More Pictures!

I went on a bus tour of the American slice of Kosovo yesterday and took lots of pics of the countryside. You'll have to forgive me, but since most of the shots were from a moving bus, they're not the best quality. But they should at least give you an idea of what the surrounding area looks like.

We left Camp Bondsteel around 12:30 and first drove through the city of Ferizaj. I was pretty lazy about taking pics here but it's a large city (over 100,000 people) and I plan on spending some time there once I get my own vehicle. Then we headed to the far southwest of the American sector to the Serb-majority municipality of Strpce. It's a really pretty drive through the foothills of the Sar Mountain range - there's even a ski resort in the area, though we didn't get close to the resort.

After Strpce, we backtracked, stopped at the Ballkan Petrol station, and then drove through Vitina, Partes, and Gnjilane. The first pass through Gnjilane, we stopped at the Drini Supermarket. I bought a Fanta Exotic (which I still have not drank because the tab popped off as I was trying to open it), a Crazy bar (with "Extra Crazy" - it's a chocolate wafer bar covered in chocolate and popped rice), and two Pop-Keks. Pop-Keks are delicious little concoctions of various flavors that are kind of similar to a Hostess cupcake. One was "Cocoa Creme" and the other was "Karamel". This bounty of Balkan junk food set me back a total of one euro.

On the east side of Gnjilane, there's another Serb-majority community called Ranilug that we drove by, but not through. After Ranilug, we turned around and headed back into Gnjilane, where we stopped at the Restaurant Bujana. Bujana was a really nice place to eat (I heard people talk about how good their steak was), but I stuck with the pizza, which would actually compare pretty nicely to some pizza I've had back in the States. After Bujana, we were stuffed and tired and it was time to head back to Bondsteel.

Take a look at the pics, enjoy, and check back later in the week. I gotta get some things in my room rearranged and then I should be able to post some shots of what it looks like now that I've filled it up with all my crap!