Travelling for the weekend

 Saturday 25th January

Today I was travelling to the city of Peja, also known as Pec, located in the west of Kosovo, reasonably near to the Montenegro border. The city is only about an hour and a half from Pristina by coach, which is what I had booked. I had only booked one night in an AirBnb because I thought this would be enough time to do some exploring and get back for Sunday, ready for work on Monday. 

I walked to the Pristina bus station, which is only about 15 minutes away from my flat, to set off for 9am. I arrived in Peja at about 10:30am and walked from the bus station through the city to find my AirBnb. One of my favourite things to do is to walk around a city that I have never been to by myself, it always feels like an exciting fresh start. The flat that I had booked was about a 25 minute walk from the bus station and found the block quite quickly, however I couldn't work out which building it was. This was when a little girl and boy came out of one of the gates and said, "hello". They were the children of the guy that I had booked with, the girl was the older sibling but was probably only 9 or 10, she told me her dad wasn't in and showed me around. She spoke perfect English and took me to my flat, it was a block and the family lived on the ground floor, I had the flat on the second floor, I was very impressed by the girls confidence and didn't leave out any details. I had a door that opened onto a balcony that had a brilliant view of the mountains, Peja is located at the base of a mountain ridge, so everywhere you are in the city you have mountains looming over head. It is quite spectacular. 

I decided I would venture out of the city and towards the mountains to go and visit the Orthodox Christian monastery. On the way I stopped at a restaurant by the river, it was a beautiful day so I sat outside with my sunglasses on and ordered some food. I was also in the city of Peja so it would have been rude not to order a Peja beer too, it is the most popular beer in Kosovo, and I was where it was made. It was a perfectly located spot to eat, somehow I keep stumbling across hidden gems. I left and continued my walk out of the city and towards the monastery, it didn't take long to get there, and was marked by an archway and long cobbled drive. However, there was a barrier and before I could get any further a policeman came out and said, "hey". He came over and asked if I was visiting and then asked if I was Turkish, this is the third person who's asked me this. He then asked for my ID, which I gave, he took it into his little box to inspect and then gave it back and told me I could continue. The security is because this is a Serbian Orthodox Christian Monastery and there is still a lot of friction between the Serbian and Albanian population, the Serbians being mainly Orthodox and Albanians Muslim. In the past there have been attacks on religious buildings.

I took the walk down the road leading to the monastery, its name is the Patriarchate of Péc Monastery. It is surrounded by medieval walls, the original buildings were built in the 13th century and became the residence of Serbian Archbishops. In 2006, it became part of the "Medieval Monuments in Kosovo", a combined World Heritage Site along with three other monuments of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It was a beautiful site, there were only a few other people there visiting, beside the nuns walking around. One of them opened the doors of the main church to let us look around. Much of the artwork on walls appeared to be original and was extremely colourful. It is located right next to the river so after I'd done looking around I took a seat on the wall by the river a took in the amazing scenery for a while. 

In the evening of Saturday I went out to find some food and go for a drink, there wasn't much going on in the centre but I ended up finding somewhere to watch the football, Man City vs Chelsea. I was the only person in the bar apart from a group of boys celebrating a birthday. They pulled me up my own table to watch the game, which was nice of them.  I ended up going home quite earlier with a pizza in hand. But it was a nice day all in all.

On Sunday I packed up and left the flat at 10am, I spoke to the little girl and her mother on my way out, I thanked them and left. I wasn't sure what to do as my bus wasn't till 4pm, so I decided to go for a wander away from the centre and around the residential area. I was on an incline and decided to check maps, where I saw that the national judo centre was located at the top of the hill. So, I thought why not have a look, even if I can't do anything it will be a good view. So that's what I did and got to the top, where I found an enclosed astroturf with goals, with am amazing view of the city and mountains, I thought if only I had a ball. Then I saw one on the corner of the astro, so I went in, as it was unlocked, and had a bit of a kickabout by myself. After I'd had my fill I walked up to the judo centre, which was closed, but found myself looking over the entire city, so again, I took a seat and absorbed the scene for a while. 

I went and found a nice place to eat, had a coffee by the river, and had a bit more of a general explore to kill the time before my bus. I found the park and football stadium before looping back round to stop off for one last Peja in Peja, then got on my bus back to Pristina.