Little town in the mountains

Mosque without roof just next to the bus station

I head down to go to a small town in the south of Kosovo close to the Albanian border. It is the old Serbian capital - but there aren’t really a lot of buildings left from that era - most of the buildings are from the Ottoman times. I get off the bus and you immediately see the presence of foreign troops in the area. There is some pretty big area which is fenced off by barbwire for the KFOR troops in some pretty central parts of the town.

I make my way down to the centre of town which is spread out along a nice little river flowing through the city. There is an old centre with a couple of mosques and churches. The main mosque is supposed to be really beautiful but there is some repair work going on hence it is not possible to get in and see the paintings inside.

On the way I get to see just how efficient you can get rid of surplus dirt when you are doing repairs along the river. You could do it the hard way and carry it up to the road and have it driven away by car to somewhere outside the city - but there is a much easier and more obvious option you could apply - just take the shovel and tip the dirt over the area and into the river - it seems to sort of work but there is a pile of dirt a bit down the river indicating you should not overdo this practice.

I figure I have wonder far enough down the road and it is time to get back to the centre - given it does not look like there is more stuff down the road. I get back to the centre which is dominated by nice little buildings and there is a nice little square marking the spot of the centre. Down there is a man offering rides in his little horse drawn buggy with a horse which looks both very old and very tired.

I head down another road and along this road is what looks like a nice little orthodox church but it is fenced off and protected by a small detachment of the local Kosovo police force.

The river and the mountains

On the other side of the street is a smaller church which is just closed off from the street by large metal barriers and nobody can go into the church. There don’t seem to be any repairs going on in the minor church indicating that it will just be left alone for the time being until better and more stable times arrive in Kosovo.

I walk across the river on one of the many bridge to go and have a look at an old minaret - it is just standing alone in the middle of a square looking out over the area. It is a bit unusual because on the minaret is a star of David. I can’t really figure this one out - if it some kind of early interreligious conciliation going on or if there is another story behind it.