Today, we visited Devil’s Town on the way out Serbia. Legend has it that there was a peaceful village up in the mountains where everyone lived happily, but of course, the Devil came and corrupted the people. A brother and sister wished to marry each other, but God told them it was wrong (along with all the neighboring towns). Instead of listening to anyone, the siblings proceeded with their wedding and on the wedding day, God had no choice but to turn the happy couple and all the guests into knobby, crooked, stalagmite looking rock formations. They now remain as a deterrent against wrong doings.
In order to visit the rocks, we hiked through a lovely forrest area alongside a creek (which also happened to be swarming with mosquitoes) and then up 250 steps into burning sunlight. Even with the sunburn and the itchy bites we acquired, the rocks were interesting to see and located in a vast forest valley that stretched in every direction. Back at the entrance to the trail, a nice shop keeper let us try different variants of rakija - honey, mint, plum, etc. Most of them still taste like liquid fire, but the seller also sold syrupy fruit wines that were ok and would be delicious poured over ice cream. Robby and I each bought one.
We hopped back in the van and easily drove across the Serbian border and into Kosovo, a country that asked for its independence from Serbia in 1999, but only had it granted in 2008 with help from the United Nations. Serbians still do not recognize Kosovo as its own country and they’ve pulled all their ambassadors from all countries that do. Right now on 3 countries: Syria, Serbia, and one other country do not recognize it as its own place. So, us crossing the border was interesting because you can go from Serbia to Kosovo, but you can not go from Kosovo to Serbia. It would be like you sneaking into Serbia since the Kosovo stamp isn’t recognized on a passport.
We stopped in Pristina, a kind of cute town with, of course, a walking promenade. After realizing all the shops on the walking street were mostly touristic or restaurants, Robby and I found a semi cute coffee shop and tried Kosovo pizza; tastes like Boboli with tomato sauce and spicy peppers.
We visited the National Kosovo library on the local University’s campus because of its unique architectural composition - like the designer thought that piling a bunch of metal and rock squares on top of each other in a ziggurat formation, then toping each square with a white opaque dome, and finishing by encasing the whole thing in metal mesh fencing, would look ok. The inside was surprisingly clean and kind of empty; an open foyer with a pretty star pattern on the floor, then stairs leading to quiet (pin dropping quiet) study rooms equipped with individual desks all lined in rows. We saw a few shelves with books, but I’m sure the main ones, on Kosovo’s history, are housed in the bowels of the building.
There is also a Bill Clinton Blvd that ends at a statue honoring the man since he helped Kosovo (Serbia at the time) during their separation from Yugoslavia in 1999. We tried to find the statue, but ran out of time and energy to wander the traffic laden street when it was 85 degrees out and humid. So, back in the van we went and onwards to our third, and final, country for the day - Macedonia. We ended the day in the heart of downtown Skopje, the town of 200 statues, and the capital.
Apparently no one wanted to come to Macedonia, (a country that’s only been around since 1991) so the government somehow got other people to donate lots of money to their country and instead of using the money to fix roads or build schools and houses, they did the sensible thing of creating over 200, 45-100+ foot bronze statues and placed them all around town to attract tourists. Much to the dismay of the Macedonian people, the ploy worked and tourists flocked to the city to see what creations were erected.
The most notable statue is “Warrior on Horse”. It is really a statue of Alexander the Great riding his horse into battle, but Macedonia is not allow to say it is Alexander because they are in a copyrights war with Greece over anything that was/is considered Greek. So Greece has not given permission for the country of Macedonia to officially use the name, since it belongs to an old Greek Kingdom, and therefore Macedonia is technically call “the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. Also, calling statues Greek names such as, “Alexander the Great”or his father, “Phillip II”, whom died over 2000 years ago, is forbidden. The “Warrior on Horse” statue sits a top a large water fountain that produces a mini Vegas-esque water/light show. Quite pretty, but not worth the 8 billion dinar (about 800 million dollars) they spent on making it.
Skopje is also the birthplace of Mother Teresa. In the middle of a large side square, half covered by a souvenir cart, there are four bronze “L’s” on the ground in a square pattern; these mark the house Mother Teresa’s lived in until 18. When she was 18, she immediately signed up for a nunnery and began her lifelong servitude to God and helping people. She was selected to teach at a private school in Darjeeling, India a few years after she became a nun. But while she was there, she noticed all the homeless youth and the terrible conditions of the Indian people, so she asked the Vatican permission for the diocesan congregation in Calcutta, which would become the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa spent her whole life helping the less fortunate, mostly in Calcutta. She was announced as a Saint 3 years after she passed away and she won the Nobel Peace Prize for all her good deeds.
Skopje also has a Fort, although basically the walls are the only thing that remain today, which we found out after walking up the hill to see the Fort, and the 2nd largest souk (bazaar) in the the world. Streets weaving into other streets all filled with little shops selling pretty much everything. Unlike Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar (and the biggest in the world), this souk is all out doors with cobblestone walkways and sunlight. Everyone on the tour wandered it for a bit the night before while we looked for a nice dinner spot and found a tasty place serving cevapi (rolled meat sausages) that everyone but Robby and I enjoyed, cheese bread, and nicely grilled chicken. It was a relaxing evening with everyone chatting, drinking, and eating merrily.
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