Valbonna - Decan Monastery - Gjacova (Kosovo)

Breakfast

After the amount of food we were served for dinner last night, the size of this morning’s breakfast comes as no surprise.

A different napkin flower this morning

There's cheese

Salad stuff

A mountain of bread

Pancakes, jams and honey

And just as my waistband is beginning to groan, out come the omelettes and sausages.

Drone

The light on the mountains is very different this morning, so we send up the drone once more to get some different photos.

Taken with my camera from the grounds

David is my spotter, so that I can concentrate on the settings and the photography

Rilingja Hotel from above

We continue on the small road taking us further up into the mountains, and pass through a small tourist village with lots of hotels and tourist buses. I am delighted that we stayed in the small family run lodge rather than in one of these large impersonal hotels.

As we continue ever higher, the surroundings become more and more rural.

Where the road ends, we stop for another drone flight.

From here we retrace our steps down past last night's hotel and then follow the raging river full of huge boulders with the road crossing left to right, right to left over many bridges.

Kosovo

The border crossing is a breeze, they don’t even want to see our passports.

Junik

We stop in this small town to see the ‘famous’ towers, fortified 19th century stone houses, known as kullë. Vladimir eventually finds the owner of this kullë, who lets us in to see what it is all about.

Outside the building sits the owner's Mercedes and his brand new ATV

The building, as with most kulla, sits inside a walled compound, and served as both dwellings and defensive structures.

After Vladimir found the man with the key, we are let inside the outer wall.

The owner explains that the property has been in his family for generations, and after living in Germany for 16 years, he has come back to renovate the building himself. He is full of anger against the government and UNESCO for not giving him any assistance (although I can find no reference to the towers on the UNESCO website), and the world in general it appears. I try speaking with him in German, but although I can understand the vast majority of what he is saying, my German is too rusty to be able to formulate an intelligent reply. I let Vladimir take over in Albanian instead. Every time Vladimir starts to translate for us, the owner continues his ranting. As far as the owner is concerned, the war is still on, and if the enemy was to come close, he would shoot. I am unable to ascertain who the enemy is, however.

The men lived on the top floor, the middle floor was for wife and children, while the ground floor would house the animals.

These days the whole family live in a more conventional house next door.

Both David and I come away from there more confused than when we arrived. We are not quite sure exactly what we were looking at, and the importance of these buildings has somehow passed us by.

Visoki Dečani Monastery

This place, however, is definitely on the UNESCO Heritage Site list. Again Vladimir ignores the signs for the car park half way up the lane, and drives directly to the entrance to drop us off. After a bit of sweet talking, he is even allowed to leave his car in the VIP section right by the entrance.

After leaving our passports with the KFOR military at the gate (the military are here to protect the 25 Serbian monks who reside in the monastery following attacks from ethnic Albanians who’d like to see the Serbs leave), one of the soldiers even goes as far as running down to the entrance to open the main gate so I wouldn’t have to walk down a couple of steps for the pedestrian door. Talk about VIP treatment!

The monastery was built in the mid-14th century for the Serbian King Stefan Decanski. Considering it has reportedly never been repainted or refurbished, it looks in a remarkably good condition.

Continuously inhabited for almost seven centuries, Dečani is still a functioning monastery with daily liturgical services. The monks’ quarter that surround the main church have been added at various times since.

I was told by the resident guide that despite it being stated that photography is only permitted in the grounds, that it is fine for me to take pictures inside. The photos cannot convey the incredible atmosphere and mindblowing array of frescoes found on every surface.

The narthex alone contains 365 different different paintings, one for each day.

There are a total of 4,000 m² of painting on the inside walls and ceiling.

The cross was handmade by one of the monks in the 15th century.

This unique fresco, which features Jesus Christ holding a sword, is a symbol of justice.

The grave of King Stefan’s sister.

The body of the King himself is said to be perfectly preserved without the use of any additives. Our guide showed us a photo on his phone purporting to be of King Stefan’s blackened hand.

Gjacova

Half the town seems to be derelict, and the other half under construction. It has the potential to be a lovely place once it is finished.

Çarshia e Jupave Hotel

Halfway down a narrow cobbled street on the edge of the old town, lies our hotel for the night. It’s a quaint and rustic hotel, with a very old-fashion lift, reminiscent of a paternoster I encountered in Paris back in the 1970s. This lift thankfully stops on each floor, but has an ornate vintage wrought iron door.

After checking in and freshening up in the room, we wander off to see if we can find somewhere to eat. We don’t have to go far. In a cobbled alley separating the two buildings that make up our hotel, a pavement café with a charming waiter who speaks excellent English, entices us to sit down.

Asking the waiter to suggest some local dishes for us to share, this is what he comes up with:

Meat pies

Bakllasarem - Yogurt Pie

Local pizza

Flija - Layers of Pancakes with Chocolate and Honey

Feeling full and very satisfied, we retire to our room, where we make ourselves a couple of cappuccinos – it’s the first room so far on this trip that has included a kettle. The AC is not working at all well, so we leave the bedroom window open. The room overlooks the alleyway we have just come from, but there doesn’t appear to be a great deal of noise coming from there (No drunken English lager-louts, thankfully)

This Balkan Adventure was arranged by Undiscovered Destinations.