Newborn

Newborn, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Newborn, a new country, a new capital city, Kosova and Pristina.

We arrived yesterday afternoon, aftyer a long long wait and delay in Liege, to the hot sun and an airport out in the fields some way from the city. No problems at passport control no visa to pay, just an efficient stamp in the passport and out we were into teh blazing sun. Lots of people waiting for their families to return, the flight was full of returning Kosovans living in Belgium. The security guard theer was quite surprsied to hear we were travelling here as tourists.

The first thng to note about the Kosovars is that they were quite blond, not all so dark as I ahd imagined them, quite tanned from the sun, of course. We found a Dutch-speaking taxi driver who had bene in Leeuwarden in Friesland for three years who offered to take us to town for the extortionate price of 25 euros. He told us that the hotel weher we wanted tro stay, which was marked as cheap in our less-than-one-year-old Bradt guide, was in fact very expensive and that we could better stay in a different hotel, whereupon he took us to two of the most expensive hotels in town before bringing us to a slightly cheaper one, where we eventually decided to stay. It has a large room, a comfortable bed, a shower with an FM radio and free berakfast. Comfortable but very expensive.

In the hotel for five minutes we were soon out for a bite to eat and sure enough we found a beautiful beer garden with excellent service and an excellent menu. The Peja beer was served in ice cold glasses for 1.50 euro and accompanying roast beef sandwich was just what we wanted after a day starved of food after our croissants in far-away Liege.

The clouds were gathering as we went bfor our first walk around town, always a very interesting experience in a new country and city....

... more later...