Today I was leaving Novi Pazar Serbia and travelling south into Pristina Kosovo. This is problematic for two reasons. First Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent country and considers it still part of Serbia. So you can not enter into Serbia from Kosovo if you have Kosovo entry stamps as Serbia considers this to be an illegal entry. Fortunately I was travelling south from inside Serbia so this would be considered "domestic travel" by the Serbian Government.
Second when I first came in 2013 I was not able to get onto the once daily bus and ended up having to take a taxi across the border [see 2013 blog entry - http://v2.travelark.org/travel-blog-entry/londone7/27/1381095762]
The online information claimed there was an hourly bus suggesting they had tidied up the situation from my 2013 visit. However when I arrived in Novi Pazar two days ago and tried to check the schedules at the bus station they did not match the online information and seemed to suggest there was only one daily bus. Talking yesterday to the attendant (who spoke no English) I confirmed there was only one daily bus at 9am
You can only buy tickets on the bus, not from the station or online. This is where I had problems in 2013 when the locals stormed the front of the bus when I went to the back to try to load my luggage, the bus was full, and just drove off leaving me stranded.
You have to know the name of the bus company that runs each route. The Aurora bus arrived just before 9am and was a full sized bus compared to the half sized minivan they were using in 2013. Not wanting a repeat of 2013 I stormed the doors with my luggage as soon as it opened to reserve my spot. Fortunately the bus was not that full and I could finally relax that I would be able to make this border crossing by bus rather than taxi as I had to in 2013
Ticket was 12 Euros and we were by the border at 10am. They searched the bus extensively in every compartment to look for any guns as there has been smuggling and some skirmishes with gunfire
Crossing into northern Kosovo is the Serbian portion so many Serbian flags to assert their identity. Kosovo has taken a harder line with its Serb minority and does not want to end up with an autonomous region as with the Serb "Republic Srpska" in Eastern and Northern Bosnia
As my phone SIM was working in Serbia and Kosovo is considered part of Serbia I was hoping my phone SIM would be working on arrival in Pristina so that I could text my apartment to let them know of my arrival. Unfortunately the SIM was dead in Kosovo with no connection
I dont want to keep buying a SIM at every border and only needed to text my apartment until I would have wifi inside the apartment.
The apartment was close to the bus station for my arrival and daily trips. I sort of remembered the layout from my 2013 visit. There were a lot more high rises compared to my last visit
The apartment is a busy retail area with high rises just across from the Mother Teresa Cathedral and would have a view overlooking. I had to flag a local to see if they call or text for me.
A local kebab shop that was not that busy and spoke some English was able to call for me and let me speak to the owner. I had to wait about 25 mins for him to get here and let me in.
It was a nice clean modern apartment for 40 Euros/nite for three nights
See also Vlog (16 mins) - https://youtu.be/f7jSUk8s6FE
2025-05-22