Babes, Booze and Ham Sandwiches

On Sunday we left Montenegro for Bulgaria. Our friends Igor and Petya were cool enough to let us ride with them to Sofia and the ride there was quite an adventure. Getting out of Montenegro took forever as some highways were shut down for roadwork. We drove around crazy little mountain backroads and stopped to check out a beautiful river. For such a small country it really is exceptional in terms of diversity of scenery. Things got really interesting once we approached the border with Kosovo. To start, churches gace way to mosques and the architecture and landscape changed into something a little more northern European looking. We got up to the top of a mountain pass and stopped for a snowball fight on the way; even at this time of year a little snow remained. Eventualy, we reached the UN administered border between Montenegro and Kosovo. Although only a short 4 hours to get through it things in Kosovo seemed pretty edgy. Petya and Igor were warned not to speak Bulgarian as it can be confused with Serbian and the locals don't like Serbs apparently. The country is overun with UN and police vehicles. More striking are the countless roadside monuments to "heroes" of the conflict with Serbia - statues of soldiers with kalashnikovs - and also the bombed out, destroyed buildings along the highway. We stopped in Pristina for food and also looked for accomodation without luck. Being there was strange. The place was full of internet cafes, restaurants, bars and clubs. Good looking girls walked around all over the place skimpily dressed and in the cafe we went to we were offered either tuna or HAM sandwiches. It was strange to think that war and genocide had occured here because, as ethnic Albanian muslims, the people tried to separate from Serbia. Sexy Women, booze and ham sandwiches seemed so out of place.

Leaving Kosovo was also a sketchy experience. Chris and I had our pictures taken next to the sign for Pristina and didn't realize a dude was standing in the dark only a few feet away from us - this time it was Petya that yelled at us to jump in the car. At the border the Kosovo police guard tried to bribe us saying that because we had not stopped at a stop sign a few feet back we had broken some sort of rule and told us we would have to pay money before asking us how much we had. We waited it out until fortunately he changed his mind and let us go with a warning.








It may be hard to see this picture (the light was bad) but if you look closely you can see it's a huge billboard of Bill Clinton announcing the street is Bill Clinton Boulevard. This was taken in Pristina, capital of Kosovo.





Chris and I jumped out of the car to take a picture of this bombed church. As we were snapping photos a guy up the road starting screaming and yelling at us and Igor yelled out, "Get in the fucking car!". We jumped in and raced away pretty quickly but were freaked out by the experience.





We were a little hesitant about our route but here we are: Welcome to Kosovo!





Igor and Chris engage in a snowball fight in early summer!





Beautiful green hills of Montenegro