The
Prishtina Press Issue 12
--Saturday, 25 March 00--
George had mentioned that he had to go to Skopje to change his return ticket. He told me that there is a MovCon bus that goes there daily and asked me to call Margaret about the details. I did and she told me that I should have given MovCon three days notice -- that means that I should have known on Thursday what I was going to do on Sunday. She told me where they were located and I went to the office to beg forgiveness for my inconsideration.
I explained to the German(?) guy there that George and I needed to go to Skopje and he gave me forms to fill out for both George and me. He couldn't have been nicer. He casually mentioned that he had a heavy cold and his boss had called and ordered him to go home -- whether for his health or because the office didn't have Saturday hours, he didn't say. Such are the exciting weekend alternatives available to all expats in Prishtina.
I hastened to send an email to Susan, an expat friend I first met in Romania, so we could try to get together but she didn't reply by day's end. Later I found out that here access provider had been non-providing all that day and for a good deal of the previous days.
At the Grand bar, I overheard someone saying that several European governments were about to force the return of an estimated 200,000 Kosovar refugees, "now that the crisis was over". Of course, the real reason is that they want to be rid of welfare clients and illegal immigrants. This is understandable but it creates a social and budget crisis here in Kosovo where the "province" will shortly have to play host to a 10% increase in the unemployed population and an undetermined DEcrease in transfer payments. Budget for that double whammy!
George called me around 10 PM to say that at 2 AM daylight savings time kicks in. I had heard the people on Sky TV say that it was "Summer Time" in Britain but I didn't know it applied here and since I wanted to catch an 8 AM bus to Skopje, the time change was highly relevant. Being very proactive, I didn't wait until 2 PM but changed my watch, computer and palm pilot right away.
--Sunday, 26 March 00--
I overslept anyway but was up at 7 am and found the water hot enough to need to be cut with cold (3rd time in four weeks). There is a bliss in hot water that is hard to appreciate until you can't get it.
The trip to Skopje went well. It was 1 hr 10 min to the boarder, 20 minutes there and then about 10 minutes to the OSCE building where the bus let us off in a nondescript dirt parking lot across the street from the OSCE rear entrance. We got off the bus and headed toward the McDonalds we had passed on the way in. I had a plain double cheese, medium fries, medium Coke, and an apple pie. It all went down so well that George and I had a carmel-coated ice cream (that makes two deserts!).
It was a shock to discover that the McDonalds wouldn't accept DMs (the currency of Kosovo, which I have come to view as European half-dollars) so George and I went into a supermarket next door and made change into Macedonian dinars (3150 dinar = 100 DM = $50, you do the arithmetic.).
It was an American-style supermarket, with wide aisles and a seemingly endless display of consumer products. It was like being in a museum focused on some passion you were fixated on but where you could buy the exhibits for pocket change. George had a pork experience that should have been videoed. He bought pounds of bacon, pork ribs (I caught him wiping his lips with his tongue), several kinds of pork sausage (he didn't care which), and other delicacies. It seemed to me that I was in a theme park -- a food theme park. I reveled in looking at the exhibits.
George pointed out some pepperoni to me and I grabbed a half-meter double strip. It stuck out of my backpack but I didn't care. I had fantasies of a pepperoni pizza.
George's arms were so full that I looked around and found an empty carrying basket. It was filled quickly. The bottom line was that George carried about 30 pounds of meat on his back for the whole day. He never complained. George and I were having a shopping experience: It is hard to explain if you have never experienced it.
We looked for Grand Marnier in the large liqueur section but didn't find it. I did get a bottle of a noted Croatian liqueur, Svatovski Krushkovach "liker". Orange-like or banana-like? It was hard to say, I my be losing my sense of taste. No. Airline food is still wretched and disgusting.
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After McDonalds, after the "shopping experience", we took a cab to the airport so George could change his ticket on Austrian Airlines. It all went perfectly and we were soon looking for taxi back to the city. The only problem was that the taxi drivers demanded 40 DM when we paid 20 to arrive. We said that we would go over to the group of drivers who were waiting outside the airport exit and suddenly things changed. A new driver was designated to take us back to the city. He seemed pleased to get 20 DM.
We were dropped off in the old part of town and wandered in the narrow streets that abutted the open-air market. It was clear that this was an area that was worth multiple visits.
We made our way toward a mosque that had a tall minaret and noticed an old structure further up the hill. We walked up to the crest of the hill which was the site of an old fortress and were treated to wonderful views of Skopje.
The mosque was closed so we couldn't see the inside. It seemed to be quite old and very well designed.
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We walked around the city and admired it a lot. The
contrast was stark and continual. The streets were wider, better organized,
there were sidewalks everywhere, frequent traffic lights, general cleanliness,
extensive parks along the river, an old Turkish quarter, a big outdoor
market, old mosques, the ruins of a large fortress (now a park) strategically
placed on the top of a hill overlooking the city, and interesting architecture.
But it was time to go back to Prishtina.
Joe
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A Virtual Tour of Kosovo |
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