Largest, longest, oldest bazaar

Going to Gjakova

I left the hotel after breakfast around 0810 and managed to get a bus straight away towards the Bill Clinton statue.  With another stroke of luck, I boarded a connecting bus nearly immediately which took me to Pristina bus station where I waited about 10 mins for the 0900 bus to Gjakova.

For this 1h30 trip, tickets were sold on board, not at the station.  Incidentally, the station here doesn’t have a strict “airside” area unlike the ones in Serbia.  The big coach started with only 4 passengers and we picked up only a few more along the undulating route to Gjakova.

Gjakova’s bazaar

It was a 10 min walk from Gjakova station to my hotel Carshia e Jupave in the old city.  I left my bag at reception and started exploring the old town and bazaar area around 1100.  It had a long stretch of wooden (or wood-fronted) shops.  Many were empty but some were used for all sorts of trades (eg. hardware, tailors, convenience store).

I did notice here and also in Pristina that there’s a high number of barbers around; and many men keep very short hair.  I see this in the Middle East as well.

Near the river, old shops were used for more popular trades like apparel and tourist nick-nacks.  Overall, I spent an hour in the area before heading to the newer part of town.  The Ethnographic Museum looked closed for repairs.

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Gjakova is supposed to have the largest, longest and oldest Grand Bazaar in the region.  Unfortunately, parts of it felt like ordinary shops and other parts were just a long collection of empty wooden shops. Nevertheles, I was happy to have the opportunity to come here and see it, use a bit of imagination to visualise what it might have been at a different time.

Chilling

I had a simple lunch of a chicken doner sandwich before heading to the supermarket.  For me, it was interesting to see where products on the shelves were sourced from. Some came from Croatia, Turkey but I didn’t see anything from Serbia.

Soon, it was 1300 and I was able to check-in to my room for a rest.  It’s so nice to have spare time for a change.

Mid-afternoon, I took another wander of the old town.  I had wanted considered going uphill to get a view of the old town but it didn’t seem worthwhile.

I took dinner in the hotel and dessert next door. My choice was a light spongy cake soaked in milk; it was divine. I later found out it was called Trileqe in Albanian or Tres Leches in Spanish. It’s sponge soaked in a mix of evaporated, condensed and fresh milk. I also did a short nightwalk before calling it a day.