After seeing the town of Prizren briefly last night when I arrived, it was very obvious that there isn’t alot to do or see here.

It actually kind of reminds me of Berat in Albania from last week where I just kind of hung out at the hostel most of the time.

I have 3 full days here and I’m thinking there’s going to be alot of down time.

Not that that’s a bad thing.   It’s good to just sometimes hang out and do nothing.

It’ll just be a change of pace from the last few days in Tirana where there was something new to do each day.

Having said all of that, most everyone in my dorm room was out by 9am.

I, on the other hand, decided to just sleep in and get out of bed an hour later.

The plan for today?

Explore the town of Prizren…

A church and a clock tower

I still had some gluten free bread and ham I had picked up in Tirana with me so I made a couple sandwiches for breakfast for myself at the hostel.

By 10:45 I finally got out the door with no real set plan.

I was just going to walk around the town and see what there was to see.

I did have a couple things pinned on my online map so I headed in that direction first.

The first was Our Lady of Ljeviš church which was built in the beginning of the 14th century.   The place was closed and surrounded with barbed wire atop the stone walls.

The second was a clock tower nearby from the 1940s.

At first glance it didn’t seem like much.   It was off a side street in a residential neighborhood and I was the only one there.

I took a couple of photos and then poked my head inside the open gate to see if there was anything in the surrounding garden.

A man came out of his little booth and smiled at me.

Naturally I just asked if I could go up the tower.

I was surprised when he said yes.

I didn’t have to pay an entrance fee, he just led me inside to a door leading to the steps up the tower.

Well, this was an nice, unexpected surprise.

I walk up the 93 steps (yes, I counted) and was rewarded with a magnificent 360° view of the town down below.

And, of course I was the only one there so I could take my sweet time admiring the views all to myself.

In the building surrounding the clock tower was a little archaeological museum which was also kind of cool to look at.

Just a nice little surprise that, honestly, I almost missed out on.   Thank God I poked my head inside the gate.

Around town

I tried to find a free walking tour for today because I’m very interested in learning of the history of Kosovo since it has alot of recent history.

I know there was a Kosovo war in the late 90’s and that they declared their independence recently in 2008 so I’d love to hear all about that history.

Sadly though, I couldn’t find a free walking tour operating in the city.   I think there was one at one point but it doesn’t seem to be running anymore.

I’ll just have to wait til I get to the capital city of Prishtina on the weekend to learn all about the country.

In the meantime, I’ll just have to observe things for myself.

One thing I noticed is that there are virtually no Kosovo flags anywhere.   In fact, there are quite a few Albanian flags here and there are even souvenir shops selling Albanian branded souvenirs.

Very strange considering the country only recently declared independence.

You’d think they’d be proudly displaying their flag signifying their new independence.

Just one of those things to ask on the walking tour, I guess.

I walked from one end of the town to the other and ended up a little restaurant on a hill.

Lunch

I kid you not, this restaurant was literally on a hill.   Like, in the middle of the hill so there were tables at the bottom of the hill and some slanted on the hill.

I felt bad for the waiters having to walk up and down the hill all day to serve their tables.

For lunch I got a grilled chicken mixed with vegetables and risotto for only 5.50€ ($8).   Considering how filling the meal was, this price seemed like a steal.

Which makes my 9€ watermelon drink from yesterday seem even that more ridiculous.

Still glad I had it though…

By 1pm I was done lunch and the only other thing I wanted to see in Prizren was the fortress at the top of the hill.

My initial thought was to just keep going up the hill and going right then.

Then, I had a moment of sensibility.

Why not just relax at the hostel for a few hours in my nice air conditioned room and head back up there as the sun was setting instead of beating down on me.

See, I can make smart decisions sometimes too!

Last minute detour

Since I’m making smart decisions…

I decided to rework the next few days of this trip.

My plan was to stay here in Prizren for another 2 days before going to Prishtina.   Tomorrow I was going to do a day trip to Peja but then I had absolutely nothing planned for my last day here.

Literally nothing.

I looked for some other day trips but there’s literally nothing else to do from Prizren.

Unless…

I checked out of here tomorrow and instead of doing a day trip to Peja, I just stayed there for 2 nights instead!

That way I can still see Peja but now I can spend that extra day doing a day trip to the nearby waterfalls.

So, I cancelled my last two days here in Prizren and booked a hostel in Peja.

Done and done.

So simple, right?

Well, take a closer look at that photo of the reservation.

I booked a room at 25€ ($35.94) a night bringing the total price to 50€.   No problem, right?

Well, see that sneaky 48€ taxes added on there?

Sonofabitch!

My 50€ stay now became 98€.   Literally just got scammed out of $70.

Oh well, price of traveling, I guess…

Second lunch?

Around 4pm I was getting a little bit hungry so I popped out again to grab something light to eat.

On my way I passed by a little pet store in the alley with bird cages outside.

What a great thing to just stumble upon!

I don’t know, it’s just makes you smile when you see the little guys tweeting happily.

Anyway, on to that second lunch…

One thing I’ve noticed on this trip is that there is a caesar salad on almost every single menu I’ve seen.

The caesar salads here are always served with chicken making it more of a meal so I haven’t had one as a starter.

Today was the day, though.

One caesar salad for lunch, please.

It was served with all what you’d expect on a caesar but also corn and cherry tomatoes and, I gotta say, I’m giving those additions a big thumbs up.

It was a damn good salad.

And the kicker?

It was only 3.50€ ($6).   That six bucks for a chicken caesar salad!

Nice!

Anyway, back to the hostel again for a bit…

Dinner and a fortress

Six o’clock rolled around a couple hours later and it was time to tackle the fortress overlooking the town.

I was told it only takes 20 minutes to climb up there which seemed unrealistic considering how high the hill is but then as I started up the hill, I realized how.

The road going up is at a 60 degree angle.   I kid you not.   Such a steep climb all the way up but, sure enough, I was up there in only 20 minutes time.

I timed it so I’d arrive just as the sun was setting.

This was good on so many levels.

For one thing, it wasn’t as hot out anymore but, also, there were hardly any people up there compared to earlier in the day.

Oh, and, of course, it’s just cool to overlook the city as the sun goes down.

As a little bonus, after the sunset you could hear the call to prayer from the multiple mosques over the speakers throughout the city.

Alright, enough culture.   Time for dinner!

Dinner tonight was a steak with coleslaw and fries.

It took a whopping 40 minutes to get my meal but it definitely hit the spot.

I actually felt bad for the table in front of me.   They arrived a few minutes after I did and the waiter didn’t even approach their table for 20 minutes.

I couldn’t imagine just sitting at an empty table for 20 minutes.   I would have walked out and gone somewhere else.

So, yeah, service wasn’t the greatest but I’m used to that now and I’m learned to just smile and big alright with it.

I still tipped 15% cause that’s what I do and all is good with the world.

Tomorrow I’ll be catching a bus about 100km north to the city of Peja for a couple days before I go to the capital city of Prishtina on the weekend.

The trip is slowly coming to a close but there’s still a week of adventures to go.

Time to explore…