Above: St Sava in Belgrade.
Bus ride to Belgrade
I walked to the station for my 0900 departure from Prizren to Belgrade. At the station I was directed to a small office just outside the station boundaries. I checked that my online booking was OK and the lady asked me to go buy her a pack of cigarettes at my expense. The bus came I got let off that one! Oh, what cheek!
The bus, like most here, is one retired from western Europe. It took us on the motorway to Pristina but after about 40 mins, chose the windy country road. We picked up some passengers along the way and in the outskirts of Pristina before arriving at the station.
At Pristina station, I took a comfort stop and managed to get a takeaway sandwich, something rather elusive in Kosovo but something quite essential for long bus rides!
We departed Pristina about 1100 and on the roads and motorway signs I often saw the Serbian names/spelling of places have been spray-painted out. Twenty years on, people’s emotions are still raw
An hour later, we took a 15 min break at the shops 3 mins shy of the border checkpoint. Fortunately, there was no queue at the checkpoint. The Kosovo officer scrutinised my passport looking for my Serb entry stamp, not really interested in my Kosovo one.
I’m guessing he needs to make sure that I can legally enter Serbia a few metres down the road after he lets me go. All was sweet once I showed him my entry stamp into Serbia at the north, near Subotica. For those who don’t understand, I did a short write-up on this subject here. Basically, one has to enter and leave either through Serbia only or through Kosovo’s border with a third country only; you cannot mix-and-match.
No exit stamp was given by the Kosovo officer but I did see him swipe my passport at the computer along with everyone else’s IDs.
When it came to the Serb officer, I pointed out my entry stamp to him as he collected everyone’s documents for processing. No entry stamp was given but I didn’t expect one, as Serbia doesn’t consider us to have left or entered the country.
All-in-all, the crossing took 30 minutes with no waiting. It includes time by the driver (no attendant today) to collect and return all our documents.
We continued our journey around 1250 through the windy roads in the golden autumn landscape of rural Serbia. There were lots of roadworks through the country roads and some on the high way.
Fortunately, we had wifi for part of the journey today. We took a comfort break around 1545 and arrived at Belgrade bus station around 1800.
In Belgrade
It was a short walk to the Omia hotel and apartments. The closed door and keypad made me think I couldn’t enter. I can’t recall whether I tried pushing the door; perhaps I did but not hard enough. I found a stray wifi signal and rang them but no one answered.
Fortunately, someone came along and pushed the door and walked right in. I felt really silly. The silliness continued as I left my phone at the reception desk and my passport with the receptionist, as I settled into my room.
I guess I was just very pleased to be off the bus and wanted to have a wash. After a quick shower, my priority was to get my laundry done at the laundromat nearby. It was probably going to be cheaper in Istanbul (done for me) than here (self-service), but I didn’t want to risk it.
I had a gyro for dinner nearby while waiting for the wash and went to the supermarket during the drying. One thing I love about Serbia is that there are hardly any coins. Coins are for miniscule amounts and you’d hardly ever get them. The smallest note is RSD10 which is less than EUR0.09!
With essential chores out of the way around 2000, my next task was to find the bus stop for the A1 bus route to the airport. It starts at Trg Slavija about 12 mins walk away and is supposed to do a pickup at the retired railway station nearby.
I’ve seen the bus drive past several times already but wasn’t in a position to see where it went for its stop. My bad luck, I had to wait quite a while till the next one. The security staff at the park where I waited couldn’t help. Eventually the A1 bus came and it made no stop. I concluded that information is out-of-date even on the official websites and Google and I’m best to catch it at Trg Slavija.