From Blue Sky Days to Blackbird Fields: He's not from Kosovo...

Friday evening, Valon offered to show us the route of an annual bike ride that will take place in September. The bike ride starts in Kaçanik and out to where there is a swimming area on the Lepenci River. There is a restaurant along the river called the Lepenci Restaurant. Gjethi sponsors the biking event to encourage biking, but the lack of biking lanes still hinders the ability to bike in this area. It was a nice evening as Valon showed us the swimming spot and we ate dinner at the restaurant while listening to the babble of the Lepenci River.

It is a beautiful spot along the Lepenci River

Parking 2 euro and a table is 1 euro, and the landowner keeps it fairly clean

Picnic area among the trees, this is the turnaround point for the bike ride

The bike route for the bike ride

Trash along the swimming area

Playground and picnic area

Outdoor eating area at Lepenci Restaurant

Sheltered eating area along the river

Small group eating area, way to be on display if you eat there

Outdoor eating area and playground in the back

We had no plans in the morning on Saturday, but I am always out of vegetables, so we headed out for vegetables and coffee. As we were on our way to Të Dadini's, I pointed out a guy I saw walking in the park across from the fortress wall. I told Thom that he was not from here (Kaçanik or Kosovo), because he went out of his way to find a trash can to throw something away and he had a reusable water bottle. When we got to Të Dadini's, we saw a bike with panniers and a tent strapped on it. Sure enough, it was the guy's bike and Thom started talking with him while I finished shopping.

His name was Andrew and he is from Australia. He is biking around the Balkans and was in Skopje with an extra couple of days and decided to bike from Skopje to Brezavicë. Brezavicë is the ski area that is in the Sharr Mountains about 30 miles from here. Thom offered to buy him coffee or whatever and we headed to a nearby kafe and we sat and talked for a bit. Interestingly, Andrew works for an environmental ngo in Australia that is working on preserving natural areas by purchasing them. He works virtually 3 or 4 days a week and is biking around Europe the rest of the time. There were several things that Andrew commented on that are worth noting: 1) that people are super friendly in the Balkans 2) the trash problems are shared by other Balkan countries and 3) social currency is real and important. He explained that sitting down and having a two-hour coffee creates bonds and enhances relationships and that is the value of saying "yes" to "do you want to have coffee".

We were going to hike with the hiking group on Sunday, but the trip was canceled as a friend of the group died several days ago and they were going to pay their respect on Sunday.