As assimilated as I am to the Serbian way of life, I arrived 5 minutes before my bus to Pristina was supposed to leave from the main bus station in Belgrade, which has a surprising resemblance to a very small airport. I didn't realize that you needed to pass a "security check" in order to get to the platforms, and the only test that this check consisted of was throwing a token that you apparently get when you buy the ticket into a turnstile. I had bought my ticket two days before and carelessly spent or thrown away the token, so after looking at my ticket the security guards told me with eyebrows raised to the sky that I cannot enter the platform. The motor of the bus was already running, so I hurried back to the information office and told the lady behind the counter my dilemma. With equally highly raised eyebrows as the security guards she took both my tickets and my passport, looked me deep in the eyes and said "Trust me, please" and then disappeared.
The border itself was less spectacular than the border between Hungary and Serbia or Bulgaria and Serbia. Some barbed wire on the fence gave the impression that this is one of the controverse spots on earth, but the image that had been drawn in my mind by Serbian as well as Western media of barricades, road blocks, soldiers, tanks, guns, danger and violence was simply an illusion. There was NOTHING, just one man sitting in a booth on the Serbian side (who did not stamp our passports, so if you look at my passport I never left Serbia...) and one man in the booth on the Kosovarian side. No tanks, no soldiers, nothing. It took less than 10 minutes in total, and then we were in Kosovo (and mind you, this was the closest border crossing point to Mitrovica, so really the "most dangerous" and most "controversial" area of Kosovo...don't believe everything you see on TV!)
It was immediately apparent that this is one of the poorest countries in Europe, there was no plastered building on the horizon, the streets off the main road were in a horrible condition and there was the occasional waste dump next to the road.
An albanian-kosovar human rights activist from Mitrovica, who was on his way back from a meeting in Belgrade, took care of me and the other two travellers once we arrived in Pristina. Without his help we would have NEVER found the hostel, because it was moved a few days before we arrived, to a completely different address than what was described on the website. In those first few hours in Pristina we noticed how incredibly hospitable and friendly the Kosovars are, we asked for directions several times and there were at least 5 different people who really tried to help us, walked with us, made enquiring phone calls for us, invited us to wait inside their homes...that's why the whole situation didn't seem sketchy to me. Even though we had to wait outside a lot and never really understood what was going on, we just sensed that these people were genuinly friendly and trying to help us. After all we found the hostel, in the middle of the very small center, just off the main pedestrian street. The appartment hadn't been completely renovated yet and the only heating element in our room was a very tiny heat blower and immediately upon arrival we were informed that there is no running water between 10pm and 6am.
Wikitravel explains that because most people don't have enough money to actually go out (unemployment rate at approx. 43% according to the german foreign ministry), they just like to dress up and walk up and down the city center, to see and be seen, to socialize and to pass the time. My jaw almost dropped to the floor the next morning, when I went on the balcony at 10 in the morning and the entire street was PACKED with young, amazing looking people sitting on chairs on the sidewalks drinking coffee! The entire city seemed to be buzzing with joyful and relaxed people, walking around apparently without having school/university or work to attend to, even though it was tuesday morning.
We didn't hesitate before we also went outside to explore the city. It's possible to see almost every street of the center in about one hour, that's how small Pristina is. Of course there are some run-down buildings and a few shabby corners where the trash piles up, the city center is generally picturesque with trees, monuments (for example for Mother Teresa or Bill Clinton), international institutions, very unique architecture like the university library, the Newborn monument that shows the letters of the word Newborn decorated with the flags of all countries which have recognized Kosovo as a country (many of them really small island nations in the pacific which have their own recognition issues), a completely abandoned Serbian Orthodox church in the heart of the center on the university campus, a huge ugly catholic cathedral as well as several mosques in the old part adjacent to the center and some typical western shops, but I was really happy to see: McDonald's has not yet contaminated Kosovo! Instead there are many small traditional grills, pizza and pasta-, gyros- and fastfood restaurants at every corner. The streets of the center are lined by cafes with tables and chairs on the sidewalks, and because the weather was so nice on the day I was there, there were hardly any empty seats even though it's only the beginning of march.
Apart from the unplastered building in the countryside, the trash in some places and the vast quantity of free time on the hands of Pristina's inhabitants you can tell that this is a very poor country by the prices. Everything is dirt cheap, we paid less than 4 euros for a fish dinner with salad, soup, desert and a drink. Even Belgrade seems expensive in comparison to that!
