 4PM. The bus had a toilet so I didn't worry too much about drinking on the bus, until I realized it was out of order. But I made it 9 hours anyway without a problem. One thing I noticed along the mountain roads, is that there were a dozen or so shells of cars at the bottom of the cliffs we drove by. Apparently there's no money to use to remove cars after accidents, so they just sit there. In Rozaje, all the buses to Kosovo that day had left, so that meant that the taxi drivers started charging about $25 for a ride. I stayed the night in Rozaje. The man that ran the place spoke Italian as his 2nd language, and I know a bit of Spanish, but miraculously we were able to communicate just fine speaking those languages. The next morning the taxi drivers had dropped their prices to about $6 since now they had buses to compete with.
No Man's Land
The taxi's charge a little more that buses cause they're faster. I don't know if that is a good thing or not on icy mountain roads... Between Rozaje and Kosovo, there is an 8 mile stretch of road that has no police or government. Apparently, this place is a hot spot for armed bandits. (Don't worry mom, that only happens at night. And I was travelling in the day) After racing around every corner and passing every bus and truck we came upon for 15 miutes (being careful not to drive off the road, since there are signs warning of land mines), I finally saw the UN flag. (Kosovo is currently run by the UN)
Peja, Kosovo
Before even arriving in Peja (a city of about 100,000 according to one web site) there was evidence of the war. Many houses and other buildings were empty shells with obvious burn damage. The roads also used to have Serbian names from what I've been told. There aren't street names anymore. Once the the Yugoslavian army left town, the Albanian population removed all Serbian reference they could, which included street names. On top of that, the roads are in poor condition due to the military, UN, and charity traffic that the roads weren't created to handle. I've also learned to walk in the streets rather than the sidewalks in a few places. Contruction areas have no signs or fencing, and I've already seen a few large bricks and stones fall to the ground from a few stories up...
A Warm Welcome From Bill Clinton
Normally I search around for cheap accomodation, in this case I decided to find the nicest hotel in town (which cost about $25 a night). When I entered I was welcomed by a poster of Bill Clinton and an American flag with the words 'Thank You' inscribed on the bottom. Besides that, I also saw a few American flags outside of some houses on the way in to town. In this case it turns out that I made a good decision to stay at the nicest place in town, for this hotel also owns the biggest electrical generator in town. The power went out at least a half dozen times between 4PM and midnight, but the hotel was fine except for the few minutes it took to fire that thing up.
