Gërmia Park

Good evening from Kosova.  Although living in Pristina has its advantages, such as great food and great coffee, I think Charlotte and I will never really feel at home in a city.  I've been watching Animal Planet and Discovery Channel every night for my outdoors fix but this morning I decided we should go out exploring.  We'd heard about a huge park just beyond the city limits so we hoped in a taxi and said "Gremiaaa?"  The taxi driver deciphered our question and off we went.  About 15 mins later we pulled up into a beautiful wooded valley.    

There is a short road that runs up into the park.  It's lined with park benches and a few nice little playgrounds. Spreading out from this central road, walking trails climb up into the woods.  We found one and just started to climb.  

the trail as we began to get into the forest.

too cool.

The trails run all through these hills.  It was so good to get out into the fresh air and away from the smog of the city.  Deep breaths brought nothing but pure, fresh, wonderful snowy air... 

Charlotte started getting warm and off came the layers...

Robert Frost pose.

Lots of natural springs have been tapped to provide
 water for hikers and pets. 

This is an old ski lift that was never fixed after the war.  In the
foreground you can see rose hips, a common site in Kosovo
which I hope means lots of roses in summer!

Some sort of nuthatch that was pestering us for pretzels...

After walking for about an hour and a half, our trail looped down and back to the original road in the center of the valley.  We noticed a playground and a restaurant so we decided to stop in for a coffee and some lunch.  But as we were walking across the playground we noticed a big cage.  It was full of bears...

I think they are brown bears which are native to some parts of
Kosovo.  It's really terrible to see them living in these conditions
though.  Looks like they just eat the restaurant leftovers...

We stopped for coffee and some pasta after our 6 km hike.

You can see the bear cage just behind the playground...

Our food stop.

Sledding!  

This is for John H. in Surabaya.  Just on the outskirts of town,
huge, ostentatious, concrete mansions reminded Charlotte and
I of scooter rides in search of gelato...

Walking back into the old city in Pristina, you can see the
mosque minarets in the background.

1 Euro store.

All in all it was a great Saturday.  We finally found our way home and spent a few hours relaxing.  I have lots of plans to make this Sunday and I know Charlotte wants to get a lot done too.  It's a never ending battle being a first year teacher.  Each class is new, every lesson plan has the potential to fail.  It's a high stress time. Especially when you throw in getting to know a totally new group of kids, new names, new discipline issues and new classroom expectations and dynamics.  Needless to say, we both have our hands full :)