Skopje to Prizren, 3/3; 15th October

15th October

After a large breakfast, we left the charming B&B. Interestingly, when I had tried to talk to the host through Google translate, I had showed them Albanian, as this is the main language in Kosovo. However, she shook her head and replied ‘Serbski’.

It turns out the village of Strpce is one of the few ‘Community of Serb Municipalities’in Kosovo. There is even a weekly bus service that passes through Strpce on its way to Belgrade, indicating the ties between the town and Serbia and strong. As we were leaving the town, there was also some graffiti in a sign suggesting that the graffitier was not happy with Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008.

Most of the morning was spent climbing to the top of the pass. Leaving Strpce a guy in his 50s invited us in for tea and coffee as we had stopped to check the tyre pressure. He was a teacher, and also a ski instructor. We declined his offer of a hot drink and he said we should come back to Kosovo to ski someday. I also spotted an elegant steel racing bike in his garage — he said it was 30 years old.

The climb up was beautiful. A few cars passing a minute but as the road was twisty, not at speed. The autumn colours were radiant, and we stopped a few times to take pictures. One spot by a gurgling stream was particularly pretty, with the floor carpeted with auburn leaves.

Climb shortly leaving Strpce -- crisp, coldish weather and leaves starting to change colour -- they got more vivid the higher we went

Closer to the top of the pass, the leaves take a more golden hue

By the babbling brook where we filled up with some water -- ground carpeted with auburn leaves

Closer to the pass -- very enjoyable enjoying the changing of the leaves

Top of the pass -- a relatively small one compared to Central Asian passes, but still very enjoyable

At the top of the pass, there was a hillside where people were picnicking, enjoying the autumn sun and the view of the forest. We decided to follow suite and lay down the tent groundsheet on the floor and made a cup of coffee. I read a chapter of The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’ which I had bought in Kutaisi for 15 Lari.

Enjoying coffee on the hillside enjoying the view

Visitors on the hillside enjoying the view

Picnickers enjoying the weather and the view

before leaving we had a fried potatoe -- a whole potatoe, cut to form a spiral and skewered, then deep fried.

After spending a couple of hours on the hillside we packed up and made our way down the pass. Perfectly paved roads and light traffic made it very enjoyable.

An expression of solidarity with the people of Palestine

The above graffiti is an expression of solidarity with Palestine, from a region that did endure a genocide in the form of Srebenica in 1995, where around 8,000 Bosniak Muslims were murdered. In comparison, around 45,000 Palestinians have been killed at the hands of the Israeli army since Oct 2023. What made this graffiti particularly visceral was it's timing -- we passed it around the same time that the New York Times ran an article evidencing how Israeli soldiers were shooting pre-teen Palestinian children in the head on a systematic and regular basis.

We got to the town of Prizren and found a hostel there.

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