Day 15 12 Sep - Road trip north and a border crossing into Kosovo to visit the capital Pristina

Photo above - Kosovo village, taken from the road. More photos to follow

Final road journey of the trip

Travelling north to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo today. The distance is 155 miles, and will include our last border crossing, entering our 7th different country.

At 9am we set off on our final road journey of this trip. It is still hot, but our unbroken run of blue skies maybe interrupted today as some rain is forecast. Shortly after leaving Ohrid, we took a local road to connect to a south to North route running parallel with the Albanian border. This road quickly started rising into the forested slopes of a mountain range and we were following a large river for a long while. We also hugged the Albanian border for quite a time.

Monastery in the mountains

Our first stop is the Saint Jovan Bigorski Monastery, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and built nearly 1,000 years ago. Renowned for its striking architecture, intricate wood carvings, and valuable relics, the monastery is one of North Macedonia’s most significant religious and cultural landmarks. It also offers a peaceful atmosphere and at 750m, beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. Many monks live here permanently.

Lunch stop in a mountain village

We then continued north into Mavrovo National Park, stopping in a local village at 1257m by Lake Mavrovo for lunch in a local cafe. We then hit the road again, heading out of the mountains and into the valley. As we were eating lunch there was a sharp shower but once we got on the fast toll roads, it really started hammering down!

Border crossing and in to Kisovo

We eventually got to the border at about 3.20pm, but there was a bit of queue, however it was all very efficient, and we were away after 15 minutes.

Logically we should have visited Kosovo after Serbia rather than going round it to North Macedonia first. The reason is largely political- Serbia does not recognise Kosovo's independence, and crossing between the two can be difficult. To ensure a smoother journey and fewer delays, we are entering Kosovo from North Macedonia rather than Serbia.

About Kosovo

Officially called the Republic of Kosovo, it is a small landlocked country, bordered by Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and North Macedonia. It has a population of just 1.6 million, most of whom are ethnic Albanians. The average age of Kosovans is just 30 years. Kosovo was part of Yugoslavia, but was an Autonomous Province. Throughout the 20th Century, there were tensions between the Albanian and Serb communities within the area, which culminated in the Kosovo war of 1998/9. This resulted in the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army, and the establishment of the UN Interim Administration Mission. In February 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, and is now recognised by over 110 UN member states, however this excluded Serbia. Kosovo has applied to join the EU however there are a couple of EU member states that do not recognise the country, including near neighbours Greece and Romania, so this is stalling the process. Kosovo is still relatively untouched by tourism.

Final stretch to the capital

We continued north on good quality roads, through mountainous scenery, heading for the capital. The rain had just about stopped by now. The road was clearly quite new, with a lot of long bridges spanning the valleys. Eventually we entered a wide flat plain, parched from the sun, with small villages dotted about a little way from the main road. As we approached Pristina, more and more business units and small business parks started replacing the villages. Many seemingly sitting isolated in the vast flat plain. There also seemed to be quite a lot of building work going on.

On entering the capital, the rain started coming down again. On the east side the city is hemmed in by some mountains. The city is built on a series of steep hills, and we wound through some quite thin roads higher up to get to our hotel by avoiding the busier main roads. Visually the city looks a bit South American with houses and other small buildings built up the hills and tall buildings at the bottom, everything a bit higgledy-piggledy.

Tomorrow, we will explore the city.