Pristina, Kosovo— Mother Theresa Square lineup—July 30 – August 1, 2026

Mother Teresa Square line-up for a Katy Perry performance in Pristina 

After extracting myself from the crowded mini bus, I bought a ticket for €20 cash to Podgorica, Montenegro which was a seven hour journey on July 30 at 3 PM. The ticket office would only deal in cash and there was no ATM machine anywhere near the bus station.  That’s gotta be a first for me.

I had to first get more cash because the Bus Station Hostel required a cash payment in the exact amount of €10. I used my trusty Google Maps to locate an ATM machine and unfortunately it was about 15 from from both the Pristina  Bus Station and The Bus Station Hostel.  The Hostel was just a six minute walk from the bus station.

This was a self service Hostel using the WhatsApp feature to communicate the door access codes, what bed was reserved for me and how to make a cash payment of €10 using a lockbox in the hallway and providing a picture of where the lockbox was inside the hostel.

The WhatsApp message also had me do a video of me dropping the €10 into this lock box.

Although I was in a dorm room, there were no bunks, just four twin sized beds and storage lockers. The bathroom was downstairs and it was immaculate with a rain shower-head that had so much water. It felt like you were under a waterfall.

Looking in the Lonely Planet guidebook, there wasn’t much featured to see.  Here is what I saw when I walked about 3 km to the Mother Theresa Square.

Here are the two Math and Science buildings of the University of Pristina.

Across the street there was a park that was dedicated to those victims of the war between 1998 and 1999 along with an abandoned church.

Adjacent to the park, I saw their unique library with bubble shaped windows throughout.

When I got to the Mother Theresa Square, I saw a huge line for a concert called Sunny Days featuring Katy Perry.

After that, I headed to dinner at the Local Bar Café and had some delicious chicken with vegetables and mushroom sauce along with a vegetable soup. I topped it off with a berry smoothie.

Along the Bill Clinton Avenue I stepped inside the Mother Teresa Catholic church while they were conducting a wedding ceremony and I tiptoed back out.

Back at the Hostel there were only two of us staying in the four bed dorm, and he was a Bosnian returning home. The other fellow also from Bosnia, I met in the common area, was blind and making his way about Eastern Europe with his next stop, Skopje, North Macedonia. I told him about the Hostel I stayed at there.

Since my bus was not leaving till 3 PM, I hung around the hostel until the 11 AM check out time.

I stopped and got goodies at a grocery store for the bus ride, and then went around the corner to the Fishy Café.  I had a delicious cream of tomato and fish soup with bread, and an open grilled trout with some potato salad along with a bitter soda for just €6. This was the bargain meal of the trip so far.

For the rest of the time in Pristina before catching the 3 PM bus, I spent organizing my stuff and reading my book.

When I went to platform 15 where my ticket showed, the bus was going to take me to Podgorica, The driver said he wasn’t going that route and he was going to end his trip in Budva which would get me there about 11 to 11:30 PM. Had the bus gone to Podgorica, I would’ve gotten there about 9 PM,

I decided to take a chance to get on the bus and head to Budva.  While I was driving along, I canceled my hostel reservations in Podgorica, and made new reservations in Budva at the Sunny Valley Hostel, Hotel, and Apartments.  During my travels, I got several messages from Sunny Valley about my arrival time and that I would possibly be paying another €12 for a late arrival. I reluctantly agreed.

Our bus stop for two border crossings, one going from Kosovo to Albania and then from Albania into Montenegro. Our wait at each of these border crossing took us about a half hour. We also stopped a couple times for bathroom and food breaks.  I didn’t expect I’d be traveling through Albania, but the scenery was beautiful with the lakes and jagged Mountains along the Bus route.

I was the last passenger on this bus to Budva, Montenegro. 

The bus went through several tunnels like this one along the way.

We arrived at the Budva bus Station about 11:20 PM, and I had to be at the Sunny Valley Hotel by midnight or they would close up. I ended up taking a taxi which cost an exorbitant €25 for a 1 1/2 km ride.I think the group of taxi drivers saw me coming. They explained it was late in the evening blah blah blah.

I had booked a single hotel room, but I ended up in a separate area from the dorms shielded only by a curtain. Also, my area had the common kitchen for the dormitory. Other visitors rated this place a 5 of 10 – – always trust the ratings. The place was a real dump. The AC barely worked. There was no locker to store and lock up my stuff, and the bathroom did not have a lock on it.

The following morning, I changed to a single room, but it did not have any AC and the neighboring bathroom also did not lock.