Angharad Dowse

No changes overnight to smart traveller so we are gonna make it just in time before the war breaks out . Hazzah! 🕺🏻💃🏻🕺🏻💃🏻🕺🏻🤣
Pushed ourselves to get up this morning. We both slept terribly. The room is too hot. Honestly I’ve had enough of this rubbish, our aircons never work, it’s like they had specifically programmed to only do hot air.
Normally we open the window which we tried doing last night but the pollution is horrendous so we had to shut it.
I think it just smells like woodfire smoke, Will reckons burnt plastic.
Neither good for the lungs.
We went done and had our free breakfast. Basic but will get us to the end of the tour.
Walked up the street a bit to the national theatre and waited for our guide.
I’m so punctual. I don’t understand how if you are the guide and the guide starts at 10 you are not there at least 10 minutes early.
For many reasons but the main one being to confirm to people they are waiting in the right spot.
It ended up being a private tour. Worst nightmare with giving a tip so very thankful this happened here and not Switzerland lol.
Started in the main square.
These 2 dogs were so friendly and jumped up onto us.
I won’t lie. I missed a lot of the tour because of stress regarding these dogs. I know Will did too.
Everyone is disgusting to them. Everyone yells at them and shoos them away. One lady when we were crossing a street with them grabbed me with both her hands and essentially used me as her shield.
I was so worried they were going to get hit by a car. One of them loves chasing them and it’s just isn’t a culture where people are going to swerve out of the way to avoid hitting them.
And then the die a painful death because no one is going to help them. I saw one dog that looks like it has just had surgery because it was shaved but it looked a bit infected. What happened when it is infected? Will any one help? The guide said some people are activists and will take it to the vet but it’s not common.
ACTIVISTS was the word used.
Disgusting.

A lot of statues at the start. And lots of memorials over the duration from different wars.
There was one for 1000+ people missing from a war (not sure which one - honestly there have been too many to keep track)
There was also a big woman monument to represent the 20,000 that were raped during the Kosovo war. I liked this one. It was one pin per womb to create a woman’s head.

We went to old town. Walked past 2 mosques. Will told me to stop encouraging the dogs and I said it wasn’t me. We had a following of 3 now.
We ended up in an Ethnological museum where a lady said to our guide those dogs always follow you.
See, not me.
I wish they would go away.
Can’t concentrate when I can see them. Too worried. Even Will said at the end he was so anxious the entire time.
We entered into the building though which gave us a break. Very cute. Traditional house which got vacated in the 50’s or 60’s I believe. I simultaneously LOVEEE it and would hate to live there. This was a rich house so was set up beautifully. Very cultural to leave food out overnight so that if a random person/traveller needs somewhere to sleep the night they will also how food.
Randomly thoughtful.

We then went walking back to the main square and onto the NEWBORN sign which is one of their main points of interest. It’s just a sign but got a pic there.
Then we went to a library that looks like a weird spaceship thing.
Near by was a half finished church that the Serbians were making the Kosovo people build until they left after the war.
It’s just chilling there.

Our tour ended. I passed Will the coin purse because I knew I’d end up giving here its entire contents out of guilt.
Will gave him 20. He seemed ok with that.
By the end of the tour we had collect 7 dogs.

We then went walking and tried to find the Bill Clinton statue but couldn’t find him and vodaphone doesn’t have a deal with Kosovo so megabucks to use.

We then ate lunch at Hebs friend chicken which seems to be a chain here.
It was under 8€ for both our meals 👏🏼

We then went back to the hotel to pee and ask the hotel to organise us a taxi to the bear sanctuary.

On the way back to the hotel one of the dogs from the tour recognised us and followed us the whole way to our hotel and even tried to enter it 😭😭😭😭

Lucky for the lady in the back office at reception because the 2 receptionist we mentioned the bear sanctuary to had no idea what we were on about. I even showed them a picture of a bear to help - then this lady came out and was like it will cost this much and the driver will wait an hour.
Done.

40 mins later our driver was still not there because he went to the wrong hotel and then got stuck in traffic.
During this time we got into the wrong taxi … then jumped out.
Aye aye ayeeee. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Eventually he turned up and the receptionist talked to him so we knew it was the right person this time with the pre agreed price of 27.5€.
It’s a 30 min drive there, 30 mins back and he will wait and hour for us.
Very reasonable.

Started driving and eventually went past big signs saying “you are now leaving the protected zone”
And then Serbian flags appeared everywhere 👀 lolz.
We didn’t go north to the danger part in fairness so wasn’t expecting that to happen.
All is fine,we did not die today.

The further we drove the worst the rubbish and just general crapness.

But then we arrived at the sanctuary and the best news ever - they are awake!! 🕺🏻 we weren’t 100% sure they would be.
Only 1.5€ each.

I had the best time.
THE BEST.
11/10.
My only complaint is we only had an hour.

We walked in and up a hill and immediately saw some bears. They were so close to the fence.
The first one was pacing, which is common behavior for bears or any animal who has been kept in inappropriate cages.
She was the only one pacing and it’s likely a habit. She had the smallest of all the enclosures (still plenty big), maybe because she doesn’t use it at much?
We walked up a biiiiiiiiiig hill. Holley Dooley. No bears in this enclosure that we could see but it had lots of potential hiding holes.
I liked the blurbs of each of the bears. It has a photo of the cage they came from and then now.
Also if they are fussy or not for instance one will not eat cucumber 😂
The best bit was one enclosure where we walked around the corner and BANG the bear was right in front and then 2 other bears came over so all 3 of them were just chilling together in front of us.

Some bears are alone and some together. These 3 got recused together as cubs.
The majority have a friend.

Loveddddd this part of the day. A stray dog walked past and they started huffing and puffing at it lol

Another enclosure we watched on found a bit of apple and another was in a burrow. She was so blonde in colour!

I think in total we saw 10-12 of the bears. There are 20 in total so we did great!
We rushed the last bit because I wanted to buy a jumper in the gift shop. The whole of Kosovo doesn’t take card apparently so I only had enough by about 1€ but we got it. Just has a bear on it. I love bears. I wish it said Pristina sanctuary or kosovo but oh well, I know.

Considering maybe having someone embroid it.

Taxi driver didn’t abandoned us woohoo.
He drives like a lunatic but we made it back in one piece. He does not have the patience to be a driver 😅

We have showered. It wasn’t until after I got out did I realize how much mud I have walked through the hotel…
Impossible to pick up too..
My bad.

We went to Sarajeva steak house for dinner.
People complaining online about the prices..
It cost us 40€. Which is suppose is a lot for here but we each got an entree (shopska salad and a steak slither tasting plates, 3 drinks, and 2 steak mains with like a litre of butter they poured on top with vegetables.
Cheap as chips.

The vegetables soaked in butter was incredible.
Expecting our heart attacks any day now.
We had to go via the atm on the way - another disgusting 5€ fee (atm fee not wise fee)
So we were delighted we could pay by card at the Resturant - first place in all of Kosovo so far.
Because otherwise we were going to have to go get money out for the second time this evening.

Went to a convenience store on the way home. We bought a drink each, lollies and 2 packs of Oreos. I was wondering if 10€ would be enough.
It came to 4.00€
How good haha.

Back home. Have packed. Very keen to go to London tomorrow!
Can’t wait to speak English with people!! 😆Read more