In quick succession, the black-clad monk administered a holy trinity of beverages: water (father), espresso (son) and raki (holy ghost) accompanied by chocolate and poppy seed cookies. A kamilavka hat concealed abundant gray hair that matched his beard whose length reflected what were most likely decades of celibate life in one of Serbian Orthodoxy’s holiest sites, Visoki Dečani monastery, in western Kosovo. This was a hardcore holy man, and his appearance made me think of the eerie footage of Serb paramilitary forces being blessed by a priest before they went on to perpetrate in Srebrenica the worst atrocity of the Bosnian civil war.

Tags: Kosovo, Serbian Orthodox, Visoki Dečani

Pristina is a small place. While respectable in terms of population and geographic area, it is nearly impossible to walk around without drawing the attention of friends or acquaintances every five or 10 minutes.

Tags: Kosovo, Pristina

1. Packs of wild/stray dogs roam the streets, but it’s all good.
2. The power goes off a couple times a day, but it’s all good.
3. Toilet paper, soap and clean water are privileges, but it’s all good.
4. Pavement is optional, but it’s all good.

Tags: civil society, Kosovo, Pristina

Only in Pristina: Drinking and dinner included a former KLA fighter turned venture capitalist who thinks I should invest with him, two hired Roma musicians, a 27-year-old Vermont state representative, a Kosovar born-again Christian rocker and other assorted folk.

Tags: driving, Kosovo, police, Pristina

It was a long road of crazy Albanians, but we’ve finally made to Kosovo after an epic drive through progressively backward Balkan backwaters. (This helps explain the lack of Internet chatter on my part, since widespread Internet access isn’t exactly a cornerstone of second- and third-world Europe.)

Tags: Albania, driving, Kosovo, Pristina

Today marks nine years since the start of NATO’s bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to end Slobodan Milosevic’s brutal crackdown on Kosovar Albanians. Belgrade is marking the occasion by proposing an ethnic partition of parts of northern Kosovo where Serbs are a majority.
Creating a Republika Srpska-style zone in Kosovo may prove to [...]

Tags: Kosovo, Serbia

Croatia and Hungary (aka Kolbaszorszag) have joined the growing list of countries that recognize Kosovo’s independence. Naturally, Serbia responded by recalling its ambassadors from both countries.  Hopefully this won’t screw over the few hundred thousand Hungarians living in the Serbian province of  Vojvodina.  At least Magyar State Secretary Marta Fekszi Horvath has their back: 
         We think it is [...]

Tags: Croatia, Hungary, independence, Kosovo, Vojvodina