Let me preface this by saying that we loved Kosovo. It was about as disorienting and wacky of a place that I’ve ever visited – I’d put it up toward the top of the list with Mongolia on the disorientation scale. But we had a perennial problem in the country. Everything was closed!
And closed for no good reason, I believe. Granted, we were there in the off season, so maybe we should have expected it? There is no well beaten tourist path through the country yet (we didn’t see a single other tourist in the whole of the country, literally), and people tend to be on Balkan time, so I’m not sure why I expected things to run on schedule like a Japanese train.
Our first encounter with unavailable services came when we attempted to visit Pristina’s Tourist Information Center. I am a big fan of tourist information centers and kiosks, and drag David to them in every country we visit. The little blue-circled lower case “i” on city maps brings me joy, just knowing that increased knowledge can be found just a short walk away!
Pristina, however, did not give me this joy. Armed only with a shoddy photocopied map from our hotel, we wandered toward the location of the promised tourist information stand. What did we find? Broken windows and dusty surfaces belonging to a tourist information kiosk not active for a long time.
Minor heartache passed, we ventured around the city, exploring the strange architectural highlights, including the National Library, Palace of Sports, and Hill of Martyrs, before making our way back to the old city near our hotel. I had heard gleaming reviews of the Ethnographic Museum from our guidebook and one of my favorite blogs, and had considered it the one real must see museum on the whole of our Balkan trip.
We arrived well within opening hours and…closed. Locked. Bolted shut.
I should also say that our guide and drive the next day, Arsim with Kosovo Holidays, was extremely disappointed after hearing about this. “Kosovo has great tourist potential, but will only be realized if we can give great experiences to people traveling from abroad,” he lamented to us.
I agreed and let him know that I didn’t begrudge Kosovo these faults. But then again, here I am – top of mind to blog about Kosovo is how everything was closed rather than the experience I could have had at the Ethnographic museum.
We arrived in Prizren, what many consider to be the highlight of Kosovo, the next afternoon after a great tour with Arsim from Kosovo Holidays. It had been a long day, and we were looking forward to exploring all the town had to offer. Surely the tourist information center Arsim had pointed out when we entered town would be open. Surely!
Surely not. Closed again. I wandered to the storefront next door to ask if she knew if they were out, or on lunch or something, and I was met with some noncommittal shrugs. 
Maybe it’s basic of me to seek out tourist maps and information from these sources, sure, I’ll own that. But they’re also a rather vital service to tourists and travelers (same same) alike in a new city trying to get their bearings. And I don’t mind dead reckoning myself around a new town – it’s something I’ve gotten quite good at over the course of years of traveling. It is not something I necessarily love doing when I have the choice. Kosovo, unfortunately, didn’t give me the choice.
All these things said, Kosovo was easily the most interesting of the three countries we visited on this last trip. Certainly it was the most different – it was fabulously disorienting, and unlike any place I’d ever been, and I’d encourage anyone to visit for sure. But let it be known that the infrastructure (and information!) is lacking, and for Kosovo to catch up with its better trodden Balkan neighbors, it’s going to have to start dotting its i’s and crossing its t’s to become a destination that has more mainstream appeal.