A highlight of our day was the simple but genius act of entering a high, multi-storey resedential building in the center and linger in front of the elevator, after 2 seconds we were talking to a nice guy who used to live in London and who was more than happy to fulfill our wish: he took us to the roof! The view was amazing and I can highly recommend doing this in any city, works almost every time!
The american and canadian who I had spent the day with left after dinner and I went back to the hostel to talk to two german journalists who are producing a radio show about Kosovo. It was really interesting to hear about their work and their perspectives, because they had researched the political and economical situation much more thoroughly than I had. One of the interesting things they explained to me is the symbolism behind the university library: the weird-looking structural elements are supposed to represent grids, holding back the intellectual testimony of Kosovo. It was designed in response to the ban of the albanian language in schools in pre-war times.
That's when I got nervous and thought maybe they're trying to keep me out of the bus because it's run by an Albanian company and they don't want foreigners on it because it might make crossing the border harder? She finally returned with a token and my documents and I managed in the last second to hop on the bus before it started driving, only to be warily stared at by all the people that were on the bus, three of them denied me to sit next to them so I ended up in the second last row, with 5 older men in the back row behaving like 13 year-olds (which I have come to expect as a given in busses on the balkan).
I could not hear a single person speaking Serbian on the bus, but to my relief there were two travellers, one from Canada and one from the US sitting across the aisle from me. I started talking to them in English, told them which hostel I would be staying at in Pristina (the same as them) and then, maybe out of nervousness, imagined that I can understand what the men behind us were talking about. I frequently heard the words "Germany, USA, Canada" (in Albanian) and somehow, because I told myself they use many Turkish words, was convinced that they were plotting how to rob and kill us once we get to Pristina.
However, when we were waiting to cross the border one of the men started talking to me in German and told me he had lived in Nürnberg for 20 years. He asked me where I was going and why, and was surprised but also happy that I wanted to visit Kosovo out of pure interest. After I told him that I'm half Turkish and we even talked a little in Turkish there were no more inhibtions, and all the men in the back row patted my shoulders and smiled at me and said how nice it was of me to visit their country. At that point I was really ashamed of myself and realized that as soon as you are nervous or scared your mind can easily play tricks on you, which can end in paranoia, prejudices and misunderstanding.
The border itself was less spectacular than the border between Hungary and Serbia or Bulgaria and Serbia. Some barbed wire on the fence gave the impression that this is one of the controverse spots on earth, but the image that had been drawn in my mind by Serbian as well as Western media of barricades, road blocks, soldiers, tanks, guns, danger and violence was simply an illusion. There was NOTHING, just one man sitting in a booth on the Serbian side (who did not stamp our passports, so if you look at my passport I never left Serbia...) and one man in the booth on the Kosovarian side. No tanks, no soldiers, nothing. It took less than 10 minutes in total, and then we were in Kosovo (and mind you, this was the closest border crossing point to Mitrovica, so really the "most dangerous" and most "controversial" area of Kosovo...don't believe everything you see on TV!)
An albanian-kosovar human rights activist from Mitrovica, who was on his way back from a meeting in Belgrade, took care of me and the other two travellers once we arrived in Pristina. Without his help we would have NEVER found the hostel, because it was moved a few days before we arrived, to a completely different address than what was described on the website. In those first few hours in Pristina we noticed how incredibly hospitable and friendly the Kosovars are, we asked for directions several times and there were at least 5 different people who really tried to help us, walked with us, made enquiring phone calls for us, invited us to wait inside their homes...that's why the whole situation didn't seem sketchy to me. Even though we had to wait outside a lot and never really understood what was going on, we just sensed that these people were genuinly friendly and trying to help us. After all we found the hostel, in the middle of the very small center, just off the main pedestrian street. The appartment hadn't been completely renovated yet and the only heating element in our room was a very tiny heat blower and immediately upon arrival we were informed that there is no running water between 10pm and 6am.
None of those things mattered to us though and we started exploring the heart of the city with our new friend from Mitrovica, who told us very interesting things about the history, politics and general life in Kosovo. He showed us the campus of his university and took us to a really nice bar inside a book shop. We were all astonished by how many young people you could see on the streets and how well they were dressed. Many girls in Kosovo are breathtakingly beautiful and the guys are not the stereotypical macho in track suits that you picture if you grew up in Western Europe.
Wikitravel explains that because most people don't have enough money to actually go out (unemployment rate at approx. 43% according to the german foreign ministry), they just like to dress up and walk up and down the city center, to see and be seen, to socialize and to pass the time. My jaw almost dropped to the floor the next morning, when I went on the balcony at 10 in the morning and the entire street was PACKED with young, amazing looking people sitting on chairs on the sidewalks drinking coffee! The entire city seemed to be buzzing with joyful and relaxed people, walking around apparently without having school/university or work to attend to, even though it was tuesday morning. 
