"Effing politics" and 4 countries in one day

Liz waiting for the cow's to come home - Montenegrin Mountains

Look at my ding a ling

Wooden decked bridge in Serbia

Deep green river in Bosnian Gorge.

Thursday 17^th May.

We did a breakfast coffee around the corner from the Buffalo Backpackers and then enjoyed walking around Pristina the capital of Kosovo. A quite cosmopolitan city with many UN and EU folks around. We visited the modern cathedral which was beautiful as it was so plain! We bought yummy apricots and cherries for next to nothing at the bazaar as we wandered through. I managed to post cards with the correct stamps before we left the relevant country for once.

We then travelled north through Mitrovica to the Serbian border where after exiting Kosovo we were refused entry to Serbia. The rules are  that you can not cross into Serbia from Kosovo unless you have entered Kosovo from Serbia originally. (The Serbs consider Kosovo is still a province of Serbia.)  The police officer in charge of this border crossing, he called it an administrative post, was most apologetic and said it was all “effing politics” but we must retrace our steps back to Mitronica and enter Serbia from Montenegro.

Off we trundled back to Mitrovica and then to Pec, where we stayed the night next to the traffic police station in a retired policeman’s b ack yard. Pec is a nice ordinary Kosovon town surrounded by mountains where we had a lte supper in an hotel. It is becoming a tourist destination for hikers who can walk mountain paths into Albania and Montenegro.

Friday 18^th May.

We had coffee in the local café for the police station – they don’t get free doughnuts here and probably must pay for their coffee “a policeman’s lot is not a happy one, happy one” It was then a major onslaught to Sarajevo. From Pec it was a short trek to the border with Montenegro and the usual stamping out and stamp in by the respective border police. Stunning scenery through mountains in Montenegro and then after a couple of hours when we had established the right Bijelo Polje of the 2 in the country we arrived at the Serbian border near this town. After all the problems yesterday, we breezed through this border with only a cursory glance inside the camper from the douane. Serbian Roads were not so good but again some wonderful mountains and steep climbs through deep gorges but only an hour or so and we were at the next border into Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even better sheer sides to these mountain passes but road tunnels with no lights at all and 2 way traffic. We followed the bank of a deep river with a deep green colouration to the water. Bosnia wins on the mountain scenery and breath-taking views on our journey today. As we were about 30 miles from Sarajevo the mountains gave way to open plains before the forested slopes of the National Park. For the last hour of our journey today we had yet another thunderstorm that seems to be typical of this part of the Balkans in the late afternoon early evening. We took the easy option as we drove into Sarajevo and stayed at the aptly named Gate to Sarajevo Hotel. The alternative was a camp site some 5 or 6 miles outside the city with generally mediocre reviews on the dreaded Trip Advisor. Today we travelled just over 200 miles and were driving for around 10 hours, just showing how a few hairpin bends and steep inclines can slow progress.