Adventuring Abroad: The story of 4 countries in 24 hours and an amazing adventure, part 1

Its been a mere 48 hours or so since I last wrote but so much has happened since! Enough that I’m currently writing on the bus, at high risk of motion sickness but counting on the Dramamine and the fact that I can touch type (ie look at the window and not what I’m writing) to keep breakfast in my stomach on these mountain road, just so I can write before I forget most things. We left Nis on our way to Kosovo no problem and a few minutes outside the city (possibly even within the city limits) we stopped to visit a WW2 concentration camp. This particular camp was what was known as a collection camp, people were gathered up and held here on their way to more dangerous camps in other parts of Europe. More dangerous is a highly relative term though, because even though this wasn’t a ‘death camp’ there were mass killings, especially following outbreak attempts, and many perished from disease as well. IN a cruel/cold ironic sense, the name of the camp translates to Red Cross – an organization known for humanitarianism and essentially the opposite of this camp. Approximately 30,000 people passed through this camp throughout the war years. The pictures of some of them have been put on the wall, and the messages they scribbled to loved ones who might come later or to whomever, just to prove they were there, have been left up. Walking through I felt this need to look at everything quietly and alone. As if even though I couldn’t read the names or messages, I had to see their faces and try to remember them – seemed like the least I could do and yet everything. The world needs to not move forward through history looking back and letting the fights of the past dictate all future actions and attitudes but that does not mean that the fights should be forgotten and that they, and the people who fought and died because of them, don’t have lessons to teach us. World War Two history has always interested me and now it just makes me miss my grandfather more. He didn’t share his war stories much but I would’ve like to talk to him about it as I got older and knew more.

After the concentration camp, our subdued group piled back onto the bus for our drive to Kosovo. This is when we start to realize how amazing our bus driver is – it’s no easy feat to maneuver this giant tour bus especially though city streets and winding back roads. Along the way we stopped to see a monument to the Battle of Kosovo (1389). This battle is huge in Balkans history and it was really cool to be able to see the battlefield and look out on the entire countryside. The monument is a big stone tower which looks impressive enough from the outside but it had stairs!! At one point almost our entire group was up the top enjoying the view and breeze, looking out over the battlefield and surrounding towns. The site is currently protected by peacekeepers (KFOR ones I believe) to prevent vandalism of the site. Given it’s important role in Serbian and Balkan history it’s a frequent potential target. A while later, we stopped at a little, little place by a river for lunch. At this point we were what seemed like high up in the rural mountains, winding our way along. The place we had lunch was down the side of one of these hills at a little place that was delicious. The food was cooked over a fire we could see from our table, in true local style. The bread was cooked with flour ground up at a mini mill, run by water from the river and proved to be delicious. We’ve gotten to the point on our trip where even though dishes are still ordered for each individual, splitting sharing, and everyone trying and eating everyone else’s food is commonplace. It’s great because it lets everyone try a bit of everything and means no one’s left hungry if their meal turns out to not be what they expected it to be. After lunch we continued southward on our journey and had our first border crossing. Although it seemed to take a while, it turned out to be the quickest we’ve yet encountered. First, we have to have our passports examined by the Serbian authorities. This means a security guard comes on to the bus to collect the passports, checking to make sure everyone matches their pictures, takes them off the bus, does their thing and brings it back – this took about an hour. At this point there is no stamp because we are leaving Serbia for Kosovo, and since Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosovo, its just a security checkpoint for them and not and international border. After a short drive through ‘no man’s land’ we arrive at the next checkpoint, this is the Kosovo one. Here the same process ensues except when we get them back, there is a stamp on it for Kosovo – remember this, it’s important. In our excitement over new passport stamps (yes, we’re IAF geeks) and some people including myself scrambling to find theirs since it was pretty faint in some, none of the student’s realized that they’d stamped our passports when they shouldn’t have (apparently, we asked them not to, which according to a treaty they have to listen to). After the crossing we were officially in the rolling hills of Kosovo. Differences between Serbia were immediately apparent. The signs were in Albanian, and the countryside was dotted with Albanian flags and mosques. Generally Kosovo was/is very pretty but largely unfinished. Most of the places we say on the drive in and Prishtina itself seemed to be in a state of construction and it was hard to tell what was being rebuilt, what people had run out of money to finish or had just let fall into disrepair, and what was new construction and a sign of economic growth and development. Arriving in Prishtina we checked into our hotel. At this point, after a long bus ride and several less than impressive lodging locations we were easily impressed. Regardless, this hotel was nice – internet in our rooms, clean, and overall a nice small place. I think the fact that it was smaller and seemed family run definitely added to its charm. There was a small yard you could sit in and our floor had a common room style table as well. It was interesting to note that despite how nonviolent the city seemed on the drive in, we had to take all our things off the bus and couldn’t take it into the center of the city that night because it has Serb plates.

