Just a quick one hour bus ride from Prishtina and I find myself in Peja at the mouth of Rugova Valley. Thanks to a rapidly developing outdoor adventure industry, Peja is rapidly becoming Kosovo’s outdoor adventure capital. It also has a couple of very important Serbian monasteries nearby. After checking into my hostel, I had just enough time to visit the Patriarchate of Pec (the Serbian word for Peja), and then explore downtown. Just walking from the bus station to the hostel I can tell I’m going to like this place. The mountains all around are just stunning!

At the western outskirts of town in the beautiful Rugova Valley, the Patriarchate of Pec is a nunnery that was established in the 13th century. Due to tensions in the area it’s pretty heavily guarded and I have to show my passport and register with the police before going inside. I tried to take a picture of the monastery tower from outside the wall, but there was a guard shack to close nearby and I got yelled at. Oops! Once inside, though, it’s a beautiful peaceful oasis. The church sits at one end while the rest of the complex is studded with medieval ruins.

The church and the grounds are bright and cheery, but inside is like being in an ancient candle lit cave church. No pictures, though. I’m not arguing with any nuns, they look tough.

In an earlier post I mentioned that Gjeravica used to be the highest mountain in Serbia, but now it’s the highest mountain in Kosovo. Well in addition to the new highest peak in Serbia, Midzor, I got to hike this one too. This is the one hike on my trip that I wasn’t sure I would be able to do because the road to the trailhead is extremely rugged and requires a high clearance vehicle or 4×4. I had no luck figuring out the transport situation until I actually got into town. Luckily, the tourist office I stumbled upon knew a guy. Enter Arianit, a local hiking guide who drives tourists up there all the time. I was relieved to have that sorted out.

After driving up the extremely rough road we reached the village of Gropa Erenikit, the start of the hike. Rather than wait for several hours for me to return, Arianit asked if he could hike with me. It was nice to have the company for a change. The weather turned slightly cooler too yesterday, that coupled with the elevation made for an incredibly pleasant day.

This area is part of the Accursed Mountains, or the Albanian Alps. It seems every country in the area has a legend about why they’re called Accursed, Arianit told me a couple of them on the drive up, but I think they should be called Astounding because that’s what they are. This may be the best hike I’ve done on this trip so far. It’s crazy beautiful here!

As you get to the start of the final push to the top you first pass by idyllic Gjeravica Lake. That water is crystal clear and painfully cold. I only dipped my feet in to cool off.

Finally we reached the summit and enjoyed the views from the top of Kosovo at 8714ft. Views into Kosovo itself, but also, just over the first ridge to the south is Albania and to the west, Montenegro. Awesome!

After eating lunch and lots of photos it was time to head down. On the way, I was surprised to learn that most of the shrubs we’d been hiking through were blueberries. What?! My favorite! The ones higher up weren’t quite ready yet, but as we got lower in elevation closer to the village… blueberry smorgasbord! I ate more than few handfuls.

I headed about ten miles south to the Visoki Decani Monastery for my final outing. I learned the hard way that there are no buses on Sunday, though, so I had to pay too much for a taxi to take me there. This place was the most heavily guarded Serbian monastery in Kosovo yet! There were two military checkpoints to get to this one. One checking and logging cars, and one where I had to surrender my passport to get a visitor pass. Like the others, once inside it was a calm peaceful oasis. This historic monastery was built in the early 14th century by Serbian king Stefan Decanski. I’m sure everyone is tired of hearing about the beautiful artwork inside these orthodox churches, but I never get tired of seeing them. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside this time either, but it was incredible! Definitely worth the expensive taxi ride.

That about wraps it up for Peja. Honestly, I could probably spend weeks here hiking. There are many multi-day/multi-country treks to do, more peaks to conquer, as well as the popular Via Ferrata, a climb up a sheer cliff involving bolted in steps and handholds and lots of safety equipment (that’s a big bucket of nope for me). For me it’s time to move on though. The next stop is going to be very short, one day and one night, and then another border cross to the next country, so don’t stray too far…