The World's Newest Country

We arrived in Skopje, Macedonia a couple of days after leaving Skopelos. Ask us about our "interesting" taxi ride after we return. The people here have been extremely nice. We met a man in an antique shop who works part of the time in Kosovo. His English was incredibe -- could be a result of serving as translator for the American journalists in Kosovo during the war -- so we picked his brain about places that would be save to visit during our travels. He was a wealth of information . . . a real Godsend for this mom who was, quite frankly, not brimming with excitement about that leg of our journey. Who'd have thought Kosovo would turn out to be a highlight? That's why God gave Emma two parents. I'd always play it safe, avoiding any areas of potential conflict. While Wade certainly isn't going to take unnecessary risks, he's a good deal more adventurous than I am.

Crossing the boarder from Macedonia, the guard looked at Wade's passport and then asked, "Are you working in Kosovo?" "No," Wade replied, "just here on holiday." The guard's eyebrows raised and his eyes widened before he said "Okay, sure. Why not?" Wade asked him if he sees lots of Americans come through who will be working there and his reply was "Too many." Still, all the Kosovars seemed genuinely happy to have us there and I swear I saw more American flags flying there than I see back home. The country is absolutely beautiful. So many mountains, rivers, etc. We ended up pulling off the road to have dinner at a small place in the mountains, and then ended up pulling off again a bit later to spend the night instead of going on into Prizren as planned. We stayed in a tiny cabin next to a running river. Our hosts were extremely kind. His daughter was out of town, so he went and got her small bed and brought it to the cabin for Emma to use. We watched the Croatia vs. Turkey football match in the hotel restaurant, where they served Emma a special hot chocolate drink with loads of whipped cream on top. If we weren't occasionally stopped by KFOR soldiers, or if I didn't know we were in the newest country in the world, and if I hadn't followed the horrific stories in the news a decade or so ago, I'd have never believed these people had seen such atrocities. Crossing the boarder with Serbia on the return is a different story . . . . one I'll have to share in another post as it's time to go return the rental car.