We were never planning on going to Kosovo but were told that it was worth a look and it had a pretty good night life so being a Friday we decided to head across the border to Pristina only 90km from Skopje. After arriving at the hostel we took a quick stroll down the main city drag that was really modern and packed with people. Once we returned to the hostel we got chatting to fellow travellers before embarking on a bit of a bar crawl with the group. The bar scene in Pristina was worth the travel, but we returned home before that next taxi to the club.

The next day we did a walk around the city visited the local food market and caught a glimpse of the Bill Clinton statue that is erected on Bill Clinton Street. We also saw the university library voted the ugliest building in Europe which we would both have to agree on.

That afternoon we made our way to the bear sanctuary using the following directions from the hostel: walk to the bus station and show the bus drivers a picture of a bear until one of them nods – take his bus. You will be dropped at a petrol station at the end of a lake, go into the nearby restaurant and ask the waiter for a bicycle, follow the road around the lake until you find the bears.

These directions actually worked and we managed to hunt down some bikes for 1 euro each, which was a bonus as it would have been a slow 3km walk. The bear sanctuary was amazing, the brown bears are rescued from horrendous conditions in Albania, most being kept in small cages outside restaurants to attract customers. These bear’s new enclosures are amazing and the carers have done a great job at rehabilitating them into a more natural environment. It was great to see them up close but really sad to read their stories. After an awesome afternoon out at the sanctuary we headed back to Pristina and back on the bus across the border to Skopje.