.....kind of starting to get a feel for where I'm going to be living the next two and a half weeks. Last night, coming in from the airport, the city looked grimy and not that interesting but today I saw a whole different place.
For a change, I got a good first night's sleep last night. Usually I have to fight jet lag at least a few nights but I slept through until daylight this morning. The hotel really is 5-star and the breakfast was really good--and I usually don't eat that much breakfast.
I went up to the embassy for a couple of hours in the morning and, if you've seen the inside of one embassy, you've seen the inside of all embassies, but security was surprisingly tight here and I had a huge problem taking my computer in to set up for class tomorrow.
After a couple of hours, was back at the hotel for a free day to explore around. It was a beautiful day, blue sky and about 72 degrees. Most places here had their windows open today and it was just perfect for hiking around. I started off around the town center, where the hotel is, and worked my way up the hills into the old town center from the Ottoman Period. I want to go back up there when I have more time later.
Things are very complicated here in Kosovo and I'm sure I don't really understand what has happened in the last fourteen years, or fourteen hundred years, but basically, when Kosovo was part of Serbia, it was a predominantly Muslim area in an Orthodox Christian nation. When it was all part of Yugoslavia, the iron fist of Tito insured people stayed in their place. But with the death of Tito and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, old divisions resurfaced and the Serbs basically conducted an ethnic cleansing campaign until the United Nations (in reality, NATO) moved in and stopped the killing. It was particularly ugly and brutal--in many villages, the all men were rounded up and killed, women were raped and impregnated, children were buried alive in mass graves, local political figures were decapitated in public...... In many ways, Serbia was trying to wipe out Kosovo. The population here is predominantly Albanian and Macedonian, so there was also an element of nationalism involved.
President Clinton eventually gave the green light to support a NATO force to come into Kosovo in 1999 and the resulting military action destroyed even more of Kosovo but succeeded in driving the Serbs out and stopping the ethnic cleansing. This obviously infuriated the Serbs and nearly started a new war when Clinton and Madeline Albright made America the first nation to recognize Kosovo independence. As a result, America is popular here but Kosovo is trying to rebuild after a devastating war. Many of the centuries-old Christian monasteries and churches were burned by the Muslim militiamen and even today, many of the monasteries are guarded by NATO troops here.
But it appears people are getting along now. It was a very pleasant day to explore although I had been warned to expect to see a lot of the results of the war around the city.
About a block from my hotel, there is a beautiful pedestrian mall that is brand new.
Not far away, however, is another pedestrian mall that in reality is a city street that was bombed so badly it can't be repaired.
If it's a European city, it has to have a statue of a soldier on horseback, and here that statue is a
monument to Gjergj Kastrioti Skenderbeu, paying homage to the Albanian superhero who brilliantly fought off the Ottomans for decades in the fifteenth century.
The street is lined with restaurants and boutique shops but also includes a statue of Mother Teresa.
She is from this general area and is highly revered here. Although Albanian, many of the people here are of Albanian heritage and she actually committed to becoming a nun just south of here in Skopje, Macedonia--which I hope to visit maybe on one of my weekends--and Kosovo is very attached to her legacy.
However, even the Catholic Church (now a cathedral) named after her, couldn't escape the war and was heavily damaged with reconstruction ongoing.
I walked down by the university and the National Library which is new and definitely contemporary in design.
Love it or hate it, it makes a statement. It has 99 cupolas and today contains thousands of rare documents that escaped the destruction of the wars over the centuries.
Also on the grounds is the remains of a burned out Catholic Church that was a victim of the cleansing period.
I'm sure the longer I'm here, the more I'll understand all this, but it just didn't make sense to me this morning.
While Mother Teresa is revered here, she has a close competitor in Bill Clinton. In fact, his statue is bigger than hers:
Both he and Madeline Albright have streets named after them and are both very much respected. I have to admit, in this case I think they got it right.
I then walked up the hill to the Old City, where much of the Muslim culture is centered. There are several mosques and a Muslim academy, or university, in the area. The Carshia Mosque is a working mosque....
Nearby are the remains of the Jashar Pasha Mosque. Construction on this mosque started in the 16th century and was mostly finished by the 1800s. Today it appears abandoned and is in very bad repair. And yes, the concept of skinny jeans has taken hold in Kosovo.
