Muller in Kosovo: Part Deux: Skopje, Film City, Eagle Eggs and Harleys

Welcome back, folks! I hope everyone is keeping warm and has made it through the post-Holiday blues. For those of you who know my older brother Joe, he recently joined his wife Marzena in Green Bay where they are both now in practice. The other day... -10 F before the windchill. It was -3 F with 2-12 MPH winds for the game Sunday. All things considered, I'll take Kosovo! It has actually warmed up a great deal and the daytime highs have been in the high 40s to low 50s. The sun has made almost daily appearances, too. Two weeks ago, I completed another mission to Skopje, Macedonia for patient MR exams. This includes crossing the Southern border of Kosovo (technically Serbia as well) which can sometimes be a challenge. My roommate CPT Cuka created an international incident when he flew in through Skopje without a passport. The Army told him all you need to travel is your military ID and orders but then again, the Army tells us all kinds of things. The Macedonia Border Security Officers almost sent him back to Milan which was the connecting flight he came in on. They allowed him to enter, but the incident went up to the State department level. Bottom line: you need a passport, no matter what the Army tells you. This time we stopped at a mall which was quite nice. The had a currency booth to exchange Euros for Macedonian Denars. We did some browsing and bought several things for family and friends.

Mall in Skopje, Macedonia

Street in front of Mall

Yes, it is still Europe you know

Graffiti in Cyrillic- you don't see that every day

Vintage Yugoslavian car

Bečej is a town and municipality located in the South Bačka District of Vojvodina, Serbia

The following week, it was back to Pristina and Klinika Euromed for MR exams. They have the flouroscopy suite I needed to do an intra-articular shoulder injection before the MR. I said goodbye to all my friends there, as that would be my last mission to that clinic.

The lobby at Klinika Euromed

My interpreter Arben Limoni and the MR technologists at Euromed

After leaving the clinic, we went to KFOR Main headquarters in Pristina for lunch and shopping. The base is located on the southwest outskirts of the city at a location called Film City. This name comes from the fact that NATO chose abandoned warehouses that used to be part of a thriving local film industry as their command post. The site was the home of Kosovafilm, a film production, distribution and screening company in Kosovo. It was established on Feb 20th 1969 by Parliament of Kosovo nomination. Kosovafilm produced short movies, documentaries, cartoons and later feature movies. In 1971 the department of distribution was established: movies were brought with exclusive screening rights for all ex-Yugoslavia and Balkan. By this department over 200 feature movies and foreign production were distributed. This included such titles as Proka (a drama from 1984) and Pikniku (a comedy from 1985). More recently, Kosovafilm reemerged to produce the 2005 film Kukumi. In this first film from the United Nations Mission in Kosovo area, three inmates from a mental institution find themselves free when Serbian guards flee as NATO peacekeepers enter Kosovo. They wander the countryside encountering hostility from locals. One, Hasan, dreams of marrying another, Mara, and they travel to his bombed village only to have his relatives and villagers turn on them. Probably not available at Blockbuster in the States but interesting nonetheless!

Many of the major players who contribute troops to KFOR have a PX (Post Exchange) at Film City, so it a popular weekend destination for soldiers. This includes German, French, Italian, French, American, Scandinavian and Turkish PXs.

Shopping at Film City/KFOR Main

The French have to be different... it's a Boutique!

Lunch at the Italian Restaurant at Film City/KFOR Main

Me with Arben and CPT Waterman (ER nurse)

Another extremely popular pastime with KFOR soldiers is buying the knock-off watches outside the gate at Film City. There are probably 4-5 different shops, each with their own distinctive flair. To my knowledge none of the watches outside Film City are real, though you can get some pretty good prices on the real deal in Pristina. Some are darn good imitations, and others belong inside a clear plastic egg inside a gumball machine. Just ask the salesman though... they're all good, and on discount! Several of the docs before had bought them, and I am a sucker. I caved and got myself a Folex. Looks pretty good and works just fine, but I'm not fooling anybody. Have you ever seen an entire platoon of infantrymen in full "battle-rattle" each sporting a Rolex, Breitling or Omega on their wrist? Just come to Kosovo, my friends.

Outside the shop where I got my Folex

All good... and on discount, just for you!

Do you really think Rolex would allow a franchise on this street?

This guy said, "I don't set prices, I just work here." Right....

The last picture was taken in an effort to illustrate the air quality in Pristina. The issues are the power plants which are obsolete and use 40-year-old coal technology. They belch ungodly amounts of pollution into the air and create this unique sulfurous smog you really have to see (and smell) to believe. Good news is, you can pass gas (if needed) and no one will notice.

I had noticed on my last time in Kosovo that many of the older ethnic Albanian men wore this distinctive white hat that resembled, well... an egg. As luck would have it, I was lamenting the fact that I did not have one when our interpreter Bennie gave me the scoop. The hat indicates that these men are "Sons of the Eagle". Not just any old eagle, but the double-headed beast from the Albanian flag. And where would a son of an eagle come from, children? An egg of course! Hence the traditional ethnic Albanian headdress. They are quite literally, eggheads.

Traditional Ethnic Albanian "Son of the Eagle"

Honorary "Son of the Eagle"

Yes Katie. It's mine... it's coming home... and it's going in the livingroom!

I know that on an earlier posting I promised pictures of the famed "Kosovo Harley". There are actually too many variants to list, but here is a little potpourri:

Picking up some groceries

Just running some errands

The original "Kosovo Harley" Sweet!

Well, that about wraps it up folks. Just thought I would leave you with a few views of Camp Bondsteel over the past few weeks. Didn't get hassled by the MPs this time, either!

Sunday at Camp Bondsteel