Journey of the Stone
We leave Marashi restaurant and follow signs towards the Prizren Fortress. Soon we are taking some mighty steep and narrow streets up through houses and apartments on the hillside by the river. It is slow going up the stone road but feels good to walk off some of that monster lunch we just mouth plowed.
About 2/3rds of the way up we come to an old church. It’s blocked off by an iron gate and some barbed wire.
This is the Church of the Holy Saviour. A Serbian Orthodox church built around the year 1330 A.D. The church was declared a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1990. It is protected by the Republic of Serbia.
Hard to get a good angle on it from here but it’s interesting, stonework and design.
We continue on the steep incline up towards the fortress. There are some signs along the way with tidbits of info. They offer a nice break from the calf and glute burning, super metal, Journey of the Stone.
There’s a nice looking café up here with a spectacular view back on the city. Doesn’t look open for some reason.
The Journey of the Stone continues above the café and we stop for a sec to take in the view and get another angle on that church. Pretty town. Again, good call from Micki to come here.
I like how these JOTS signs point out key landmarks in the city. It’s also a good way to learn four languages at once.
Prizren Fortress
We’ve got a good glisten of sweat going now and the Journey of the Stone dumps us at the gates of the imposing white walls of Prizren Fortress.
Here’s a bitchin drone shot from wikipedia.
“How many Balkan Fortresses is this now?”, “Dunno. Lost count. I’m not hearing any jazz. Are we in the right place?”
Great fortress ruins up here, let’s take a spin around.
Oooh the Armory…
These walls are still in stellar shape.
All the Journey of the Stone covers get played in this amphitheatre.
I mean Mastodon must have covered it right?
(Amazing groove at 8:15 there. Making that my ringtone. right. now.)
Ok, here’s the thing. It’s not a Secret Tunnel if there’s a fucking sign telling everyone
Smashing view from this ‘Secret Tunnel’ though
These don’t look.. old. C’mon
A plaque describes some artifacts recovered from the site. All these goodies must be in the museum.
This fortress is basically empty. Just a handful of folks up here.
To be fair, The Journey of the Stone is serious business.
Always nice to get to some lesser travelled, spectacular places.
We spin back around to the front of the fortress to catch the view back on Prizren.
Some douchebag comes up playing really terrible rap on his phone super loud.
We cut a sharp right to fade the Ego Intruder out of earshot as he ventures inside to annoy everyone else in his periphery.
It’s the Journey of the Stone, bro. At least get the genre right.
Yep, the view is off the charts.
Let’s take some inventory:
Old red roofs
Dozens of Mosque spires
Bistrica river running through
Stone bridges
Šar and Pashtrik Mountains overlooking
Fabulous food
Almost nobody here
Chill AF
—–
Perfectly Beautiful
Actually, I think world-renowned Albanian actor, Bekim Femui, said it best:
This view though. So good
“Is that a star on the side of the river by the first bridge?”, “Ahh… yeah. What’s that about?”
Oh right. A picture of us at the place
Done. Another rad Balkan Fortress down. Detectives out.
“It’s gonna be a steep walk back. Hard on the ol’ knees-ees”, “If you play Journey of the Stone backwards, Satan tells you to kill your family.”