Traveling to KOSOVO!! The LAND of DUA LIPA & RITA ORA!!

This is all my friends, Kosovo Raki, local, from the house. Yeah. Good afternoon, everyone. This is David Hoffman from David's Bin here coming at you from the border of Albania and Kosovo, the youngest country in Europe. I've been hearing about this place for the past 10 years. It looks amazing. It's my 79th nation, and this is the country of Dua Lipa. Well, I mean, she was born in London. Her parents are from Kosovo, so she is super patriotic. I cannot wait. I'm gonna explore for nine incredible days. Today, what we're doing is we're crossing the border right here. We just came from Kukes, crossing the border to Prizren, but we're actually going up to a place called Brod in the mountains. Oh, man, you are going to love Kosovo. I'm super excited to show you this beautiful country. It's my favorite after Albania. You'll love it. Let's go. Let's enter Kosovo. Bring your passport. And because of COVID times, mask on. Well, that was easy. Were there hats? Chilesh? Chileshe. We got in very easily. If you guys don't know, in Kosovo, they love the chileshe. This is very patriotic. Whoever wears it is a straight up Kosovo. The gates open. The gates open completely. As you guys don't know, Kosovo became independent in 2008. It was part of Yugoslavia, became independent, and now we are here. Beautiful country, mountainous, super mountainous. Everything's very small here in terms of cities. Mountains, lots of hiking, delicious food, medieval cities, prison, Peja, Metrovica. What else? Pristina, and Jilan. Jilan. So most people think that Kosovo is full of mountains. Obviously it is. It's completely surrounded by borders. North Macedonia, Serbia. You also have Albania. So you'll see this view in most of the cities of Kosovo. Many advertisements for their businesses, and all the names are in Albanian language. Because Kosovo people, they speak Albanian language. So that's what we're seeing now, right? Some people live here, some don't. But these huge houses are mostly people who have become expats, right? Yeah. So this trip we are going to see almost all Kosovo from south, north, from east to west. So most people, like I said, only come and do one thing or, you know, Pristina and prison. We're doing the whole shebang. We're going wineries, Ottoman bridges. We're doing, I mean, everything, everything. Everything you could do. Hike, eat, relax, enjoy the wilderness and chill. That's what I like about this. It's very, very relaxing. If you are into hiking, you'll love this. Kosovo is a huge hiking destination. So this is the village of Brod. Very, very small. I'd say 2000 people max, like tiny. People come here again to hike and relax. And this is our general resort in Brod, Kosovo. Amazing. Look at this. Look at these mountains. Huge. They actually have a cable car, right? Yeah. We'll take a cable car, go on top of the mountain, enjoy incredible view over the mountains. Albania, Kosovo. Amazing. All right, guys. So we're going to go inside. We're going to check in. We're going to see our room and then go up. Beautiful hotel. I'm already loving it. Outside, they have a beautiful terrace overlooking the mountain. Okay, guys. So because the sun is going down, we're going to go up to the top of the vernacular right now. Wow, that's awesome. And this is open air, right? Yeah. It's going to be cold. That's why I brought an extra layer. It's like a cable car for ski resort. So during the wintertime, a lot of snow comes here. And right here, you can see how it is during winter. All snow. Beautiful. Wow, I love it. This is incredible. Kosovo in winter. I got to return. Have to return. All right, guys. Let's go to the top. Close, close? Yeah, yeah. Go, go, go. Wow. I love it. Look at that. You have a little waterfall over there. There's a stream. Huge mountain. After about two minutes on this thing, the temperature has dropped like four degrees. It's freezing. Thank God for the extra jacket. It's a while, huh? This is a far one. This is like a 15 minute ride up. Okay. Sabona. All right, we made it to the top. Wow. Incredible. This is nice. So what do we do here? We just hike? We'll walk around this place. So many beautiful places. Like, view is amazing. David here, they have many funicular because during the skiing time, people can choose which funicular, where do they want to ski for professional, for very beginner. So they have a few here. All right. So that's basically what you can do here. Come up, hike. You can go up there. Unfortunately, because the sun is setting in the next half hour, we're gonna go back down and we're gonna go into the town and see the river. Put it down, put it down. Nice. 15 minutes back, right? Yeah. All right, guys. We're almost at the bottom. It is really cold. The sun has set. It's getting to winter. Woo. I'm freezing. Incredible ride. Incredible ride, yeah. And that's it. And that's the waterfall. Definitely come up here. Check it out. Get some photos. Relax, sit down. Just breathing the fresh air. Wow, Kosovo is beautiful. To be honest, I'm starving. I can't wait to eat some Kosovo food. Kosovo food, yeah. First Kosovo food we try in this trip. It's gonna be good, right? Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be very similar to Northern Albania, I'm guessing. Pasta dairy. Yeah. Cheese, bread. Good dog, good dog. First stop inside the hotel is the sauna. The Relax Center has a sauna. Basically, it's a Finnish sauna and they have a steam room, plus they have two jacuzzis. It's closed right now. It opens during winter when the hotel obviously has full occupancy. So here on the fourth floor, they have five suites. This one is 4L1. So you walk in to the right. You have this huge living room. So you have two different couches, plus an extra layout couch. You have a TV. Over here, you have a modern bathroom. Right, very nice. Then you have the bedroom. Good, it's very spacious. Usually you get this and that's it. Here at least you have a lot more space. Where we going next? Next we're going to Oda Traditional Room. So hotel has many, many different kind of activities. So Oda is one of them. So we have to come outside to go to that room. And on the way out, you can see this beautiful open-air terrace. Love the tables here. Nice, all wood. And over here is the room. Traditional. Yeah, this is Oda Traditional. This was a traditional room in the past in Albania, Kosovo, all like some parts of Montenegro. So basically this is like their mini ethnographic museum. You have two tables. This is how they used to sit. Up here you have the hats, the guitar. Over here you have how women used to dress, right? This is like traditional gowns. People don't really dress like this now. People dress way more modern, but they're still trying to keep the tradition alive and show you what it's like. Yeah, I mean, this is it guys. Really nice. Something cool. If you haven't been to any ethnographic museum in the Balkans, I highly recommend coming here. Now we're gonna go see my room and then we're gonna go to dinner. Can't wait to eat. I'm starving. Now let me show you my room. 314. And here we go. As soon as you walk in, bathroom over here. Toilet, faucet. We have two beds. Heater, really crucial. Over here we can have a little office space, right? Relax, do some work. TV, flat screen TV. Closet. So if you're gonna stay here for a few days, put all your weights here and here. And this is my terrace. I have a view of the slopes up there. All right guys, I'm hungry. Let's go eat some Kosovo food. Gzor. Gzor my friends. Kosovo raki. Local, from the house. Yeah. It's good. And this is their dining area. Huge dining area. We're gonna order amazing Kosovo food tonight. I'm excited. I've never tried Kosovo food. I know it's very similar to Albanian food, but a little different. Like I said before, Albanian food and Kosovo food are very similar, but a little different. As you can see, the bread, different. Over here we have mushrooms. I didn't eat so much mushrooms in Albania. Also the srpsa salad. I eat this a lot like in Bulgaria. This looks the best though. This like creamy peppers, right? Yeah. So it's creamy pepper tava. Then we have white cheese, yellow cheese. We have black olives. And jumping on the delicious mushrooms. Oh wow. I'm a huge mushroom guy. I could eat it all day long. So you open it up. Woo. Got a little bit. Get some of this, right? Straight in. Mm. Great. Good bread. Love with the cheese on top. A little burnt on the outside. Oh man, airy. But the best thing to do is do this. Grab some of this creamy cheese pepper tava. The music, the vibe. Wow. Next I'm gonna try this yellow cheese. So this one actually reminds me of like manchego. This one over here is like a softer white cheese. Mm. And over here is almost like a, I wouldn't say a mozzarella, but similar. No, it's different. So taste-wise, flavor, very similar. This one though, the texture is softer. Next up, we have the delicious srpsa salad, which is basically like shredded cheese with tomatoes and cucumber. I'm a big fan. What a delicious meal. And we're still missing the meat. Mm-hmm. Mm. So this is cheese with pepper, right? Cheese pepper tava. The one thing you have to try when you come here is the pita bread with this cheese pepper tava. Mm-hmm. Superb. It's good. Superb. To Kosovo. Amazing. So David, we have now the main course, which is, both of them are specialty of Kosovo, but here, this one maybe you have seen in Balkan countries. This is the peskavica. Peskavica is with cheese inside. Cofte, cofte medjaf. Meatballs with cheese also. Cofte, we make it with veal meat and with lamb. Never with pork or never with other kind of meat. I've had peskavica many times in many Balkan countries. Also in Miami, I've had it a few times. It's basically a beef patty that has been stuffed with cheese, right? And it's way more delicious because of cheese. Mm. The flavor, oh my God. This is so good. The cheese oozes out. The flavor of the beef, you can tell it's so fresh. Mm. What cheese is that? So this is the boiled potatoes together with cofte. Perfect match. As my friend said, you have some boiled potatoes with like creamy cheese. Mm-hmm. Mm. Super creamy. Oh, that was so soft. Mm. So freaking good. All right, guys, we're gonna go over to another room and have some dessert. Now, dessert is raki. Ooh, nice. My friend, gzor. Gzor. Oh, that's good stuff. Well, guys, we made it here to Kosovo. Today, we crossed from Albania to Kosovo, from Kukes to Prizren, that is the road. That is the main entry point from Kosovo into Albania. That was our day. We came here to Brod, beautiful mountain ski resort. You know, it's a little different now. Obviously, it's not complete winter. It's getting there. It's October. You can come here, you can go hiking, horseback riding, you know, see waterfalls and just chill. So duo, to duo, play something. You don't know how to play, man. No? No. Oh, snap. No? No.