At this point, taking a moment to settle is first priority but a very close second is satisfying the hunger we were all feeling. It’s finally gotten cooler here so after we excitedly changed into jeans (oh how I’d missed them and it’s nice to not be hot) and grabbing sweaters, we left in search of food. A group of us ended up at a nearby grocery store for diner. Realistically, this place can’t be rightly called a grocery store – it was some kind of a cross between a Wal-Mart, Wegmans, and normal grocery store. After filling up on food, a few of us grabbed a couple bottles of wine and headed back to the hotel. Since it was a nice hotel and we were too tired to get a taxi into the center, we sat around playing easy old school card games. I don’t remember the last time I played Go Fish, Old Maid, and BS, let alone had that much fun playing them. Exhaustion dictated an early bedtime for all but soon it was time for breakfast. One of the best breakfasts of the trip in my opinion – fresh bread, watermelon, tomatoes, TEA! (much harder to find than coffee here), and good old tang. It was time to hit the road again though, and leave this great little place behind. We headed into the city center to meet with a representative Nansen Dialogue Center. This group works in most of former Yugoslavia, with 3 centers in Kosovo, especially on reconciliation issues. There are two programs they do a lot with. First, they help facilitation the return process for Serbs displaced by the war. These people inhabit an interesting place in international law. They are IDPs (internally displaced persons) or refugees depending on if the country recognizes Kosovo or not, and how you classify them interferes with their right of return which is guaranteed by international law. Their other major program is working with youth of both ethnicities (Albanian and Serb) and teaching them English and Computer Science with a little bit of Conflict Resolution thrown in. This is something I really loved since I think the future of the region lies with thise kids and if they learn to grow up understanding and at least tolerating each other or if they grown up separately and hating. With each education program, the Center will work in a community for 3 years before moving on to a new set of ~40 kids. It was nice to hear about the Kosovo issue from a Kosovar since we had heard a lot about it from the Serb side. When asked about how things were before the war, the speaker explained that people, although living in the same places and mixed neighborhoods, they were living next to each other and not together. After our meeting we had a little bit of time to wander the pedestrian area and grab food before piling back onto the bus.

On our way to the Kosovo Serb border we stopped to briefly see a Serb enclave in Kosovo. The enclave is separated from the rest of the city by a bridge over a small steam, we could’ve waded across it. The bridge and the road leading up to it is dominated by a large international and local security presence. We spot NATO KFOR, EU, and other international forces. On the Serb side, we spoke with a local community leader who could tell us about what life in the enclave was like. The police in Serb enclave reflect the population percentages of each group, which is to say mostly Serb with some minorities. According to him, the reasons for not wanting to be a part of Kosovo are not just ethnic but economic – Serbia is much better off economically. The bridge serves as a historic and symbolic location for divisions and clashes. In fact, there have been clashes on the bridge as recently as 2004 when many South Serbs fled to the North side of the city when Kosovo declared independence. The most noticeable difference between the sides is that as soon as you cross, there are Serbian flags everywhere, and you pay in Dinar. After the enclave we pile back in the bus for a long drive with an interesting border check. We reached the Serbian/Kosovo border around 4 or 5 pm in the evening and began the regular border check process. Getting though the Kosovo side was a fairly easy, unsurprising process and we get an exit stamp. Then, after driving through no man’s land we begin the check on the Serbian stop. However it soon became clear that something was up. More and more time passes as Mladen, Denis, and Yanis go on and off the bus, talking with the officials. The main guard comes back but with no everyone’s passport. As it turns out, this is another security checkpoint, like when we had entered. However, when you enter Serbia after being in Kosovo, Serbia will annul the stamp in your passport. But this is not a recognized international border, so if the guard was to annul our stamps he would defacto recognize the border – aka start an incident. So we are stuck for the time being. The guard will only let us through if someone above him orders him to but not unless that happens. So after several phone calls, to embassies I believe, two possible solutions are reached. Have a cooperative committee of Serbs and Kosovans agree to let us through and then THEY can order the guard to let us through. To start this process we go back to the Kosovo part of the checkpoint, which is actually run with or by international forces. When we get there, Denis gets out to talk with them, and lucky for us, it’s a US member of international forces. We were all excited to have Marshall, with his American flag patch on his arm, helping us out. He informs us that it is unlikely the cooperation committee will reach a favorable decision quickly and we’d likely be stuck for at minimum hours. So the second option (The Marshall Plan one could say J) is chosen: we’ll drive through Montenegro then back into Serbia. Since Montenegro recognizes Kosovo and Serbia recognizes Montenegro, this would negate the stamp issue and our Kosovo stamps would just be annulled later when we re-entered Serbia. At this point, lunch and dinnertime have come and gone so we stopped for a quick bite to eat on the road (Thank you Prof. Sullivan and NU!!) and everyone refreshes their famished stomachs. In much better cheer and ready for our Montenegrin adventure it’s back on the bus. During dinner, it was decided that instead of pushing on to Mokra Gora we would stop in Montenegro for the night. After watching a Serbian movie called Montevideo about the Yugoslav/Serb team in the first World Cup, we nervously rolled into the Montenegro border. Thankfully everything went smoothly and 40 minutes after the check we pulled up into our hotel. Everyone was exhausted after a day of winding through mountain roads in the dark. They’re quite beautiful but the tight corners are a bit stressful to drive on at night. This was by far our nicest hotel of the trip, a 4 star and it deserved it. It was late by the time we got to our rooms so a looooong hot, relaxing shower later in a real shower with a curtain and a mounted showerhead I fell into bed and promptly passed out.

I started writing about today as well but the computer battery died and I am quite tired and therefore would really like to sleep instead of finishing the entry. I’m going to give away the ending and say goodnight from Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. Time for some sleep and Sox and I’ll pick up again in the morning and there will be pictures, I promise.