Skopje, Pristina, and Istog, Oh My!

First of all: Sorry I haven't been able to post for a couple days.

To recap: For our last night in Thessa we went to a restaurant for coffee. We had a really good time and probably looked super cool when we danced in our seats to the American songs. 

The next day we walked around, bought some souvenirs, and hung out in the courtyard of a church. We think the church was underground, which sounds like an easy thing to figure out, but I'm still not sure. To go to Kosovo we had to take a bus from Thessa to Skopje, Macedonia so Linda's mom could bring us to Pristina, Kosovo. We met an older American couple on an eastern European adventure from Dallas at the bus stop, and even though they were harmless, the border patrol gave them trouble and cost us nearly an hour. Luckily, everyone made it back on the bus and we continued on our way. Linda's mom and her mom's cousin picked us up, and late at night we made it to Pristina and met Linda's brother Durim and his friend Adrian.

The next day (May 11th) we drove around the capital city, walked around a mountain, and took pictures of some bears and a monkey that we ran into. Calm down -- they were in cages. After lunch we left for Istog, a town of about 15,000 people nestled at the bottom of a mountain where Linda's mom grew up. Once we were there we went for coffee and walked around a waterfall with Durim and two of his very friendly friends. From dinner until 11:00 we visited the homes of 3 of Linda's relatives, and I met more people than I can count. But hey, they were all really nice!

Today we went to the mountain in Istog. It was a long, bumpy ride to the top in a van full of people, but it wasn't that different from the rides on my farm at home to check the cows. Our destination was the home of another of Linda's relatives. They live in a two-room portable (yeah, portable!) house that somehow fit all 15 or so of us. After a few hours of eating and exploring the area we had to go back to Pristina, where I've spent the last several hours meeting some of Linda's friends. I don't know what I expected Kosovo to be like, but it's been lots of fun so far!

Below: Winston on top of a mountain in Istog