Also in the area is the very large Fatih Mosque, one of the oldest remaining buildings in the Old City.
The pictures of these three mosques appear very similar and that is because they are all of the "Ottoman" architectural style. The minarets are definitely Ottoman, and very different from those in Egypt and certainly from those in Indonesia. The Fatih Mosque, however, dates back to 1461 (that was before Columbus did his thing) and is elaborately engraved inside and out. I decided not to go inside today--always kind of a hassle--and the facility also serves as an academy or Muslim university in this area. The minaret is new, replacing the original which was destroyed in an earthquake in 1955. According to my guide book, the mosque was converted into a church during the Austro-Turkish Wars from 1690 to 1698. If those old walls could talk......
Nearby is the Ottoman clock tower.
This has a neat history......every market town in the Ottoman Empire needed a clock tower so the faithful knew when to pray and shops could all close and reopen at the same time so no trader got an advantage from staying open longer. This tower was built in the 18th century. but the bell was stolen in 2001 (post war chaos). When NATO moved in, the French forces installed a new electrical clock but this afternoon it was hopelessly out of sync. At least it wasn't running backwards (too easy.....).
I really want to return to this Old Town area and explore some more.
Before returning to the hotel, I visited the Kosovo National Museum. It was kind of sad, actually.
The building was constructed by the Austrians for the Turkish army in 1898 and, under Tito, was used as a Yugoslavian army barracks until 1975. Once considered the premier museum in the Balkans, Serbian troops raided it and most of the precious exhibits, some dating back centuries before Christ, are now in Belgrade and will probably never be returned. Slowly, they are rebuilding, but so much of the rich history here is missing.....
The second floor is dedicated to the ethnic cleansing period and is not pleasant to visit.
I've seen these exhibits in Cambodia from Pol Pot, in Senegal from slavery, in Rwanda at the Holocaust Museum, in Johannesburg from apartheid, and it seems there really is no end to man's ability for cruelty.
That second floor, however, also had a huge display dedicated to the role of American and NATO troops in putting an end to the cleansing.
All in all, a very interesting day and a good start to the trip. Tomorrow, it's off to work......
For a change, I got a good first night's sleep last night. Usually I have to fight jet lag at least a few nights but I slept through until daylight this morning. The hotel really is 5-star and the breakfast was really good--and I usually don't eat that much breakfast.
I went up to the embassy for a couple of hours in the morning and, if you've seen the inside of one embassy, you've seen the inside of all embassies, but security was surprisingly tight here and I had a huge problem taking my computer in to set up for class tomorrow.
After a couple of hours, was back at the hotel for a free day to explore around. It was a beautiful day, blue sky and about 72 degrees. Most places here had their windows open today and it was just perfect for hiking around. I started off around the town center, where the hotel is, and worked my way up the hills into the old town center from the Ottoman Period. I want to go back up there when I have more time later.
Things are very complicated here in Kosovo and I'm sure I don't really understand what has happened in the last fourteen years, or fourteen hundred years, but basically, when Kosovo was part of Serbia, it was a predominantly Muslim area in an Orthodox Christian nation. When it was all part of Yugoslavia, the iron fist of Tito insured people stayed in their place. But with the death of Tito and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, old divisions resurfaced and the Serbs basically conducted an ethnic cleansing campaign until the United Nations (in reality, NATO) moved in and stopped the killing. It was particularly ugly and brutal--in many villages, the all men were rounded up and killed, women were raped and impregnated, children were buried alive in mass graves, local political figures were decapitated in public...... In many ways, Serbia was trying to wipe out Kosovo. The population here is predominantly Albanian and Macedonian, so there was also an element of nationalism involved.
President Clinton eventually gave the green light to support a NATO force to come into Kosovo in 1999 and the resulting military action destroyed even more of Kosovo but succeeded in driving the Serbs out and stopping the ethnic cleansing. This obviously infuriated the Serbs and nearly started a new war when Clinton and Madeline Albright made America the first nation to recognize Kosovo independence. As a result, America is popular here but Kosovo is trying to rebuild after a devastating war. Many of the centuries-old Christian monasteries and churches were burned by the Muslim militiamen and even today, many of the monasteries are guarded by NATO troops here.
