Seeing Some of Peja between Showers

Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016--Peja

The rain continued to fall today.  The heaviest came during the evening, but throughout the morning there was a steady downfall causing people to use umbrellas outside.

The hotel had a nice buffet breakfast that was a bit different from some of the others I've had on this trip.  Kosovo has a bread made from corn that is popular, and they had some of that--made from very fine ground corn.  Bell peppers are a big part of the cuisine here (and markets have piles of them for sale).  On the buffet they had whole peppers that had been scrambled with eggs.  Something that I don't associate with Kosovo but was on the buffet and not common elsewhere was homemade dark chocolates.   They had large square-shaped pieces 1 inch by 1 inch by 1/2-inch (2.5 cm x 2.5 cm x 1.25 cm) and similarly-sized diamond-shaped pieces.  They were very tasty while being super rich.  I took two pieces and had a problem finishing them both!

Because it was raining, I sat in the lobby after breakfast and used my computer to read the news as I waited for the maid to make my room.  I finally returned to the room at 11:00 and stayed there until about 14:00.  By then, there was only off-and-on drizzle.  I decided to head out to see what I could of the city.

The lady at the tourist office gave me a map with a walking trail marked to connect some of the special features of the town.  She also confirmed that it would be impossible to go to the river gorge today or tomorrow because of the amount of rain.  (Seeing the river that runs through town convinced me she was right, since it was high and the water was rushing very fast.)

The first portion of my walk took me through the Old Town (Peja Bazaar) here.  It is a large section of town built during the Ottoman period.  The shops are small and the streets are narrow.  It is similar to the section of Sarajevo from the same time period, but it isn't as architecturally so interesting.  What makes it different and somewhat interesting is that the shops are ordinary shops serving the local population with shoes, jewelry, clothing, housewares, etc., rather than selling gift items and souvenirs like the shops in Sarajevo.

Just on the edge of Old Town and beyond it, I saw the Tahir Beg Inn (which is now an ethnological museum), Bajrakli Mosque, Haxhi Beu Hammam (bath house), Defterdar Mosque, Kurshumli Mosque, Mill of Haxhi Zeka, Kahreman Aga stone house, Goska family stone house,  and Zenel Beu stone house.

I was lucky to be able to walk about 3 1/2 hours with only light rain.  I wore my waterproof jacket that has a hood rather than take an umbrella.  Back at the hotel, I watched CNN news.  I considered going to the sauna downstairs, but it consists of individual cabinets which sounds rather boring to me--to just be isolated in a place with nothing to entertain my thoughts.