Just Another 3 day Weekend, in Greece

What I can say except that a great bonus of being located in Kosovo is that fact that it is relatively easy to get out. To celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid, everyone here had 3 days to scatter to any of the great regional destinations. From the international crew I am hanging with, the travel menu options for this past weekend included your choice of a spa visit to Montenegro, shopping in Bulgaria, clubbing in northern Greece or the combination package, which I put together with my now very close friends from Australia, Belgium and Spain. What better way to make some good friends (or bitter enemies) than to spend 4 days together in a car driving over 1200 km?

Friday night we bolted out of Pristina with no clear agenda in mind other than making it to Thessaloniki Greece which should have been a mere 4 hour drive except for the fact that I took the crew to one of my sheep client's restaurant and he served is up a killer lamb diner with all the traditional fixins. Fortunately the drive was uneventful except for the fact that when we passed through customs I was planning on telling my driving friend that the Greek translation for 'Have a good night' was 'I am a tree'. Guess you had to have been there since we were all laughing hysterically. I'll be sure to save that one for the next roadtrip... Our very late arrival put us in at around 2am with only the energy to find a VERY basic Class D hotel (communal bath) where we all fit in one room with single beds for under $50 euros. Except for the tossing and turning of my 6ft 1 friend unable to fit in the bed next to me and the Greek shouting match in the lobby of the hotel at 4am, it was a well earned sleep.

Our first day out was rainy and chilled but we enjoyed being in a European city with western shops everywhere, proper streets and the smell of ocean air. A short hike took us to White Tower which was almost as exciting as the Starbucks Coffee located diagonally across the street (Gosh you would think I have been out in the bush for a year). Not sensing the true adventure we were aiming for we all decided to head inland towards Mount Olympus in hope of better weather and a chance to hike around Greece's tallest mountain.

Less than two hours later we were selecting which post-card to purchase of the beautiful mountain that was sitting right in front of us veiled by the rolling fog and steady rain. No matter. A good reason to find a local eatery and dive into a sampling of Greek salads and perfectly cooked lamb. It was a no brainer to decide to head to the highlight of our adventure: Meteora. For those 'Bond' fans, one of these mountain-perched monasteries was featured in 'For Your Eyes Only'. Ironically I had been here before as a poor post-college backpacker in 1993, but all I could remember was that on that day too, it was cold rainy and too much fog to actually see the monasteries. This time the weather was going to cooperate since the skies cleared as we approached this magical town the following days full hike up and into 4 of the 6 still open to the public. It is hard to describe the awe one feels in not only how these beautiful sacred places were created but also the lightness of being that high up in the air with the villages far far below. The pictures tell the tale best...

Well almost. See after we had our calm adventure of basically walking up to and from the monasteries like tourists, we decided to try and find a small dotted-line trail from our map that was supposed to lead us back to the town where we were staying. As it turned out, the guide book was over 3 years old and at best these trails were goat tracks (literally). The first set of trails I was able to navigate my crew to without too much difficulty (except one nice fall and turning the corner to be scared to death by a turtle). The next set proved to be much more allusive. We tried one set of trails 3 times before giving up to return back to the road. Now our one other hope was a more direct trail which we clearly saw marked and decided to take. Well, for some reason it went clearly up one of the mountain passes to a 'saddle', but then seemed to fad into a very faint trail, which we took since it clearly headed into the original valley we had hiked up from. So deductive reasoning would suggest just going down right? Well, that is exactly what we did and for the next hour we scrambled down the side of a mountain with me using every keen sense of wilderness training I learned from Boy Scouts decades again. I was having to look in the dried creek beds to find the outline of a shoe print, notice broken branches where people had passed before, strips of rock where the moss had been removed by peoples' shoes and tree branches whose bark had been worn from peoples' hands using them as a guide towards their next step. It was pretty fun for awhile until I started to think it was all in my head and we were completely 'buggered' as Natacha would say. Eventually we all stumbled out of the dense forest onto our original trail completely covered with scratches, thorns, aching muscles yet a very keen sense of accomplishment and a craving for an ice cold beer to celebrate.

