I go for a drive...

This last Thursday held quite a little adventure for me. A couple of colleagues and I were planning to drive up to Pristina to take a look around an investment summit that was going on. Since we were taking the company truck and since it's always parked a good 10-minute walk from our office and since I'm the new guy, I got volunteered to walk over, pick it up, and pick up my two co-workers. They also decided they were feeling adventurous and wanted me to drive. Off we went!

Driving in Kosovo is only slightly less dangerous than driving through Baghdad. No, there are no roadside bombs waiting to ruin your day, but you have to deal with the other drivers instead. To get to Pristina from Camp Bondsteel, you have to take the main "highway". I use the term "highway" with some reservation because I've driven down plenty of rural FMs in Texas that are better developed and maintained. It is a two-lane road, filled with potholes, and lacking shoulders. Driving along, you will pass all sorts of interesting modes of conveyance, from tractors to horse-drawn buggies, from a brand-new Corvette to the so-called "Kosovo Harley" - a roto-tiller pulling a trailer that the driver sits on. A little more than halfway to Pristina, you come upon the safety-conscious road crews, working to widen the highway. Unlike road construction in the States, where generally concrete barriers are put in place to prevent drivers from plunging off the road into the work zone, Kosovo's road crews seem determined to tempt your fate with sheer drop-offs ranging from 2 to 6 feet. And in place of blaze orange traffic cones, they use dirty, red-and-white striped concrete blocks, which won't prevent your car from plunging over the side, but will definitely tear up your bumper/radiator/axel before you go over. Unfortunately, I was not able to take any pictures, what with having to concentrate on the road and all.

Thanks to my highly skillful driving, we arrived safely in Pristina and set about looking for a sidewalk cafe to eat lunch in. I had my first two beers since I arrived in Kosovo and a cheap but decent bowl of penne pasta with some kind of meat thrown in as we watched the (relatively) gorgeous women walk by. Peja (pronounced with a "y" not a "j") bills itself as the finest beer in Kosovo. I've also been told it may be the only beer in Kosovo. It kicked my taste buds around a little bit at first, but then it calmed down and was pretty decent. After lunch, we walked around until we found a Nokia store and I bought a phone. Nothing fancy, just something I can use (hopefully) to get in touch with people here if I need to while I'm out gallavanting around southeastern Europe. After that, we headed to the hotel where the investment summit was being held. Oops! We arrived too late, as the summit had shut down 30 minutes prior to our arrival. Oh well, I wasn't too upset. I got to take half a day off from work, drive around the countryside, and have a couple beers. All in all, not too bad.

Had to work all day today, because I'm taking off Thursday and heading to Spain! I'll actually spend Wednesday night in Skopje, Macedonia so hopefully I'll get to do a little sightseeing around there as well. I might even end up trying to look at some apartments there.