From Nis (Serbia) to Pristina (Kosovo)
Aug 27, 2025
I had heard tales from other travelers on this route about the weirdness of the border on this route. One said it had taken the whole day beginning with the bus that never showed up, to being bundled into a car with a family and being stopped at the border for ages. Another tale had been of a pair of Australians who had been turned back at the Serbian border, coming in from Kosovo. But, I was told that if going from Serbia to Kosovo, as long as I had an entry stamp from Serbia, it should be straightforward if lengthy. I thought of the grueling border crossing from Kurdistan to Turkey a couple of years ago and hoped this one would not be a repeat.
I had bought a ticket online but this was no streamlined big bus, the usual on long journeys. What showed up was a minivan with taped windows and an affable driver who showed not the slightest interest in checking tickets. He put in the bags of the all the passengers, all of them either Kosovar or Serbian; I could not tell from the chatter. And off we went.
An hour of trundling through the increasingly sparsely populated countryside with farms and fields and a few houses. We stopped near the small town of Kursumlija for no apparent reason it seemed. The driver collected the ID cards and my passport and proceeded to write down the particulars on a sheet of paper in painstaking detail. Nearby, was a ramshackle building but nobody emerged from it, nor did the driver go in. He then took cash from the others for tickets and I offered the online ticket but he merely glanced at it. And off we went again. Was this the border? There is nothing to indicate it if so. Perhaps because Serbia does not recognize Kosovo, there is no border as such? I had no clue.
Google maps showed the border to be some half hour later. This time the driver, with his list and the bundle of IDs went into a building and emerged a short while later. He handed the stack of IDs to a passenger in the front seat who handed them back. She called out names like a school teacher taking rollcall. There was no stamp in my passport. There is no evidence that I ever left Serbia. Nor that I entered Kosovo.
As we drive on, the scenery outside remains farmlands but are subtly different. The houses now wear a spruced up look. Many are brand new, the brick walls yet to be plastered. Closer to the road I see cookie cutter houses. The shops along the road are mostly of building materials. Is all of Kosovo brand new, I wonder. I suppose I will know soon.
ITCHY FEET TRAVELS 