From Blue Sky Days to Blackbird Fields: A Character Building Hike...

On the last Sunday in October, the hike was to the chalet or "mountain hut" on the way to Jazhincë, Kosovo. We have done the hike to the lake on several occasions, but Sunday's hike was shorter and only went as far as the chalet. It was a celebration hike for Kjani Dema's 65th birthday and his retirement from teaching at the gymnasium. Twenty-five of us attended the hike, including the usual group of guys, Danny, 6 or 7 high school students, Thom, and me. Rain was in the forecast, and most of the adults were prepared, but many of the students weren't.

It was only sprinkling a little when we left Kaçanik, and by the time we arrived at the trailhead it was raining hard. The leaders of the group are always prepared, and they had brought a pack of large trash bags. The trash bags made good rain ponchos; however, one of the kids said they felt like they were in a cult--"the large trash bag cult".

Jazhincë is a beautiful hike through a mixed forest of oak, beech, and pine. The beech trees were a particularly beautiful shade of rust even on a gloomy, rainy day. The hike had one river crossing on a makeshift wood bridge and many smaller creek crossings. With the pouring rain and creek crossings, it was very hard to keep our feet dry. I had a plastic rain poncho that kept my upper body mostly dry.

Our group at the beginning of the hike

We kept on hiking through the rain and made it to the mountain hut at around 1 pm. We all crammed into the hut, and the guys tried to light a fire in the wood-burning stove, but they were not very successful. We ate our lunches in the cramped space. Without a fire, the hut was cold, so we didn't stay long.

The journey back to the van was much faster, and many of us slid on the walk back. I told one of the students, that this was a hike that builds character. When you've finished it, you will feel a sense of accomplishment.

Photos from the Hike

Although Sunday was rainy, Friday and Saturday were beautiful warm fall days. It rained Thursday night which cleaned the ai. The skies were so blue and when I reached Ferizaj, the mountains appeared clearer and closer than normal.

After my language lessons, we took the bus to Prishtina and met Danny at the bus station. Then we headed to Gjakova to bid farewell to one of the KOS 8 volunteers (Joe) who was heading home on November 2nd. He had to leave 3 weeks early, because his mom was having a major surgery. Gjakova is on the western side of Kosovo, and it took us about three hours to get there.

The map by bus to Gjakova (first to Ferizaj, then Prishtina, and lastly Gjakova

Thom found a nice rental apartment with two bedrooms in Gjakova. Once we arrived at the bus station, we found our way to our place, "Cozy Corners," and yes, it was in English. It was not far from the city center, and Joe met us at our place shortly after we arrived. Joe was a good tour guide, and Gjakova is really interesting. There is an area of Gjakova that has a catholic church, and a nearby village is entirely catholic. There were even butcher shops with pork, something you don't see a lot in other places in Kosovo.

This was not the only unique part of Gjakova. The city center has a unique construction that uses wood framing and storefronts. It is unusual to have wood used so predominantly in Kosovo constructions. There are building rules to keep the construction the same in the city center.

We had dinner with another volunteer who lives in Gjakova in the city center. Afterward, we met up with two Albanian volunteers who came to Gjakova for the night. They had planned to take a bus to Bajram Curri, Albanian to visit a fellow volunteer, but they missed the bus. They came to Gjakova for the night and were then going to catch a bus to Bajram Curri on Saturday. They did not have a place to stay, and we had plenty of room at our place, so they stayed the night with us.

Saturday morning Thom left early to go back to Kaçanik for an event with his organization. It was a very beautiful day, and Joe met the rest of us to take us to a restaurant owned by one of his student's family. We had a wonderful breakfast of patalka, omelets, and fresh round loaves of bread. The patalka is like a sopapilla or small square fry bread. The omelets came with cheese, tomatoes, olives, and cucumbers. We all have coffee and juice as well and our bill was less than 5 euros a piece.

After breakfast, we met up with two more volunteers -- Nadia and Alyanna. We hung out in the city center until around 3 pm. We walk to the Asian restaurant in Gjakova and had an early dinner. After dinner, Danny and I started the three hour trek back to Kaçanik.

It was a great visit to another city in Kosovo.

Photos from Gjakova