Lake Ohrid, Macedonia
It is only 2 hours by bus from Skopje to Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo. Many travelers use Skopje as a springboard to add another entry to the list of their visited countries because Kosovo is a country. Almost 100 states recognized its independence although Kosovo is not a UN member. For me, Kosovo was #99.
There is little to see or to do in Pristina. That’s why it is usually a day trip. The main attraction, especially for Americans, is the statue of Bill Clinton that was erected by the grateful Albanians for his help with ending the war in 1999.
The bus to Pristina was an ancient minivan with barely working a/c. It was packed and hot like a crockpot. I thought I would arrive half-cooked. Next to me sat a mother with a squirming boy of about 4 who understandably did not like the conditions he was in. The boy was kicking and whining. Other passengers were sympathetic to the family but we could do little about the bus.
We reached the border in 1.5 hours where the bus was stopped. Something was wrong with its papers and it was not allowed to cross the border. We waited 2 hours for a replacement bus from Skopje, finally made it across and one hour later were in Pristina. I went straight to the ticket office to buy a ticket back to Skopje. The last bus for the day was at 3 p.m. which meant that I had only1.5 hours in Pristina. This should be enough to get to the statue but I had to scrape other plans like visiting Mother Teresa’s cathedral.
I walked to the statue as fast as I could relying mostly on directions from the locals. The GPS on my phone refused to work there.
I rushed back to the bus station after taking photos and made a wrong turn somewhere. Asking the locals for directions did not help. English is not widely spoken here. When I said Bill Clinton statue, they knew what I meant. Beyond that, we could not communicate.
I found myself amidst apartment blocks, definitely a wrong place to be, with 20 minutes to the bus departure. Retracing my steps back and finding the correct way was pointless. I had no time to make it to the station on foot. I looked around. A car was coming down the road. I waived frantically to the driver. The car stopped and a young man stared at me. I asked for a lift but he had no idea what I was saying. Feeling like I was losing time by going into further explanations, I showed him my bus ticket and pointed at the clock on my phone. Then he got it. The man indicated that I should get into the car. Five minutes later, I was at the station, thanks to my savior! I even had time to buy a snack to sustain me on the road back to Macedonia. I ate nothing since breakfast at the hotel.
My brief visit to Pristina was even shorter than I planned it because of the technical problem with the bus. In the end, I did not regret it. The goal of getting a Kosovo stamp in my passport was achieved.