But it appears people are getting along now. It was a very pleasant day to explore although I had been warned to expect to see a lot of the results of the war around the city.
About a block from my hotel, there is a beautiful pedestrian mall that is brand new.
Not far away, however, is another pedestrian mall that in reality is a city street that was bombed so badly it can't be repaired.
If it's a European city, it has to have a statue of a soldier on horseback, and here that statue is a
monument to Gjergj Kastrioti Skenderbeu, paying homage to the Albanian superhero who brilliantly fought off the Ottomans for decades in the fifteenth century.
The street is lined with restaurants and boutique shops but also includes a statue of Mother Teresa.
She is from this general area and is highly revered here. Although Albanian, many of the people here are of Albanian heritage and she actually committed to becoming a nun just south of here in Skopje, Macedonia--which I hope to visit maybe on one of my weekends--and Kosovo is very attached to her legacy.
However, even the Catholic Church (now a cathedral) named after her, couldn't escape the war and was heavily damaged with reconstruction ongoing.
I walked down by the university and the National Library which is new and definitely contemporary in design.
Love it or hate it, it makes a statement. It has 99 cupolas and today contains thousands of rare documents that escaped the destruction of the wars over the centuries.
Also on the grounds is the remains of a burned out Catholic Church that was a victim of the cleansing period.
I'm sure the longer I'm here, the more I'll understand all this, but it just didn't make sense to me this morning.
While Mother Teresa is revered here, she has a close competitor in Bill Clinton. In fact, his statue is bigger than hers:
Both he and Madeline Albright have streets named after them and are both very much respected. I have to admit, in this case I think they got it right.
I then walked up the hill to the Old City, where much of the Muslim culture is centered. There are several mosques and a Muslim academy, or university, in the area. The Carshia Mosque is a working mosque....
Nearby are the remains of the Jashar Pasha Mosque. Construction on this mosque started in the 16th century and was mostly finished by the 1800s. Today it appears abandoned and is in very bad repair. And yes, the concept of skinny jeans has taken hold in Kosovo.
Also in the area is the very large Fatih Mosque, one of the oldest remaining buildings in the Old City.
The pictures of these three mosques appear very similar and that is because they are all of the "Ottoman" architectural style. The minarets are definitely Ottoman, and very different from those in Egypt and certainly from those in Indonesia. The Fatih Mosque, however, dates back to 1461 (that was before Columbus did his thing) and is elaborately engraved inside and out. I decided not to go inside today--always kind of a hassle--and the facility also serves as an academy or Muslim university in this area. The minaret is new, replacing the original which was destroyed in an earthquake in 1955. According to my guide book, the mosque was converted into a church during the Austro-Turkish Wars from 1690 to 1698. If those old walls could talk......
Nearby is the Ottoman clock tower.
This has a neat history......every market town in the Ottoman Empire needed a clock tower so the faithful knew when to pray and shops could all close and reopen at the same time so no trader got an advantage from staying open longer. This tower was built in the 18th century. but the bell was stolen in 2001 (post war chaos). When NATO moved in, the French forces installed a new electrical clock but this afternoon it was hopelessly out of sync. At least it wasn't running backwards (too easy.....).
I really want to return to this Old Town area and explore some more.
Before returning to the hotel, I visited the Kosovo National Museum. It was kind of sad, actually.
The building was constructed by the Austrians for the Turkish army in 1898 and, under Tito, was used as a Yugoslavian army barracks until 1975. Once considered the premier museum in the Balkans, Serbian troops raided it and most of the precious exhibits, some dating back centuries before Christ, are now in Belgrade and will probably never be returned. Slowly, they are rebuilding, but so much of the rich history here is missing.....
The second floor is dedicated to the ethnic cleansing period and is not pleasant to visit.
I've seen these exhibits in Cambodia from Pol Pot, in Senegal from slavery, in Rwanda at the Holocaust Museum, in Johannesburg from apartheid, and it seems there really is no end to man's ability for cruelty.
That second floor, however, also had a huge display dedicated to the role of American and NATO troops in putting an end to the cleansing.
All in all, a very interesting day and a good start to the trip. Tomorrow, it's off to work......
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