Our final day involved 9 hours of driving but included a fantastic stop off at Macedonia's Lake Ohrid, which I will certainly plan on hitting again soon since it is only 4 hours from Pristina. See for yourself. Just a perfectly normal, average, 3 day weekend:-)

KEC and All Things Related

Speaking this acronym in public, KEC (Kosovo Energy Company), has the same effect as cursing. The state run power plant is notorious for having its generators breakdown on a regular basis and even at full steam Pristina seems to lose power, at least once a day especially during the winter. As one approaches the city from the countryside billowing plumes of smoke (hopefully white) can be seen coming out of any combination of 5 stacks. Everyone knows which ones are the old ones vs. the 'new ones'. Black smoke indicates the use of diesel fuel in order to get the power up enough for the coal to kick in (or a blow-out).

So how does this play out in our daily lives? Well aside from substituting idle chat about the weather with 'How has your power been', I never realized how much I took this basic energy source for granted. My first true power outage happened last week while I was home making dinner. Now since everyone knows outages are inevitable, most have taken the necessary precautions, as had I (or so I thought). First, your inverter. These are essentially very large car batteries that sit in ones apartment with a power converter box. They are constantly recharged when there is power and when there is not you can plug one power strip into them to run a TV (their priority), small lamp or in my case, laptop. My office paid to have one of these installed for me and as I went over to hit the switch for the much needed TV, a set of beeping alarms started to go on and after 10 seconds shut off only to restart itself and repeat the cycle. Of course this was a result of my oversight in just paying the guy to install the inverter, but not to check it and have him realize the batteries were dead. So 200 euros later I got new batteries and at least didn't have to pay again for a second install:-)

Next came my emergency rechargeable lamp that kicked on the second the power was cut. Great. Enough light to finish cooking and do my basic house chores and reading before off to bed. Well that is only if I could do all this in under 15 minutes which is all the time this lamp lasted. No one mentioned they are bright short term lights to be able to get all the candles out to light. Which leads me to my final source of light (and heat) for the night. I had bought a bag of candles but never gotten around the getting a good lighter. Fortunately that day I had bought one off the street boys to only have the flame rise up a quarter inch. So once I had finally had my finger slightly burned and my place glowing like a monetary, the power came back on. As I am also learning this does not mean it will stay on so one does not blow out the candles too quickly...

Now everyone has lost power at one point or another which is mostly just an inconvenience. Well, along with losing my power comes the loss of my heat (not to mention an electric alarm clock). And with the Arctic winters I have been warned about and my being located on the 4th floor on an exposed hillside, I am taking no chances. I have been fighting with my landlord to finally bring in a gas heater that I can fire up to keep warm during the cold winter nights. And in going about this process we learned that all the nice new water radiators in my unit require the water to be circulated by electricity. Now this would have been all dandy if it was actually connected and the landlord planned on turning it on for the winter. Apparently, he had no intention to do so since it costs him too much to heat the whole building. Most people have purchased electric heaters which are inefficient and dangerous. So after another threat to leave he installed a special electrical heating system just for my unit to warm each of the radiators (when there is power).

Most older homes and buildings have gotten around the electrical issue by using any combination of soft brown coal (which is already stinking up the air in Pristina), fire wood (illegally logged) or gas generators. But the city remains quite black at night only interupted by the droning hum of generators powering the bars and restaurants for the young crowd. Riding my bike around even requires a good light (from which the kids like to steal my batteries) just to see that I don't fall into an open pit or pothole.

And on a final note of related 'comforts', the water appears to be shut off often between 11pm and 6am so all must plan accordingly. So after a long active weekend I wanted to test out my Jacuzzi tub and as I tried to fill it up enough to turn on the jets, the water tank ran out of hot water. And then when I got in the luke warm tub we lost power so I couldn't turn on the jets. So what fun is sitting in a cold bathtub with no lights on? Not much...I'll stick to my TV set on the inverter. Ah yes, living in emerging markets is an adventure.

