Kosovo prides itself on being one of the newest countries in the world. While its independence is still only accepted by about 100 countries of the UN (due to pressure from Serbia, Russia, and China against being recognized as independent), they’ve been an independent nation since 2008 and are on the road to potential EU candidacy in the next several years. While the country is still developing and faces some definite challenges like having one of the highest poverty and unemployment rates in Europe, it’s certainly making impressive progress resiliently recovering from its war-torn past. Government travel websites typically have some level of advisory about the dangers of travel; however, personal travel blogs are filled with stories of the warmth and hospitality of the Kosovar people, the vibrancy of the capital Prishtina, and the richness of the food, culture, and landscape. Our Albanian friends all sang the praises of Prizren and the Pristina and some had even traveled there alone as single women. Pristina is the youngest capital city in Europe, with an average age of only 28 years old and over half the population under 25. Naturally, it’s the capital of sports and nightlife in the country. We also found out that a vast majority of people in Kosovo are ethnically Albanian, so the few phrases we learned to get around in Albania would work in Kosovo too, though to be fair, most young people speak at least a little English. It’s also only a $15, 4-hour fairly scenic bus ride from Tirana, so we decided to check it out!

Our bus ride was uneventful and even customs and immigration was simple. We stopped for a short bathroom break near the border, and I got to try Lays Oregano, a local flavor I’d never seen before. Yum!

We arrived in Prishtina late in the afternoon and headed to our small family-owned hotel. We were greeted by Bosseri, a tall, muscular guy with a deep voice who might have been slightly terrifying if he hadn’t been cracking jokes the whole time. By the end of getting checked in, we were taken in by the warmth hidden behind his burly exterior, and we felt like we were practically friends. He gave us tons of suggestions and seemed like he genuinely wanted us to love his country as much as he did. He even took a few minutes to help find some American channels on our TV, and while we don’t usually even turn on the tv on vacation, we appreciated the gesture to try and make us feel as comfortable as possible.

Our first stop was the famous NEWBORN monument. Every year the monument is re-painted and re-designed on the anniversary of Kosovo’s independence. Across the street, we stopped at the Heroinat Memorial, a memorial dedicated to the 20,000+ women who were raped during the Kosovo War of 1998-1999 as well as to the women who actively fought in the war or actively participated in non-violent resistance. Sobering to say the least.

Next, we walked over to the Cathedral of Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa, or Nënë Tereza, as she’s called in the Balkans, is ethically Albanian, so you can find tons of monuments to her around Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia (maybe other places nearby too). The cathedral is simple, but elegant, and it seems fitting for the much-loved Mother Teresa who certainly wasn’t about the glitz and the glam. On big holidays like Christmas and Easter, many local Muslims of the city join their Christian neighbors in attending the services. We wandered inside to take a gander, then went looking for the stairs to go up to the top of the bell tower. We found a set of stairs going down rather than up and paused for a minute, confused. A young guy from the church walked over and made a joke about what was downstairs. I’m not sure whether he was a priest or a clergy or a volunteer of some sort, but we chatted with him for a bit. He asked us where we were from, and when we said the US, a mischevious smile came across his face, and he quickly pulled out an American flag from behind a random nook and wrapped it around himself. I’m still not quite sure why that was there anyway, so random, but it was funny. The guy had a great sense of humor and told us the church also holds an English service every Sunday and that a handful of local Americans attend as well. He also gave us lots of recommendations and seemed like he really wanted us to enjoy our time there. In the end, he led us to the elevator for the 230 foot bell tower where we got a great 360 degree views of the city, including the unique National Library of Kosovo.

After the church, we walked over to the famous Bill Clinton statue on Bill Clinton Boulevard. I was too young to understand what was happening during the Kosovo War of 1998-1999 at the time, but most Kosovars we met were incredibly thankful to the US for their help during the war. So this monument is a statue of thanks to the United States and Bill Clinton for help during the war. Comically, a couple hundred feet down the road behind Bill Clinton, there’s an expensive women’s boutique clothing store called Hillary that specializes in pants suits. Don’t worry, if the Clintons leave a bad taste in your mouth, there’s something for everyone… Not far away is another street named after George W. Bush. Walking around Pristina, you’ll find random US flags as well as statues, streets, and tributes to other famous Americans.

On our way to dinner, we started to hear chants and songs, much like those you’d hear at a sporting event. As we walked, we also started to see people and particularly lots of teenage boys wearing sports jerseys, walking the same direction we were. Finally, we saw it – the Pristina FC soccer stadium. There were still few enough people that we wondered whether the game had ended a bit earlier and people were still lively and excited or whether the game was later in the evening and we were caught with the early birds and super fans. We decided to ask about it at the restaurant and try to catch at least the 2nd half of the game if we could!

