• Crossing the Border to Enter Kosovo

    29 Haziran, Kosova ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    It didn't take long to arrive at the border to Kosovo. There was a 20 min stop-and-go which drove most Macedonians and Kosovo people mad, but I didn't really care. I'd get to the other side sooner than later.
    When it was my time, I gave the police officer my passport and the green card I've bought back at the rental station. It was basically the allowance for me to take the car to another country. He asked me about my plans in Kosovo, I told him I'd visit Pristina and Prizren, and he let me go. The whole interaction didn't take much longer than 30 sec. Very pleasant.
    On the other side, empty highways greeted me, which resulted in me arriving very soon at my next destination: Gadime Cave.
    I had to wait another 25 min for the next tour, so I went back to my car, and ate the remaining Börek with the self-mixed Ajvar-Smetana sauce. Cold and with an empty stomach, they tasted even better. It has been such a good idea to take the two small lunch boxes with me.
    I went back in time to get myself a ticket for the cave entrance and overheard the two guys behind me talk German. I could never escape them, it seemed. When it was their turn, the guy spoke Albanian, so I knew he must be a local. That came in quite handy, when the tour guide came along, leading us into the cave and only talked in Albanian. Lucky overhearing Me, I asked the guy immediately, if he could translate that to German for me. He was rather surprised, but gladly translated everything the guide said during the tour. The cave was found by a landowner digging while building his house in 1966. When he realized how massive that cave was, he contacted the government and professionals arrived to discover it further. In 1976, they officially opened the now protected cave for visitors. We could see around 500 metres of the entire 1.260 metres of the cave, and lots of interesting formations were scattered across the whole cave. I'd never call myself a cave-enthusiast, but I do really find them fascinating.
    After the tour, the guy, his friend, his grandparents and I talked more about my travel plans. His family has a house in Prizren, but he (and his German friend) lived in Germany, being just on a holiday in Kosovo themselves. They recommended Prevalle to me, a small village in the Sharri Mountains National Park, as well as Brod, further South. I wrote it down and made a note for myself to definitely go check these places out. If locals recommend you stuff, you should always try to do them.
    We parted ways with a handshake, not knowing each other's names. Maybe it would have been good to exchange contact details or to ask whether he would have liked to give me a tour of Prizren himself. Then again, he must have been like 16, 17, and I didn't want to spoil his holiday. It was already very kind of him to mimick the translator for me during the cave tour.
    Okumaya devam et