As my adventures continued in and around the city of Pristina on my Albania-Kosovo road trip, I had a wild day that took me all over the city! Join me as I try a one-meter burek and visit some of the historical, cultural, and natural attractions near Pristina, Kosovo!
My friend Erjan from Travel Media EU and I started our evening around 30 or 40 minutes outside of Pristina at Ulpiana, an ancient Illyrian town. Only about 20% of the town has been unearthed so far! The Romans later conquered it and turned it into a typical Roman town with a Cardo Maximus (the main street in every Roman town), with lots of buildings.
There’s a beautiful path around the ruins where you can get a nice view of all the ruins. I could see the ruins of a late-antiquity basilica named Basilica Paleocristiana from the 6th century AD, which was fortified and had four circular towers set at the angles.
Next, I saw the remains of a pagan temple with a portico from the early Roman period, around the 2nd century AD. Then, we came across the northern gate, which was the main entrance to the Cardo Maximus. It was a massive ancient town, and so much of it is still underground! Archaeologists are still excavating it!
With 30 minutes until sunset, we drove to Gračanica Monastery, which is located about 25 minutes outside of Pristina. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has lots of beautiful frescoes inside. It’s surrounded by a huge wall with barbed wire on top. Inside the walls is the church, a candle shop, and a souvenir shop.
Gračanica Monastery was built in 1321 by a Serbian king over the ruins of a 6th-century basilica. It was declared a site of importance in 1990 and is really beautiful! Then, we headed back to the capital to get some food. There was a lot of bad traffic on the way. It took an hour to get back into town.
We arrived at the Swiss Diamond Hotel and picked up our adventures the next morning after being sick the previous night. We would start our day with a burek breakfast and a visit to more attractions near Pristina, Kosovo.
I hadn’t eaten in about 24 hours, so we stopped at a small bakery called Furra Laura near the town of Gračanica, where they make lots of different types of burek including spinach and others. The bureks were only $0.60 each, and the yogurt drink called ajran is $0.20.
These bureks are a little different, as they’re not squares or triangles. These are long and snake-shaped, and a meter long! Mine was cut in half but Erjan’s was still whole. It was flaky, doughy, and full of cheese.
Everything at this bakery is super inexpensive and tasty! We also met so many friendly, kind people there. Someone even appreciated me filming so much that they paid for our breakfast and said we deserved it! Then, we headed to Bear Sanctuary Pristina. Five minutes past Gračanica is a forested area with one main road, lakes, hills, and occasional small villages. It’s along the road from Pristina to Gjilan.
This was my first bear sanctuary! There, they house the Kosovo brown bear, which used to be held in cages in places like restaurants until it became illegal in November of 2010. There are 19 brown bears at the sanctuary! It only costs 2 Euros per person to enter. Along the path through the sanctuary are signs showing information, including info on how far certain native animals can jump. The rabbits can jump up to 5 meters!
The sanctuary is open daily from February to December. The path makes you feel like you’re in a forest. Each of the bears here has a name. There’s a sign showing pictures of each of them, along with information about them.
Each bear has its own enclosure with huge, 15-foot-high fences. The first one we saw, Andri, was beautiful even though he was far away. There’s a lot of intense uphill treks up the path, and it’s pretty intense! It will take at least 90 minutes to see it all.
Then, we came across an enclosure with three bears: Emma, Oska, and Ron. They were sold as cubs to two families, and Four Paws got involved and brought them to the sanctuary. They’re so beautiful! There’s also a small, 6×6 cage that shows what the bears used to live in. It’s really sad. Then, we saw Rina and Ari, two more bears. Some of the bears were a little scared of us, but others were curious and seemed to like watching us!
What an amazing time having burek and seeing the attractions near Pristina, Kosovo! Massive thanks to my friends at Travel Media EU and Rental Car Albania for showing me such an incredible time. Book with them when you come to Albania and Kosovo!
I hope you liked coming with me to have burek and to explore the attractions near Pristina, Kosovo! If you did, please give this video a thumbs up and leave a comment below. Also, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and click the notification bell so you don’t miss any of my travel/food adventures around the world!
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