We didn't hesitate before we also went outside to explore the city. It's possible to see almost every street of the center in about one hour, that's how small Pristina is. Of course there are some run-down buildings and a few shabby corners where the trash piles up, the city center is generally picturesque with trees, monuments (for example for Mother Teresa or Bill Clinton), international institutions, very unique architecture like the university library, the Newborn monument that shows the letters of the word Newborn decorated with the flags of all countries which have recognized Kosovo as a country (many of them really small island nations in the pacific which have their own recognition issues), a completely abandoned Serbian Orthodox church in the heart of the center on the university campus, a huge ugly catholic cathedral as well as several mosques in the old part adjacent to the center and some typical western shops, but I was really happy to see: McDonald's has not yet contaminated Kosovo! Instead there are many small traditional grills, pizza and pasta-, gyros- and fastfood restaurants at every corner. The streets of the center are lined by cafes with tables and chairs on the sidewalks, and because the weather was so nice on the day I was there, there were hardly any empty seats even though it's only the beginning of march.
Apart from the unplastered building in the countryside, the trash in some places and the vast quantity of free time on the hands of Pristina's inhabitants you can tell that this is a very poor country by the prices. Everything is dirt cheap, we paid less than 4 euros for a fish dinner with salad, soup, desert and a drink. Even Belgrade seems expensive in comparison to that!
A highlight of our day was the simple but genius act of entering a high, multi-storey resedential building in the center and linger in front of the elevator, after 2 seconds we were talking to a nice guy who used to live in London and who was more than happy to fulfill our wish: he took us to the roof! The view was amazing and I can highly recommend doing this in any city, works almost every time!
The american and canadian who I had spent the day with left after dinner and I went back to the hostel to talk to two german journalists who are producing a radio show about Kosovo. It was really interesting to hear about their work and their perspectives, because they had researched the political and economical situation much more thoroughly than I had. One of the interesting things they explained to me is the symbolism behind the university library: the weird-looking structural elements are supposed to represent grids, holding back the intellectual testimony of Kosovo. It was designed in response to the ban of the albanian language in schools in pre-war times.
Later we flocked to one of the countless cafes that were showing the champions league game, like apparently all men in Pristina. This is where I met the protagonist of their radio show, a young guy who studies German at university and is trying to find work in Germany. Some of his friends were also there and again, even though there was a language barrier everyone was just so friendly and nice that I still can't believe it.
One day might have been enough to see all the sights of the city, but it was definitely not enough to get to know the people. Everybody is so open and curious towards foreigners, and not once did I get a weird reaction for studying in Belgrade. The only thing they didn't understand is why I would voluntarily live in Eastern Europe if I could be in Germany instead, for many of them the biggest dream is to make it to Germany or another Western European country (or Canada, but not the US). All in all I heard so many good things about other regions in Kosovo, that I'm planning on coming back in the summer when it's possible to hike through untouched nature in the mountains and visit villages that have been isolated for maybe hundreds of years...
My journey ended with two students who I asked for the way to the bus station, who walked with me, laughed with me at how late I was for my bus (I met them 3 minutes before my bus was supposed to leave, approximately 10 minutes away from the bus station) and eventually ended up waiting with me for the bus, which of course was almost one hour late.
The ride was uncomfortable and long-winded, and I was back in Belgrade just as the sun was rising. For the first time I realized how huge, busy and chaotic Belgrade really is, after calm and peaceful Pristina. And Belgrade is calm and peaceful in comparison to most german cities, so maybe that's why I don't want to live there...
Just a word of conclusion about the whole political dilemma: from everything I read online and all the information I got by talking to people, it seems like this is an endless story and Serbia will NEVER recognize Kosovo's independence, just like Kosovo will never give it up. However, I hope that one day the young people of both nations will realize how stupid it is to hold on to grudges that they were taught by their parents, who were taught the same by their parents and so on and so on. Like I said, no one seemed to think less of me because I studied in Belgrade and when they collected our passports on the bus and then handed them out again I heard many Serbian as well as Albanian names and everyone set next to each other peacefully and the border police didn't look at anyone with disgust regardless of their ethnicity. Yes, politics are complicated, but at the end of the day it's so easy to get along if you can just find a tiny spark of respect somewhere inside of you. So let's hope the situation will get better one day (without trying to be a cynic, I think I won't live to see that though).
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