In the city of bling-bling

The question was where to go from Bajram Curri. There are only one road to the other parts of Albania, a mountain road named SH22. A few days later I met people who drove it with their own car and they said it is an small adventure but the landscape must be amazing so that on didn't want to drive fast. However, Bajram Curri is only a few kilometers from the border to the Kosovo and it was therefore a simple decision to go there. The first bigger town where our Furgon stopped was Gjakova and I stayed there while the Italians went on further to visit other places in the Kosovo.

Yes, this Norwegian HipHop song doesn't fit to the topic. You can nevertheless enjoy it while reading:
Multicyde - The Claptrap

Gjakova has a long and interesting history. Its inner city is beautiful and there are many things to discover. Because of the long period under the influence of the Ottoman culture you find there typical Ottoman houses, mosques and also some Tekke. The most impressive part of the city is the old bazaar which consists of several streets. After its heavy damage during the Kosova war the European Union funded its reconstruction and even rebuilt some parts that were damaged before the war. For example the clock tower was once destroyed in 1912 by the Montenegrins. The rebuilt result is impressive, despite that there are still some parts under construction:

The clock tower

There are a lot of stores with wedding background.

Parts of the main road through the bazaar were still under reconstruction.

Some streets in the bazaar are not yet filled with live because most houses had to be rebuilt from scratch and they try to re-animate the former structure where certain artisans were made and sold in different streets.

One of the "empty streets" All shops are closed and some houses empty..

Inside the bazaar area is the Hadum Mosque:

I liked are the many nice courtyards in the town:

This is the courtyard of the Hani i Haraçisë ("the new inn").
Here you can try out delicious traditional food.

When walking through the streets you will notice that there are many shops selling wedding clothes, hairstylists, agencies specialized in wedding photos and videos, jewelers and shops selling all kind of bling-bling. The reason is that Albanian wedding entourages consists of several hundreds of persons and the largest hall in the Kosovo is in Gjakova in the Pashtriku hotel. I stayed in this hotel (I can recommend it) and they managed to host 3 weddings a day. I could talk a bit with the son of the owner who explained that Kosovars marry mainly in July and August. Of course because there is good weather but also because this is the time where the relatives from abroad are in vacation and can join the wedding. There are for example about 100.000 Kosovars living in Switzerland. (I will come back to the reasons in a separate post about the history of Albania.)
The Kosovars from abroad are special. They of course have much more money than the local people but they think they have to show their prosperity all the time. There are countless big cars with Swiss and German license plates circling around in the city. Some drivers do this in a ridiculous way: tires are burnt, senseless full stops and kickstarts are made etc.. Moreover these persons prefer the bling-bling style: jewelry, pink plastic Kitsch, mobile cases with fake diamonds etc. As most of them speak German I could talk to some of them and it turns out that they are often not confident with their situation. They believe that the local relatives expect that they are rich but they live in small flats at home. Some of the big cars are only rented or they are bought on credit to sell them soon after the trip to the Kosovo. On the other hand the locals don't like that their relatives from abroad show their money at every occasion. Nevertheless many locals depend on their money. The situation is like you own a car but you depend on your brother to give you money for its gasoline.

A typical bling-bling shop.

The problem of specialization on a certain market is that one depends on it. The locals told me that in the non-wedding season the city is kind of dead. The unemployment rate is dramatically high and unemployed people don't have money to buy things. That is why there are also abandoned places like this one:

A former market in the inner city.

A good place to relax is the Çabrat hill. There are some restaurant where you have great views to the city and the surrounding hilly landscape:

View to the old town.

View to the northern, modern part of the city.

View out of the Pashtriku hotel.

The churches of Gjakova were destroyed in the Kosova war but are already rebuilt. This is the catholic cathedral of St.Peter and St.Paul which is a complete new building and which was opened a few weeks after my visit:

The town still hosts an Italian KFOR military station. You also find some monuments concerning the fight of the UÇK and earlier riots, like the protests in 1981. For example this one:

The girl in the image lives in Germany. She therefore spoke  German with his brother which the locals didn't like. The man in the image ranted at her that she should speak her mother language Albanian and that she should be proud of it. She replied in German that only poor people speak Albanian - ouch!

At last some travel tips: Going from Gjakova to Tirana is only possible once a day at 6 AM. The buses start in front of the closed main bus station. In summer it is recommended to reserve a seat because the buses are often full. Going from Gjakova to other cities in the Kosovo like Peć or Prizren is possible several times a day.
If you have your own car or could catch a Furgon, make a stop at the famous Ura e Terzive.