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Saturday and sunday were sun-days, and all to powerful effects to stay at home. Going to Skopje is overrated i think, except if you explore other parts of this huge city - which we will try to do. The initial plan was to go with nita's work colleagues to Boga, a rugged mountainous region near Peja. But they decided not to go. Being eager to get away from the city for a day, we decided to pack our bags with food from the bakery, get a couple of DVDs, music, 1.3MP camera-phone /since i broke my camera/ stock on some milk and cheese, and give that rugged, rocky, mountainous, yet beautiful scenery that people talk about a try. A snowboard jumping contents "Jump to the maxxx!" - organized by the Snowman/Snownjeri org was scheduled to be held on Sunday - another reason for going there. We knew how to get to Prizren, but then had no clue how to climb to Prevalle. People there were so friendly, that a few questions asked and we made it on the right path to Prevalle. It was past three small villages. Cattle and unfinished buildings were a frequent accurance, but what was striking - or not - was that women were chopping wood, carrying hay, feeding the cattle, working the land... only on some occasions that we saw men do any work. Yes, they were mostly engaged in house-building I guess, but still the women there (young and old) were doing a lot of work. Women wore colorful, baggy clothes; old / young they all looked the same pale faces.



As we made our way up the mountain at 37km/h, we saw that the area was beautiful, and kind of resembled Brezovica (they share the same mountain range), the roads were narrow, and there was this steepeness which we were not aware, but min-e the car was super aware. We had no clue where to go, and what language to speak to the locals there /they were kosovars, but we heard turkish and serbian being spoken/. It was an alien land, which we got immediately familiar since the town center had only 1 "main" road and a couple of houses. Looking for a place where we can stay for the night was not that easy. On the first stop, I went to this good looking wooden building that clearly was just recently built, and tried to ask for a room. It was fishy from the start, since the building had banners that read how God love good people and that. Again, I entered their "logged" doors (they were actual logs for doors), and saw people with beards and women with scarves - first sign that this is no ordinary room-renting place. A kind young guy showed me around and it was amazing to see how decorated that place was! The rooms were great, but they also had copies of the Ku'ran in each room and in each part of the building. By the looks that the young man gave me, it was clear that I was not invited. The young man even said that: "The director has to first approve if you can stay or not", which made the stay even less desirable. I kindly said thank you and left. We were lucky on our second try, and found a quirky room on top of a restaurant, nice people. For 20eur a night, we took the room. Seriously, the interior designer of the room must have had wood coming out of his/her ears, since all the room was covered in wooden decorations. The most "wooden" part of the room that I wanted to take home was the small step that eased your way up the upper level of the two-level room. We bought nothing at the restaurant, because we enjoyed our bakery food too much. A cleaning lady was urgenlty needed to first burn down the room, then repairit, repaint it, and then clean it propely. Not to say that the room was dirty, but it was not clean either. we did not mind (for a while).



The next day we went to see the only improvized ski-lift, and some snow that was left over. The sun was incredibly shinning and we almost went snowblind /nita did for about a minute or ten minutes/. We met Beni, one of the organizers of the snowjumping event, and said hi, and he told us how the snow had melted day by day. The jump was ready, flags were waiving, and people were expected to come (the DJ came as we were descending from the mountain).



We left for Prizren at 11am, then Prishtina, and did not see the snowjumping event because Prevalle was just got too much, and was not an interesting place anymore. We praised the organizers, blessed them, gave the 20euros to the restaurant owner, left the garbage behind, door open and drove away. We saw some of our friends that were heading for the snow piste (artan, emira, then valon+anyla). Good times spent on the mountains. Prevalla is definitely a place to visit, and stay long weekends. One thing that keeps bothering me about these beautiful, pristine places is the damn restaurants that keep creeping up everywhere, destroying the very nature people want to visit. It is a poor place, and people there are in desprate need of money. A tough way of living off the mountain, but at least they were not as harsh as the rocky mountains.