Having the choice between spending the day mainly in Pristina or doing another outdoor thing in Peja, I decide to do a different Via ferrata today. We start at 10:30 as an open group and our guide is Mentor whom I also know from the PoB trail and am happy to meet again. Apart from me, there are only two other Macedonian guys.
This is the via ferrata Shpellë (which means caves) honors its name by passing by 5 or 6 caves on the way. Most of them are natural caves that have been humanly modified during the centuries and used for mainly military purposes. In the first world war, the local population used these caves, closed by human made walls, to defend the valley which is home to the road crossing the Montenegrin border.
The via ferrata itself is classified a little less difficult than yesterday’s and is much shorter, with around 450 m length.
The day had been cloudy all along and after finishing the downhill hike back to the starting point and walking back to the city, it starts raining lightly.
I get my pack from the guesthouse and head off to the bus station and to Pristina. On the way I get stopped by people again who just want to talk, ask where I am from, tell me that Germans are always welcome here and tell me something about themselves.
I arrive in Pristina around 4pm and check into a hostel close to the station. Afterwards, I want to use the little time left to explore the center a bit. After some difficulties crossing the highway that separates me from the center, I manage to arrive at the big pedestrian area. Again, it is apparent how young the population is and Pristina has the flair of a university city with lots of young people and a tendency towards being hip and cool like other European cities. Everything is much cleaner than in the places before, the bins seem to be regularly emptied and there are recreational areas around the squares and streets. I arrive at the time of strolling and of eating grilled corn, popcorn, ice cream and cotton candy while walking with friends and listening to some guys making traditional Albanian music. The most popular attraction for kids is to rent small electric cars that they drive around in the pedestrian zone. I had seen these many times in the last weeks.
I get some pop corn and, as a personal tradition, I also check out the central park. There are some nice cafes and people running, students filming something for theatre and dozens of small children playing.
When the sun starts to set and the temperature starts to decrease, I make my way back to the hostel, this time taking a public bus in order to avoid the highway crossing odyssey. The lady from the bus is very nice and tells me personally when to get out and what bus to get next. As I stand at the second bus stop orientating and deciding if to wait or to walk, a young couple walks up to me and the guy says they had seen me on the bus and were wondering if they could maybe help me. Of course he has lived 3 years in Germany and speaks good German. They literally walk me all the way to the bus station, just like that (about 10 minutes). He remembers being helped by Germans when he first went to Frankfurt and didn’t know how to use the metro or anything and is happy to pay the favors back to me now.
In just 4 days of Kosovo, these situations have happened quite often. People are extra nice and actively helpful, interested and communicative. This is the atmosphere I was missing in Albania and finally find in Kosovo Albanians.
Extra: my favorite bar names:
