A few months ago , I was craving another Balkan trip . I was speaking with a good Dutch friend of mine about his planned trip to the Balkans and was convinced that I am overdue for a Balkan experience. I went to the god of cheap flights and found a 10 euro  Budapest- Pristina flight and another 10 Euro Skopje -Bratislava trip flight. So it was settled, I made a spontaneous mini trip. I met up with my friend in Pristina and we explored some towns in Kosovo together. The one that really had a pull on my heart was Prizren.

I was expecting to enjoy Prizren and to find it nice, but did not expect to have what I like to call another ” city crush”.  I had been to a fair amount of cities in both Bosnia and Albania with this Turkish influence of architecture. I sort of expected Prizren to be not much different and probably less spectacular.  I was wrong. Or perhaps I just have a weakness for friendly Balkan cities with lots of Turkish influence. That could also be it. But in the end, I left with a tug on my heart for this town.

Prizren is the second-largest city in Kosovo with around 160,000 in the metropolitan area.  The pronunciation makes it sound like you are saying ” Prison” . I got a giggle when I was hanging out with the owner of the hostel and his friend who told me ” In prison, we spoke Turkish”. I believed for a minute that they were cellmates or something and spoke Turkish for privacy. It turns out Prizren has a significant Turkish minority. The city also has a significant Bosnian minority as well.  Like many Balkan cities, it has a melting pot of people and cultures. This one is a bit different in that there is much less of a Serbian or Macedonian or overall Slavic and Orthodox presence. Most places in the Balkans have some type a presence of both except for Southern Kosovo for reasons I won’t touch on.

The people of Prizren are very laid back, friendly and hospitable. They can be seen drinking Turkish tea and coffee like water and socializing with one another. They are very helpful. Every time I was staring off in space, someone would ask me if I am lost and need help. Sometimes they would invite me to their table to talk or have a drink with them. It wasn’t in a ” Hey come here and let me sell you some stuff or waste your time”, but more of a “come over here and hang out” manner.  They were pretty good with foreign languages, my friend and I were able to get by in speaking English or German. German is sort of as popular as English if not more in Kosovo as the rest of Balkans . Many people from the Balkans have a relative that lives there or used to live there. The Germans took a fair amount of refugees from the Balkan wars and many also go there to work.

One refreshing thing that I have to admit about Kosovo is that once someone found out that I was from the states, I wasn’t get bombarded with stories about how much my country sucks and how evil the people are. As I always mention, I’m far from a patriot and not a fan of how the US conducts foreign policy, but it sometimes sucks have to hear about it all the time.  I didn’t get a choice in that matter. I’m not a fan of putting collective blame on a person based on their passport. A lot of times, when asked where I am from it, is easier to say ” I live in Prague”. I am Dutch on my father’s side so I sometimes rely on that one as well. Although playing Dutch doesn’t always work out in my favor in many Balkan places either because of the Hague Tribunal, Srebrenica screw-up, and other reasons.  While I enjoy political discussions, I can go without having a dozen every day when I am travelling.

Prizren also is surrounded by the shar beautiful mountains. If you climb to certain overlooks, you can see three countries.  My friend and I hiked back in the woods a bit and saw some breathtaking sites. The further back you go, it’s supposed to be even better. But it was in the 30s  that day and we are not exactly mountaineers that take off in the early hours for treks on the regular. I guess I can manage with this.

Of course, as people that lived in Prague, we ended up craving a beer on the way back. On the way down to the descent, we saw an empty building with a beautiful deck. We went around it for a photo op but the owner found us and turns out it was a cafe just closed for the season. But he was able to find some bottled beers so we bought a couple of them and watched the sunset.

Unfortunately, I have no real pictures of the nightlife of Prizren as I was too busy enjoying it. We met up with a nice guy staying in the hostel and went out for a “drink or two”, but it ended up dancing at 4 am in a random cafe with the hostel owner and his friends.

This leads me to this, If you are ever in Prizren please stay at the M99 Hostel. I am not as much of a hostel person. I am getting too old sometimes. I really prefer Couchsurfing when I am alone. But this one was fantastic. It is one of the bests I’ve ever stayed in.  I wasn’t a luxury hostel, although it is quite comfortable. The owner Edis and his brother were great and it really felt more like I was Couchsurfing than staying in a hostel. We had some wonderful discussions and both of the brothers gave a lot of great information about Prizren and Kosovo. Edis’s brother pulled out all the passports he owned to show exactly how many countries Prizren has been part of in his lifetime.  They became more like friends in the end.

I got over my Prizren crush eventually, but still, have a warm and fuzzy feeling thinking about it sometimes. I look forward to visiting this great city again.  There was not a specific thing or place that drew it to me. I was only there for a couple of days so not long enough to become a guru about the town. I didn’t fall in love with a local. It was just the overall scenery, cheerful people, and the atmosphere that made me thoroughly enjoy it that not everywhere does. It definitely is at the top of the places I visited in 2017.