The Black Crows and a Riot

If Alfred Hitchcock did not visit this city before he wrote his screenplay, 'The Birds' than he had quite an imagination. Except for us, it is a daily reality. They will wake me up each day around 6am (coordinated with alarm) as thousand scream over my hilltop heading towards the city center to caw, perch, and shit over everything. This pattern will be repeated at least one other time around sunset as they now amass in the tens of thousands to swirl in the air like a black ocean wave rippling through an otherwise pleasant evening sky. The sheer volume and noise of these crows is almost frightening and to say the least dangerous if you plan on avoiding any bird poop. Fortunately, the locals consider it good luck to get shit on. Regardless, many of the expats have just taken to wearing a hooded jacket if you have to walk on any of the city streets the crows have taken over.

On an equally exciting (and equally as dangerous) note was my Saturday night out to experience my first football match (soccer for us Americans) in our local stadium. Very cool since I can actually see and hear the games from my hillside apt. but this time we were center bleachers on the visitors side. This was by accident but for $3.00 a seat it was well worth it. Not only did we have a birds eye (excuse the pun) view of the Pristina fans going absolutely crazy, but we were also on the direct frontal assault at the end of the game as they stormed the field. The irony is that my Australian friend said that her local colleagues were surprised she was going to the game with me since she is female and they are dangerous. I laughed that one off till we noticed some bad calls and much team pushing toward the end of the match. Followed by some bottle throwing at the visiting team who then got in a pushing match with the refs for not calling against the home team. And as the game ended in a tie apparently the local fans who had not stopped cheering coordinated songs throughout the entire match rushed the barriers, overwhelmed the police, poured out onto the field like water through a broken levy and they swarmed around the visiting team and then came over towards our stands to rush the visiting fans.

Well fortunately by this time we had already made our way right next to the exit but once all the action started happening on the field it was amazing how quickly things got dangerous as thousands of fans tried for the exits. We made it out in the first wave with allot of screaming (all in good hooligan fun and chaos) and as we jogged away from the stadium waves of police could be seen jogging towards it. Now I feel like I have been initiated into the real European world of futeball! Play on!!!!

A Day in the Life...

Believe it or not, in between the weekend adventures of mountain biking and Adriatic coastal adventures is a day to day, 8 to 6 followed by my usual string of evening activities to recreate somewhat of a normal life. So what does this mean?

Well first off I'm in the process of trying to become a farmer, a Herder, a breeder, a wood smith and a recycling expert all under the guise of marketing and trade linkages. My position at my new job is Team Leader, aka Competitiveness Specialist who is tasked with finding the markets and buyers for many of my organizations clients in these aforementioned areas. As anyone who has ever marketed or sold anything, one must be an expert (or a believer) in the products and clients they are to represent. So, after just a month, I have spent 60% of my time in the field with my staff traveling all over the country (and region) meeting and learning about all these new lines of business. Aside from learning about bull semen samples, proper pasteurizing techniques for sheep's milk or the acidity rate required to properly harvesting apples it's just like you standard 9-5 right.

And surprisingly, this is the easy part of my job. The challenge really begin with some massive barriers we must overcome which include the fact that almost nothing produced in Kosovo is certified to enter Western or EU markets. There are almost no labs, laws or enforcement of any type of quality control in any industry that would make Kosovo products competitive in the region (or even domestically against some of the imported products). Not to mention the temporary government of UNMIK has created laws that levy both a customs and VAT tax on input supply products needed by some of our clients whereas a competitors completed product can easily cross the border (legally or not) with almost no tax what-so-ever. So lets compound this with the fact that this place was until the fall of Yugoslavia a socialist economy more recently repressed by the last Balkan war of 1999 which destroyed most the properties, factories, livestock, crops and families.


