Shoqata e të Shurdhërve në Prishtinë

Each and every day here in Kosovo has been an adventure in and of itself, but some days really stand out as extraordinary. Yesterday was one of those days.

There were a few things south of Prishtina that I had been wanting to visit ever since finding out about them - so as soon as work got done on Wednesday, we found ourselves taking a taxi down to an old Serbian Orthodox Monastery in Gračanica. I had seen some pictures of it from nearly 100 years ago, and wanted to see how it had aged. Rather than take the bus, we grabbed a taxi and saved ourselves a bunch of walking - he dropped us off in front of the Monastery and we arranged to have him come back for us in a few hours.

This building not as grand as the Monastery at Dečani that we saw a few weeks ago, more frequently used, smaller and a little dingier on the inside, but in some ways I thought it was more beautiful, for those exact same reasons. The stone work itself was beautiful, and inside the woodwork was incredible - so intricate! I cannot imagine the kind of work that must go into making something so beautiful. The nuns who make their home there were not much in evidence, but the feel of the place was quiet and serene - in spite of the beggars looking for handouts from the Americans.

About 2km down the road from the monastery lies the ruins of a Roman city, destroyed thousands of years ago and left to decay in peace. All that was left for people to see were stone foundations and an old cemetery. Ignored for years during the war, German archeologist are finally starting to excavate the area and piece together some of the history - I have heard some people say that with enough work and investment, it could become Kosovo's Pompeii. It was incredible to be walking along an old farm road, with corn and hay fields on both sides - and then start to find very carefully excavated holes in the ground. We wandered through the first area of ruins, careful to stay away from places where we might mess something up and explored the foundations of 3-4 different buildings while staying out of the way of the family tending their vegetable patch right next to the archeologists canopy.

The best part of all came when we walked farther down the road to where we could see people at another dig site - and though they spoke no English, and we didn't speak any Serbian, we managed to get permission to walk through this part of the excavation - the cemetery, complete with crypts, sarcophagus, human bones, old pottery shards with designs still visible, stella, and the bases of marble pillars. Flat out amazing - nothing else I've seen in Kosovo can compare.

Having worked up a bit of an appetite while climbing around and exploring the ruins, we met up with our taxi driver from earlier that day and asked him to drop us off at Renaissance, a restaurant in downtown Prishtina. After getting dropped off however, we found that the restaurant was nowhere in sight. We consulted the guide book we were using, and walked a bit in both directions looking for anything that might look like a nice place to eat, and found nothing but dingy alleys and cheap shops.

Lucky for us there were 3 very friendly looking members of the Kosovo Police Force standing nearby, and one even happened to speak some English. They all went to work trying to figure out where this place might be. Conflicting directions and confusion about what we were looking for sent us in circles for nearly half an hour, but we had a good time seeing parts of the city we never would have gone into otherwise, worked up a really good appetite, and we had a great time laughing with the policemen - they were great sports and stayed with us till we found it!

It was worth all the effort to find it - lots of delicious food, more than we could eat, really, for a set price. Veggies tasted fresh out of the garden, and they probably were. The beef was tender, and was marinated in a mild mustard sauce with mushrooms and green onions. I never would have imagined it, but - YUM! We left well filled, and grateful to have had a good workout before hand so we could enjoy it all so thoroughly.

So we had a great afternoon. The Monastery was beautiful, Ulpiana was astounding, the Police were friendly and the food delicious - but the best part of the day came as we were walking from the restaurant to the bus stop.

I was watching the street vendors, hoping to find someone selling cheap cell phones to replace the one I lost to a water bottle (I will tell this story later.) I was jerked out of my food & sleep fogged state to find that I had walked right past a group of people signing to each other, and on their way to the nearby Deaf Club. The very same Deaf club we had been searching for ever since arriving nearly a month before - and that I had actually walked past at least twice! (In my defense, the sign was very well hidden.) Of course we gave up all thoughts of an early bedtime and fell in with the group. Attempting to communicate was just plain fun - lots of gesturing was involved, and a great deal of laughter. Luckily a few of the people there understood American fingerspelling and some English, so when worst came to worst I could fingerspell to them and they could translate for me. Somehow, ideas were communicated and I think everyone had fun, either teaching us new signs, or enjoying our ignorance - I know it certainly amused me!

By time we made it out of there it was late enough that the buses had stopped running, and we had to grab a taxi to make it home, but that night was well worth the extra euros - though I would much rather stay another month and really get to know the country and the people, at least now I can leave without any real regrets.

Happy me.