Those of you who have been following our blog for some time, know that we never take the shortest route back home. After leaving Albania, we drove through Greece and Macedonia and one day later we were in Prizren:
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Prizren is one of the most important historic cities of Europe’s youngest nation, Kosovo. Most of the population is Albanian; almost all of them had to leave the country during the Kosovo War, but they returned. Luckily, the town did not sustain a lot of damage during the conflict.
Lars and I arrived in Prizren on a hot Sunday afternoon. It took us quite some time to get rid of the car, but eventually we did find a spot in the center of town. And then I saw the young man selling balloons…
The problem is that I suffer from phonophobia, a fear of loud sounds. I am not fond of devices that can suddenly produce loud sounds – a television set for example, and even a pile of books that suddenly falls over can startle me enormously. But the things that can trigger a huge panic attack are firecrackers, fireworks and … balloons.
So when I saw those balloons, I already started hyperventilating. We had to pass the young man, who was standing on a bridge. We simply had no choice. It was either that or returning to the car and not seeing anything of Prizren. So… I took one very deep breath and ran past that young man. I think I broke a record there…
And I was able to make these pictures!