But not their spirits. Every client I have met and villager in the streets wants to rebuild their country and they are willing to take a risk. With unemployment officially around 65% and many families living on less than 200 euros/month, they have allot to lose but in the long term much more to gain. I have the pleasure/challenge to have both a Serb and Albanian work for me and fortunately they get on well despite the traditional hatred across these ethnic lines. As safe as Pristina feels there are still cells around the country much closer to strife thus the strong presence still of KFOR, the NATO peace keeping force out here. It has become common day occurrences to see convoys of tanks, personnel carriers and supply trucks traveling all across the country particularly causing traffic jams throughout the city.

Unfortunately, each client meeting involves the boss passing out cigarettes to everyone, a strong Turkish coffee and usually no open ventilation while they chain smoke throughout the entire encounter. I am usually running for the door gasping for some fresh air before the meeting ends. I'm told the clubs and restaurants will be much the same as everyone holes up for the winter:-(

So all and all the job is quite exciting, challenging, frustrating and rewarding all at the same time. After hours, I have decided to give it a go learning the very difficult language of Albanian so I have two class lessons a week and will be hiring a tutor for the weekends I am in town. The word has also spread among internationals that I am teaching yoga at the UN once a week now. Only done one beginner class but sounds like many more will be coming over the winter months. As for cooking, not as much as I used to do. Even though my stuff finally arrived it costs less than $10 to eat a full meal out and a much more social way of spending personal time so I tend to opt for this. I will blog later with more of the subtle cultural submersion I am trying to experience so stay tuned...

4 Countries in 4 Weeks

Just back from a 3 day weekend in Budva, Montenegro and quickly realizing the blessing of living in Pristina, Kosova: you are close enough to everything to be able to get out... Sad to say but true. Having just touched my fourth Balkan country, there is no doubt that Kosovo remains the most undeveloped of all the war torn nations: ie the reason why I and at least 10,000 other development people (UN, EU, GTZ, and any other acronym you can think of) are here. It is both inspiring and saddening to return to the pothole ladened streets with shells of empty houses littering the countryside and pile after pile of recycled cars lining most of the major roads...So aside from the fact that I have been adventuring out each night after work for either my Albanian classes, teaching yoga, playing ultimate Frisbee or just getting a drink, the weekends still seem to be holding their own special adventures.

Say this past 3 day holiday weekend (yes I get both American and Kosovar holiday) when at 2 pm Friday afternoon I had no plans and by 5:30 I was in a fully packed car with hiking gear and mountain bikes heading off to the coast in Montenegro. Little did I know that 8 hours later after passing over about a 2000 meter pass in solid fog we would arrive at a little place I'll call Balkan heaven. How about waking up to this view... The pictures tell it all. The short of the long is one of my new expat friends bought a condo in this quaint little town and heads here every other week. To say the least I'll be joining her again soon.

So the pictures don't have to completely speak for themselves our adventures including a bike ride each down since my shipment had just arrived several days back. SOOOO good to be back on the bike except I couldn't find any dirt roads that didn't do a straight vertical. So I hit the road to ride up a mountain or two and the views made the painful roadrash I got on the way down almost worth it (I forgot mountain bikes don't corner like road ones).



As if this wasn't enough we hiked up the top portion of a 1700meter mountain to pay homage to the Montenegran King that was buried in this incredible Moslem in 1851. As you can see we were all pretty close to God at this point.





The night ended with the perfect seafood dinner pulled out of the bay while sitting next to the ocean and a fish pool. Of course this was after wandering about the walled Old Fortress City of Budva where stone streets, house and walls transport you back to the times where high-end Guchii shops and cheesy Shell shops were nowhere to be found.



Sunday was pretty much a repeat of incredible street riding (we did find 1 dirt road), wandering through small fishing villages and visiting a UNESCO protected site of Kotor. One of the more magnificent Old Cities with fortress walls rising high above the city straight up into the mountains. If it wasn't for the earlier 3 hour bike ride, 2 mokiatos (expresso's) and a mixed meat lunch platter, I would have been all over climbing to the top (not). None the less magical to wander the narrow alleyways and plazas.




I look forward to our next 3 day weekend (we have one every other week for the next 2 months). Maybe Greece or Belgrade. Maybe Turkey this time... I'll keep you posted :-)

DH