Kosovo and back!

Glenn and I returned Friday evening from 5 days in Kosovo.  This was our second time to visit this beautiful Balkan country, nestled in between Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro.  A tiny country, comparatively.

We started off the week in Prishtina, the capital city, visiting with our 3 friends that live there.  

Lacie took us to a typical Kosovar restaurant but one which prides itself on amazing atmosphere and interesting presentations of its' local dishes.  Wow!  The food was not only de-lish, but each d-ish was beautifully arranged to receive lots of oohs and ahhs!

My meal was wonderful, and an added bonus was that it had lots of vegetables, including broccoli!  In Europe we rarely see anything other than potatoes or rice, and almost never any green vegetables.

One of the ladies took me to the local outdoor market where all sorts of odds and ends are sold.  I found  small glass jewelry beads there for a great price!  (I'm starting to get into making jewelry because of wanting to do it with our Hungarian ladies group.)  Rather than catch a taxi back to the hotel, we decided to walk the 2-3 miles to walk off all the calories I'd consumed.   (Balkan food is so good, but not particularly low calorie!)

While walking back, she showed me the billboard of Bill Clinton ...

and the huge statue of him below the billboard.  

The 11-foot golden statue was dedicated to the former U.S. president to thank him for launching a NATO bombing campaign to halt the killing of ethnic Albanians by Serbian troups in 1999.  The statue is located on a boulevard also named after Mr. Clinton.

And literally around the corner was a dress store called Hillary.  I don't believe that was a coincidence.  

Later in the week we went up country to Peja to visit with another family.  If you recall, about this time last year, we were previously here in Peja to visit the family and I showed you pictures of their bakery/coffee shop called Sweet Bean.  Well, they enlarged their offerings beyond sweet treats and are growing, canning and selling jalapeños locally and to their friends across Europe under the name Spicy Bean.  Glenn bought 2 jars and we carefully wrapped them to put in my checked suitcase to get them back to Budapest.   In Budapest, as my suitcase came around on the carousel, we anxiously looked to see if it was dripping!  Fortunately, the 2 jars made it safely!!

While in Peja, Christa took me to a few of her favorite stores, one of which sells handmade lace!  This lady, herself, did all the lace work, sewing of wedding chair covers, satin quilts and bed covers. I bought the set of 3 that she is displaying.  Now I've just got to figure out what to do with them!

We had a great trip, enjoyed seeing all the families again, and experiencing a snippet of their lives!