A walk up Mother Teresa...

Okay. Today for some reason, the gremlins are gone, and I can post more photos. So back to the main street tour. It really is a walk through Kosovar Albanians' history - from battling the Ottomans to life under Tito to battling the Serb forces. When you walk down to the end of the street, this is the view. I hope I get this right - I believe this is the Carshi Mosque - the oldest standing building in Pristina, built in the early 15th century. It marks the start of what was the old town in the city but not much remains. You can see two more minarets to the right and behind the mosque. Pristina's mosques are beautiful, although many are run down.

Pristina has a combination of very old mosques, like the Carshi, and newer ones which blend into the urban landscape, like the one shown on the right. [If you want a better look at the photos, I think you can click on them and get a full page view.]

Alright, continuing our tour up Mother Teresa St., on the same end as the Carshi mosque is the monument to Brotherhood and Unity - a popular slogan from the world of former Communist Yugoslavia.


The tall building behind the monument is a European Union building.

If you look closer at the Brotherhood and Unity statue, you'll see it has been surrounded by barbed wire, and the base is covered in graffiti. Apparently someone tried to blow it up in 1999 but it is still standing rather forlornly in the square.


I suppose the authorities are attempting to keep away future graffiti artists and others who might have a more nefarious agenda for the monument, although I don't think citizens pay it much attention or notice any more. Perhaps, it is a work of modern art - a telling commentary on the original subject matter of the monument.

The next monument to see on Mother Teresa Street is of the Albanian national medieval hero, Skenderbej, who managed with his army to hold off the Ottoman Turks for 25 years during the 15th Century. I believe this monument was put up two or three years ago.

If you continue up Mother Teresa Street, the next monument you reach is hers, as shown in my previous posting. The statue is pretty much located midway on the street.



And finally, toward the end of the street is a monument to Zahir Pajaziti, a Kosovar Albanian who was a commander in the KLA, (look it up), and who was killed in skirmishes with Serb forces in 1997 - one of the first heroes to Kosovar Albanians of the conflict. He is carrying a Kalashnikov and has a grenade strapped to his belt. Fresh flowers can always be found at the base of the statue.

That's your tour of the monuments in my neighborhood.

Lost (and found) in translation...

I was hoping for a sunny weekend to take my photos, but cold weather and clouds have moved back in, so no pretty blue skies for a background. I thought I would walk you down the main street which I live next to.

It is called Mother Teresa street, and is complete with a monument to her... (Mother Teresa was born in Macedonia of Albanian parents).

[Alas, I have been having technical difficulties with the blogger site, and after trying for two days, I have only been successful posting the Mother Teresa photo, out of a series of 6 photos of the street. I keep getting a message saying the website is experiencing technical difficulties. Sorry... I'll keep trying.]

Meanwhile, I am settling in. It is hard to believe 5 weeks have gone by. I am taking Albanian lessons, but it is slow going. And despite my best efforts not to, I apparently have a tendency of bursting into Serbian/Croatian in public, when I am in stores or taxis. The other day, I took a taxi to a colleague's house - I had the destination written out for me in Albanian, so I said it as I entered the car, and the driver understood. Feeling pretty good about myself, I answered him in Albanian when he asked where I was from, and again when he asked what I did. Then we arrived to my destination, the driver turned, handed me his business card, and said in perfect Serbian, "Call me whenever you need a taxi." I really don't know what I said that tipped him off, but I thanked him, in both Serbian and Albanian and left.

I buy my vegetables from a vegetable stand near my house, and generally point at what I want and indicate with my fingers how many. A system which has worked thus far. But this morning, when I arrived, the stand keeper came out to meet me and said, "Dobar dan," which is good day in Serbian. I must have said something at some point which led him to believe I knew Serbian, either that or he knows the taxi driver. Undaunted however, and armed with knowledge (learned in my last language lesson) of numbers in Albanian up to ten and the names of three fruits (apples, oranges and bananas - well, maybe two fruits, since bananas is banana in Albanian and probably doesn't count), I asked in Albanian for some apples, oranges and bananas and when asked how many, came up with the first number I could remember - 9 - so now I have a kitchen table covered in fruit I don't actually want, but feel good about having purchased it in Albanian. Seriously, I need my friend's apple cake recipe - Professor D. if you are reading this, please feel free to email it to me.

So fortunately, with my experiences so far, the Kosovar Albanian population has been very tolerant of me and my sporadic, spontaneous use of Serbian/really bad Albanian.