My main objective was to explore North Macedonia during this trip, but as Kosovo was just next door, I decided to spend an overnight in Kosovo as well.
Tuesday, October 21
Flight to Skopje took me first through Frankfurt as usual. Arrival time was 14:15 in the afternoon, which was very convenient. I had asked welcomepickups.com to pick me up from the airport at 3 PM, but I managed to get through customs and everything already by 2:40. My driver was waiting for me and was just a WhatsApp message away. So by 3:20, I was at my accommodation in the city. I quickly let myself in through 3 different coded doors and repacked my backpack. I planned to leave my suitcase stay overnight by itself, and I planned to find my way to another country altogether. Thanks to Rome2Rio I had managed to find that there should be a train from Skopje to Prishtina in Kosovo at 4:30. I stayed only 5 minutes away from the train station so I ran there and found out that there is no train but a bus that goes at 4:30. Luckily the bus station was at the same place so I just managed to buy myself a bus ticket with Amalfi Tours. The ticket cost 550 MKD (ca 10 EUR). I had made such a good time that I even had time to get a Fatih burger from a nearby kiosk and have a delicious lunch/dinner. There were only 5 of us on the bus. The border crossing went relatively smoothly. The border guards took our passports, and we didn’t even have to leave the bus. The border was only about 45 minutes away from Skopje. The whole trip was supposed to take only about 2 hours, but it took almost 3 hours. Something happened with the bus as soon as we had crossed the border, and from there we limped at a speed of ca. 60 km/h to Prishtina. But we made it. I had booked my hotel near the train station, but it didn’t really help, because the bus station was about 20 minutes away. So I walked through the city with Google Maps showing me the way. As North Macedonia and Kosovo are two different countries and not part of the EU, my data plan needed to be renewed for these few days. Using Airalo eSims is so easy nowadays, and using phones which support eSims is mandatory for anyone travelling away from the EU. But I still needed two different eSims for that. The hotel was expecting me. After a liquid dinner and a shower, I was ready to call it a night.
Wednesday, October 22
Breakfast was at 8 AM and was delicious. I had actually booked a tour from Skopje to Kosovo, which I planned to meet in Prishtina. They arrived just after 10 AM, so I had little time to look around by myself before that. The meeting was on time, and we went for a walking tour through the city centre for a few hours. There were six of us in the group. After seeing all the highlights, we got back to the minivan and continued on to Prizren. Everybody agreed that this second biggest town in Kosovo is more interesting. After parking the car, we had another nice walking tour through the town. At 2:30 was the time for lunch. The guide suggested a restaurant with traditional food, which turned out to be very good. Lots of food to share, and it cost only 12 euros. Yes, Kosovo has been using euros already from 2002, which makes everything so much easier. After 4 o’clock, we were ready to start our drive back to Skopje. The border control was easy, and two hours later, we had arrived.
One peculiarity worth mentioning in Kosovo was that every public clock on the streets of both towns was wrong. Like, way wrong. Always something 8 past something…
The other thing was the municipal animals. It seems that people here don’t believe in animal shelters. So they keep the dogs and cats on the streets, feed them, vaccinate them and tag them with some plastic tags through their ears.
I think I managed to see most of these two towns in a day, and according to the tourist guides, this is all there is to see in Kosovo nowadays. I’m probably wrong.
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