Driving around Kosovo there are some common sights that you see. Gas stations all over the place, random shopping centers in the middle of no where, and hotels that are all bright and shiny, but located where no normal tourist would want to go. Given the mob culture around here, it's pretty widely known that many of these are money-laundering cover-ups. Two girl friends of mine and I, all with enquiring minds, have been wondering lately about these hotels. Who actually stays in them? Are there even beds in there or is it just another smoky cafe? Last Saturday night became out night to see what we could find out.
Theresa works for the UN and asked some of her security guards about some of the hotels in the town of Ferizaj, a small municipality about 30 minutes away form Pristina. With a surprisingly straight face, they told her about two, saying that the Motel Europa 92 and Motel Man were all right. At about 8.30 that night, after spending the drive discussing what our story would be as to why were checking into this place, we drove by the Motel XXX. NOT the one for us. Europa 92 showed up next, so we pulled the white, clearly marked UN vehicle into the parking lot. If our inability to keep a straight face didn't blow our back-packer cover, the car did.
Walking in the front door brought us directly into the cafe/restaurant. Inside, like every other care, were only smoking men drinking coffee, and every one of their eyes turned to look at us . . . and kept looking at us as we tried to communicate with the waiter/host that we wanted a room. His English wasn't great and our Albanian isn't the best, yet it was surprisingly difficult to convey our request to him. "Room" and "3 beds" are not the most difficult words to communicate to a hotel proprietor. Not sure what he thought we wanted at first, but eventually he picked up some keys and lead us through a very inconspicuous door, turned on the light and walked us upstairs. On the way up we tried to find something strange, dirty or creepy about the place, but the truth was that it was quite clean and impressive. The first room he showed us had three single beds, a clean bathroom and a balcony overlooking the parking lot and mountains. A heck of a lot better than many rooms these three traveling women had slept in before.
We did it! This was a big deal! Right?! It was supposed to be, but once we were actually in and thinking the spare sheets we brought from home might not be necessary, it all seemed like no big deal anymore. By 9.00 we were ready to tour Ferizaj and have something to eat . . . destination being Benaf, the largest department store in the area and only thing open and worth gong to at 9.00 at night. Pizzas from the cafe and paper cups from the store were what we bought . . . needed nourishment and cups in order to drink the local liquor that was waiting for us back at the room. We figured we had to make the entire experience as "local" as possible. Before going back to the room, though, we figured we'd have a glass of wine in the hotel cafe, doing our best to handle the constant staring from the other patrons. What the hell were they looking at?! Never seen three foreign women before?!
The uneventful night continued with a drink, conversation and some music in the room. We all nestled in our beds and fell asleep. It seemed as though there was nothing to our social experiment. But then night continued, to morning and as we all woke up, we asked each other if anyone heard the knocking throughout the night? Nothing on our door, but several knocks from the hall. We didn't think much about it until we walked out into the hall and down the stairs. About 5 doors to rooms that were all closed the night before were now open at 8.30 and they had been used. Never once did we see any sign of life in the hotel other than our own, but clearly there were people around. So where were they coming from? We never saw anyone walk through the door from the cafe into the hotel. Was there another door? Sure enough, at the bottom of the stairs was a door I had not noticed before that went right into the hotel from a side parking lot. That was red flag to me. It then became clear that this was not a hotel that generally rented rooms for a full night. Knocking, used rooms, back door, no people in the hotel at normal evening hours . . . DAMN!!!!
It started out as an adventure, it became just another night in a hotel, it ended as a morning of Austrian, a Swedish and American women walking out of a questionable hotel without being trafficked back to their own countries in a sex trade.
Hehehehe, a lot of people say we were lucky. Don't think there was really that much danger in it. They wouldn't hurt internationals around here, but maybe our nationalities were all that kept us safe? Doesn't seem quite fair to the local women that might have found themselves in a Motel Europa 92 room that night, or any other night.
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