Peja is on the western side of Kosovo, not far from the Montenegrin and Serbian borders. It is the major town on the way to the scenic Rugova Gorge. Of the many things in the gorge is the beautiful waterfall (pictured below). The source is from inside the mountain and has been partially diverted into an aquaduct (also pictured below).
New Year celebrations in Pristina were not what I expected. Kosovars set-off fireworks for many occasions. I frequently hear and see them at the end of local football (that’d be Soccer for the US) games. Given this, I was expecting some coordinated show over some major buildings. There was no such thing. Instead, it seemed everyone around was using whatever fireworks they had on hand, from large professional sized ones to smaller “normal” ones. The entire city skyline was covered in individuals’ fireworks.
A group of artists came up with the idea for the NEWBORN sculpture and implemented it in time to unveil on the night of the declaration. It was setup and still sits in downtown Pristina in front of a shopping mall on one of the main streets.
Because of my job, I’ve had a rare opportunity. I’ve been in a country when it came into existance… Kosovo declared Independence on February 17th, 2008. These are some of the highlights of the fireworks pictures I took that night. Unfortunately, I was unable to go downtown to take pictures of the people celebrating.
The Turkish Baths in Prizren are one of the few surviving in Kosovo. There used to be many, but they were destroyed through the years of violence and war.
A couple of weekends ago I went down to Prizren. One of the stops was the League or Prizren Museum which actually consist of a museum, an ethnological museum, a library, a mosque, and a very nice courtyard. The complex is located near the river in Prizren and is well worth the visit. The League of Prizren has played an important role in Kosovo’s past from the 1800s when the Ottoman Empire had control over Kosovo, through World War I and II, through to the present.
Their library is impressive, but in need of help to properly care for and store the very old books within. The U.S. Ambassador’s fund allowed them to restore it to it’s current condition.
A couple of friends and I were going up to the top of the mountains near Peja for lunch and some photography. The pictures I ended up taking were definitely not the ones I though I would be. As we were driving up (I wasn’t the driver) we got hit by a logging truck. We were on a narrow mountainside road and came around a corner to find a truck half-way into our lane. The driver slammed the breaks and veered away as much as he could, but the truck’s reactions were not as fast. He took out half the front of the car, slammed us into the support wall and pushed us backwards about 6 feet. Everyone got out with only very minor injuries. A few glass pieces stuck in skin, bruises, etc. The passengers (including me) ended up getting out of the car climbing through windows. The driver had to climb through the sunroof.
