I Made It to the Rugova Gorge!!

Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016--Peja

It was cloudy, but it wasn't raining when I got up this morning.  I decided I would head out to see more sights as soon as I finished my breakfast--IF the dry spell continued.  I tried the peppers I had seen yesterday.  They are long, thin roasted peppers with great flavor.  They are tossed with oil and crumbled cheese (which I thought was egg yesterday).  Something else I tried that I didn't have yesterday was a pancake which I spread with Nutella.  That was delicious, too.  And today, I only had one of the nice chocolates.

The sun even peeked out a couple of times.  So off I went in hopes of finishing my tour of town and maybe going further.  I started by going to the bus station only to learn that I have to buy my ticket on the bus tomorrow.  Then I walked to the edge of town and visited the Patriarchate of Peja which is a World Heritage Site which is a beautiful Serbian Orthodox Monastery complex from the 1300s.  Because it is Serbian and Kosovo is ruled by the majority Albanian Muslims now, it has a huge wall around the complex and a permanent police guard house at its entrance.  Everyone has to state his country to visit, and has to give a document in reserve if the answer indicates a citizen of a country that could be an enemy of Serbia and Orthodoxy.   The church is actually one building with 5 chapels.  It seems that each person in charge of the monastery wanted to have his own chapel and just kept adding onto the original building.  There are old frescoes covering the walls and ceilings.  It's a beautiful place.  The only people there early this morning were a tour group of people from New Zealand, a Spanish man who entered at he same time I did, and me.

Being on the edge of town toward Rugova Gorge and with the weather still dry after my visit to the monastery, I decided to hike into the gorge.  The walk was not a great incline, so I was able to walk fast.  I went inward for about 2 hours.  The mountains were high, the river was rushing, the views were wonderful.  It was similar in appearance to the area where I rafted last week near Zabljak.  The road twisted and winded along the sides of the river.  the mountains overlapped each other in the distance.  At one point, a waterfall gushed out of a hole in the side of the mountain and became multiple falls as it hit boulders toward the bottom where it entered the river.  I decided to turn back after that point when going through a tunnel just didn't seem completely safe.  I knew, anyway, that I was already deep inside the gorge.

Back in town 1 1/2 hours later, I walked back through the Old Town to take some photos.  Then I visited the Peja Art Gallery to see an exhibit of photographs, paintings, and videos which was described as "connecting to the moment after a war or revolution when the real is present without the promise of utopia or illusion, like a broken simulacra."  It was interesting, but didn't take up much time.

How nice it is that I have seen and done everything I wanted to do here.  I could have spent more time in the gorge and gone as far as the valley that is supposed to be beautiful, but I don't feel like the rain completely ruined my visit anymore.