Above: Kosova meatballs for dinner
Novi Sad to Belgrade
Roadworks on the main street where I was supposed to have caught the bus was a blessing in disguise. Buses have been rerouted to the next street, along with the normal bus route there, which meant that I didn’t have to wait to wait before hopping on a bus to Novi Sad’s main station.
The ride took about 30 mins in a roundabout fashion which got me to the station about 40 mins prior to the 0825 departure to Belgrade. It’s only about 30 mins to Belgrade by fast train but I have a connection to Pristina, and the train and bus stations are no longer side-by-side. Hence, I’m travelling by bus, which takes about three times as long.
Scenery along the way was largely agricultural and after less than an hour on the highway, we took normal roads which led to the urban sprawl (a relative term) of Belgrade. In the suburbs of Belgrade, I noticed churches here have the more Orthodox look with domes (sometimes flattish) whereas in the north, they may be topped with small Austrian-looking (onion-shaped) bulbs.
The near side of the city, New Belgrade, was very modern and spaciously laid out and I spotted a few embassies. We crossed the bridge to the older part and arrived at the bus station where I disembarked. I couldn’t see where the terminal building was and had to ask.
We had been dropped off at a drop-off area adjacent to the terminal building, the back of which didn’t look like a terminal at all. Once I got to the front side, it had offices, eateries and platforms but no significant waiting hall or seating area.
Belgrade to Pristina
My 2h self-connection went quickly exploring the station and having a sandwich. My bus to Pristina pulled up a little before 1200 with passengers from a previous station and we departed on-time.
After about an hour, we took a break. We made several pick-ups on the highway. After about 2h30 of highway cruising, we took the regular road and made one last pick-up at Krusevac. The bus was nearly full by now.
The small, narrow, slightly windy roads took us through villages, the countryside and numerous roadworks. It surprised me that in all of the years when Kosovo was part of Yugoslavia, there wasn’t a more significant road connecting the national capital to the provincial capital.
The bus attendant collected passengers’ IDs (and passports for foreigners). I’m guessing he made a manifest, which would have made me car-sick, then returned them.
We made one drop-off before the border before arriving at the border check-point at 1710. It was a nice new facility financed by the EU. Fortunately, it was quiet and there wasn’t even a queue for trucks (normally the worst queues).
The attendant collected our IDs/passports again went down to the Serbian authorities briefly. Stray dogs roamed freely between the two countries while we waited on the bus. With that sorted, it was only a few metres under the same shed-roof to the Kosovo checkpoint.
An officer boarded and had a thick ruggedised tablet computer for swiping IDs/passports. It was very efficient. He held on to my passport for stamping but not the other foreigners’ possibly because they were EU ones?
Thirty minutes after our arrival at the checkpoint, we were on the road again. Straight away, the landscaped went from hilly, windy to flat but with hills on the distance.
Soon after our crossing, we made a toilet break and for the bus to be washed. The windscreen had been quite badly splattered with bugs already.
I had notice back in Serbia that the bus number plate had been partially stickered-over to obscure the Kosovo country code and emblem. At the car-wash, I noticed that they stickers had now been removed once back in Kosovo.
The Kosovo country code and emblem on the bus number plate are covered up while in Serbia.
It was lightly built-up most of the way from here on, whereas on the Serbian side, there hadn’t been much for of the last couple of hours. Many buildings were very new and nicely finished. The petrol stations were most amazing with sit-down (not fast food) restaurants in them.
There was a fair amount of traffic on the highways that were surrounded by high-rises. After 6h40, I finally arrived in Pristina’s station area without pulling into the terminal. So, it was lucky I had some local money, the Euro, available for the taxi ride to Hotel Prima.
Finally in Pristina
The 10 min unmetered ride was a costly EUR8. The hotel recommended dining at Liburnia, a lovely restaurant nearby. The Kosova meatballs were delicious. Very springy and tasty, made ever tastier with a cheesy sauce.
The place plenty of atmosphere, with Turkish-style music (it’s probably Albanian) and the meal was cheap compared to a restaurant meal in New Zealand.
I only realised next day that regular eating is super-cheap by European standards and this might be the cheapest country in the Euro-zone!
It was rather cold so I cut short my wanderings to return to my room, calling it a day. It must have been a cold night, as I found next condensation on the inside of the double glazing. This wasn’t the case on the second night of my stay when it was warmer.
Considerations for foreigners visiting Kosovo
For foreigners wanting to enter Kosovo, there are immigration considerations to be kept in mind. These arise from the fact that Serbia doesn’t recognise Kosovo which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, after a long and tragic struggle during which ethnic Albanians were ethnically-cleansed by Serbs.
Hence:
- Travel from Serbia to Kosovo isn’t considered a departure from Serbia. If you then leave Kosovo to a third country, you’ll never have left Serbia properly and would be an overstayer. You may (or may not) get in trouble on your next visit to Serbia.
- Travel from Kosovo to Serbia isn’t considered a proper entry into Serbia. If you then leave Serbia to a third country, you may get in trouble for having entered Serbia illegally.
- Basically, you need to enter Kosovo from Serbia and leave through Serbia. Otherwise, from another country to Kosovo and out to another country; eg. from/to North Macedonia, Montenegro or Albania by land or Germany, Turkey etc by air. You can’t combine both options.
Countries that recognise Kosovo
About half the UN member states have accepted Kosovo’s independence. Serbia doesn’t.
On the side of countries accepting her independence are many Muslim countries. However, some don’t and I feel they have it’s due to secessionist issues that they have in their own backyard, eg. Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, India, Philippines, China.
For more on this topic, one may refer to Wikipedia.