Sure enough, FC Pristina was playing later that night! The restaurant that had been recommended to us was full, so we just walked along the road until we found something else that looked good. We found a little place that seemed to be popular that had a bar and lounge on one end of the block and its restaurant at the other end. The servers were wonderful, and everything was delicious. Our server even brought us a complementary lemony frozen dessert type drink at the end of our meal to enjoy. Unfortunately while we enjoyed the local wine and beer and delicious food, it started POURING outside. We decided that the game would not be very fun in pouring rain and 60 degree weather without any kind of rain protection. Our waiter kindly offered to help us call a taxi, but it was raining so much that even calling for a taxi meant up to an hour wait! Thankfully, we had honed our taxi-hailing skills over the past week, and Kurt was able to flag one down fairly quickly before we were fully drenched. After just 2 euros, we made it back to the hotel relatively dry.

The next morning, we took advantage of our hotel’s free breakfast. A nice lady, part of the owning family, came and offered us coffee, a customized omelette of our choice, and an assortment of other breakfast items like yogurt, cheeses, meats, fruit, bread, and more. There was a grumpy older man sitting at one of the 2 other tables complaining loudly about his breakfast. “The man yesterday at the desk told me you would have muesli and fresh yogurt in the morning here. Do you not have it?” Politely, the lady told him they unfortunately did not have muesli and plain yogurt but that she could offer him some blueberry flavored yogurt and promptly brought him a plate with all the other items mentioned above that she had offered us. “No, this is impossible. This yogurt is from a factory. My body cannot eat this. Everywhere you can find fresh yogurt, this is impossible.” I was impressed with the lady’s ability to continue in politeness and professionalism despite this guy’s ridiculous attitude. Kurt and I just looked across the table at each other like YIKES and tried to be extra nice to the lady. STILL this guy continued to complain. At this point, the lady asks him how long he was staying and assured him they would have muesli and “fresh” or plain yogurt for him the following morning. He begrudgingly agreed but continued to mutter audibly from time to time asserting his need for these items. Finally, the lady grabbed her purse and walked outside only to return a few minutes later with a huge bag of muesli and a carton of yogurt from the small market across the street. The man was delighted, though still complained because then he couldn’t open the bag now (HUGE eye roll). We were so impressed with that level of customer service. In the US, no one would go out and run an errand just for you like that, much less if you were acting like the a.hole this guy was. Wow. We chatted with the woman for a little while before leaving about Pristina, their family and family-owned hotel, and the US and found out she has relatives in New York City and Connecticut.

After breakfast, we headed to the bus station to catch the 2.5 hour bus to Skopje, North Macedonia to catch our flight out. We made it in time for the 10am bus we needed; however, unfortunately there was only 1 seat remaining, and the next bus wasn’t for another hour and a half which would cut it a little closer for our flight.

We paused to think, and then we remembered that when we were checking in, our new friend Bosseri had mentioned that they could help arrange a taxi for a reasonable price to the Skopje airport. I had scoffed (thankfully silently) at this idea the day before – why pay for a taxi when we could take a bus? – but now, it seemed like our only choice. So we gave the hotel a call to find out the details and if it was too late to do that. The hotel folks were more than happy to help, and the price was only about $20 more than what it would have cost us to take the bus to the city and then transfer to the airport. We waited at the roundabout near the bus station where they told us the driver in a Suzuki would meet us. To our pleasant surprise, it was not a proper taxi at all, and instead it was our good ole friend Bosseri who had offered to drive us the 1.5 hour trip to Skopje!

It was one of those little mishaps that you end up being thankful for. The car ride with Bosseri was an incredible experience. He drove smoothly, though righttttt over the center line separating the 2 lanes most of the trip (Kurt can’t make fun of my driving anymore after that :)). He shared tons of stories with us about his culture, family, his teenage daughters, his life in Kosovo, his life during the war, his life as a refugee, his life working for NATO and the Canadian government at different times helping with the refugee effort during the war, and he, like many others we met, bemoaned the fact that the one downside of life in Kosovo is that their passport only gets them into 5 countries visa-free. He even offered us his own advice on marriage and kids since we told him we got married just last year and told us to always make sure we have someone to talk to in hard times, whether that’s a friend, a family-member, or a counselor, and I thought that sounded like pretty good advice. He was one of those people you come across in life for only a moment but leave feeling richer for having known.

Overall, I’d say we had a lovely experience in Kosovo. Prishtina felt in some ways like a much much smaller New York City. We felt totally safe though cautious walking around during the day, and while we didn’t get to experience walking around at night because of the rain, our best guess was that we would have felt safe in the busier areas and probably less so on the emptier darker streets. But it’s good advice even in the safest places in the world to avoid the emptier darker streets at night anyway. There’s not necessarily a ton to do in the city as far as tourism goes, but I’d for sure go back and finally get to attend that soccer game.

Oh, and fun fact. Burger King delivers in Pristina!! Who knew?!