Tsar Lazar and the Honesty of Kosovars

Tsar Lazar was a very important bloke.  He was the ruler in the 14th Century who re-unified Serbia and led the nation to power and glory.  He died on the battlefield in 1389 in the infamous Battle of Kosovo,  fighting against the Ottoman Empire - and thus becoming a martyr and a saint according to the Serbian Orthodox Church.

And he was born pretty much in our backyard.

So on Sunday afternoon, we set off on a walk to find his birthplace.  What remains of the fortress where he was born is now mere rubble and stones.  But apparently there is a plaque signifying the spot.

We drew a mud-map based on a our google map research and took off.  It was a very pleasant drive through the late-summer countryside and we wended our way through a few small Serb-majority villages until we found the one we thought was the right one.  We asked a friendly old Serb lady if we were in the right spot for Tsar Lazar's birthplace.

With some rusty Serbo-Croat and a lot of gesticulating, we gathered we needed to go around the bend and then walk up a path.

So off we set.

We walked and walked.  And came across some farmyard folk, but nothing that looked like the birthplace of a tsar.

We decided to go back to our car and see if we could ask anyone else for more specific directions.

We found an old bloke and he was very happy that we should be looking for this particular landmark.  Yes!  He said, you are almost there.  You need to follow this road, take the first left and then go straight.  You'll see it on the way.

And so we drove.  And drove and drove.  Stopping a few times when things looked promising.  But nothing.  Until we hit Albanian-majority villages and decided we were better off not asking directions anymore.

And so we called it quits and stopped at a busy little restaurant for a post-walk drink.

This should have been the last photo Romain ever took with his sunglasses.

Because he left them on the table when we left the restaurant, only realising his folly once we back home.

After a considerable amount of cussing, he decided to drive the half hour back to the restaurant to see if they still had them.  Not hoping for much, but deciding to give it a go nonetheless.

Now in most countries in the world, if someone is silly enough to leave a $150 pair of Ray-Bans on restaurant table, the chances of ever getting them back would be fairly slim.  And in a country where the average monthly salary, if you are lucky to have a job, is less than $500, then you should expect to kiss those sunnies goodbye!

But this is Kosovo (TIK).  And the majority of people here are astoundingly honest and good.

So when he got to the restaurant, the young guy who had waited on our table recognised him straight away and handed him his sunnies, amidst a lot of smiles and back slapping.

Thanks Kosovo!

A very pretty paper daisy I found on our walk.

The moral of this story is that no-one should really own a pair of sunnies worth $150 in the first place.