We were up relatively early and the lovely smell of freshly baked banana muffins greeted me as I entered Louise’s place. She fed us breakfast as we waited for three RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) officers to show up. Louise is a lawyer working with the European Union and the three officers are on a yearlong secondment to help out with the best practices of various departments of the Kosovo police force. Louise picked up the guys from the airport a few weeks prior and helped get them settled in. Mark, a 48 year old living in Nova Scotia, George a happy Newfoundlander and the youngest, 40 year old Mark from Vancouver all seemed like great guys from the get go. We finished up breakfast and I jumped in their EU sponsored SUV while Garth, Holly and Judith were with Louise in her car. It took about an hour and a half to reach our destination of a ski hill, called Brezovice (pronounced “Brez-o-veech-ah”). Louise mentioned that this ski resort was the backup for the Sarajevo winter Olympics.
The mountain we were heading for:
A war memorial on the drive to the mountain:
There were a couple of military jeeps with Polish soldiers just hopping in; they must have just finished some exercises. There was one main building which was a bit dilapidated and looked closed. In general the lifts, additional buildings and auxiliary equipment all looked like they had seen better times and also had a bit of a communist era feel to them. Definitely no high speed chairlifts here. As we prepped for the hike, Louise gave us a general overview of our goal, heading up a grassy slope to a ridge and then working our way along it to some higher ground.
Getting ready:
The ridge we were about to hike:
Starting the hike:
We began our ascent as the sun shone down yet cumulus clouds were beginning to build over the mountains. Our path seemed to disappear but it wasn’t a problem hiking up the grassy slope and knowing where to go. The views from the ridge were spectacular and after a short break, and some discussion, we decided to go a bit higher, cross a saddle and hopefully meet up with the top of a chairlift and then follow a beat up dirt road down. We stopped for lunch at the apex of our hike as thunderclouds began to rumble nearby. Everyone thought we were going to get soaked on our descent but thankfully the skies began to open up just as we arrived at the carpark. Fabulous hike that took us about 3-4 hours.
Taking a break:
An old school communist rocket:
A happy hiker:
Looking down at the parking lot where we started:
Darker skies:
Stopping for lunch:
A defunct ski lift:
Hopping back into our vehicles, we drove about an hour to the city of Prizren to meet up with another RCMP officer for dinner. Brian, like the others, has only been in the country for a couple of weeks but seemed to be settling in fine. We had a lovely meal in a restaurant overlooking the muddy river flowing through town. We arrived back in Pristina around 9pm after a long but fabulous day...great people, great scenery and great food...life’s good.
Priren:
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