Biking Kosovo

25-29 August 2023, Mitrovica
Centar Apartmani 23.65€ [R473]

We have put down roots for a few days in Mitrovica in a somewhat odd little apartment with a very strange host.
On the plus side, the apartment is cool, centrally located and has a washing machine and strong wifi. On the odd side, it looks from the street like a storefront wedged between a coffee shop and a Burek* restaurant. The kitchen and bathroom are 600mm higher than the bedroom / living room, accessed via a wooden bench-step. Although the place is advertised as having a kitchen and in fact sports a fridge, there is literally no other equipment, no kettle, no crockery or cutlery, and a sign beside the door reads "Unallowed Food Drinks Smoking".
The host, not located in town it seems, is incredibly neurotic. He does not trust that a guest who has made a booking will actually pitch up (probably had some bad experiences). He asks that when you arrive at the street door, you whatsapp a selfie in front of it to him. Then he arranges for his employee to meet you. Then he insists on a video call - he was shirtless under a grapevine for our conversation. He watched the employee photograph our passports and counted out the cash payment on camera. Between intimating during whatsapp engagements that you are likely to cheat him, he sends smiley emojis and notes about how sweet you are!
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*Burek is phyllo pastry stuffed with meat or spinach and cheese or potato. In the restaurants here it is accompanied by a plain yoghurt.
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Yugoslavia ('Land of the South Slavs') lasted only 74 years from 1918 to 1992. When it was formed shortly after the first World War, it aimed to pull together disparate peoples who shared the common goal of ridding themselves of either Ottoman or Austro-Hungarian rule.
Initially named the _Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes_, it later adopted the name _Kingdom of Yugoslavia_.
The Kingdom was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance. In 1944, King Peter II, then living in exile, recognised it as the legitimate government. The monarchy was subsequently abolished in November 1945.
Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country from 1944 until his death in 1980. Yugoslavia was renamed the _Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia_ in 1945, when a communist government was established.
In 1963, the country was renamed for the final time, as the _Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia_ (SFRY).
The federation comprised six republics: Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia. Serbia contained two Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the other members of the federation.
When Yugoslavia broke up in the late 1980s-early 1990s, it did so along its republics' borders, leading to the Yugoslav Wars. “From 1993 to 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal tried political and military leaders from the former Yugoslavia for war crimes, genocide, and other crimes committed during those wars.”
The Serbian province of Kosovo declared itself an independent country in 2008, making it Europe’s youngest country. This independence is still disputed by Serbia and not acknowledged by several countries including South Africa.

[cont.]