Bus from PRIŠTINA to KASSEL

Pristina, also spelled Prishtina or Priština is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the homonymous municipality and district.

The city has a majority Albanian population, alongside other smaller communities. With a population of about 500,000, Pristina is the second-largest Albanian-speaking city in the world.  Geographically, it is located in the north-eastern part of Kosovo close to the Goljak mountains. The city is situated some 250 kilometres north-east of Tirana, 90 kilometres north of Skopje, 520 kilometres south of Belgrade and 300 kilometres east of Podgorica.

During the Paleolithic Age, what is now the area of Pristina was envolved by the Vinča culture. Pristina was home to several Illyrian and Roman people at the classical times. The king of the Dardanian Kingdom, Bardyllis brought various tribes together in the area of Pristina in the 4th century BC, establishing the Dardanian Kingdom. The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient city of Ulpiana, that was considered one of the most important Roman cities in the Balkan peninsula. In the middle ages, Pristina was an important town in Medieval Serbia and also the royal estate of Stefan Milutin, Stefan Uros III, Stefan Dusan, Stefan Uros V and Vuk Brankovic.

When the Ottomans conquered the Balkan peninsula, Pristina was classified as an important mining and trading center on the market, due to its strategic position near the rich mining town of Novo Brdo. The city was known for its trade fairs and items, such as goatskin and goat hair, as well as gunpowder produced by artisans from Pristina in 1485. The first mosque in Pristina was built in the late 14th century, while under the Serbian rule. Pristina has always been considered as a city where tolerance and coexistence in terms of religion and culture has been part of the society in the last centuries.

Being the capital city, Pristina is considered as the heart of Kosovo because of its central location and its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education, service, research and healthcare. Almost all domestic and foreign companies, media and scientific institutions have their headquarters in the city.

The name of the city is derived from a Slavic form *Prišьčь, a possessive adjective from the personal name *Prišьkъ, (preserved in the Kajkavian surname Prišek, in the Old Polish personal name Parzyszek, and in the Polish surname Pryszczyk) and the derivational suffix -ina 'belonging to X and his kin'.[citation needed] The name is most likely a patronymic of the personal name *Prišь, preserved as a surname in Sorbian Priš, and Polish Przybysz, a hypocoristic of the Slavic personal name Pribyslavъ.

A false etymology[citation needed] connects the name Priština with the Serbian word prišt (пришт), meaning 'ulcer' or 'tumour', referring to its 'boiling'. However, this explanation cannot be correct, as Slavic place names ending in -ina corresponding either or both to an adjective or the name of an inhabitant lacking this suffix are built from personal names or denote a person and never derive, in these conditions, from common nouns (SNOJ 2007: loc. cit.). The inhabitants of this city call themselves Prishtinali in local Gheg Albanian or Prištevci (Приштевци) in the local Serbian dialect.

 

Pristina is the primary tourist destination in Kosovo as well as the main air gateway to the country.[58] It is known as a university center of students from neighbouring countries as Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. In 2012, Tourism in Pristina attracted 36,186 foreign visitors.[59] which represents 74.2%[60] Most foreign tourists come from Albania, Turkey, Germany, United States, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia, with the number of visitors from elsewhere growing every year.[61]

The city has a large number of luxury hotels, modern restaurants, bars, pubs and very large nightclubs. Coffee bars are a representative icon of Pristina and they can be found almost everywhere. The largest hotels of the city are the Swiss Diamond and the Grand Hotel Prishtina situated in the heart of the city. Other major hotels present in Pristina include the Emerald Hotel, Sirius Hotel and Hotel Garden.

Some of the most visited sights near the city include the Batlava Lake and Marble Cave, which are also among the most visited places in country.[62] Pristina has played a very important role during the World War II, being a shelter for Jews, whose cemeteries now can be visited.

As the capital city of the Republic of Kosovo, it is the center of cultural and artistic development of all Albanians that lives in Kosovo. The Department of cultural affairs is just one of the segments that arranges the cultural events, which make Pristina one of the cities with the most emphasized cultural and artistic traditions. Pristina is home to the largest cultural institutions of the country, such as the National Theatre of Kosovo, National Archaeology, Ethnography and Natural science Museum, National Art Gallery and the Ethnological Museum. Among the local institutions are the National Library of Kosovo which has more than 1.8 million books, periodicals, maps, atlases, microfilms and other library materials.

There are many foreign cultural institutions in Pristina, including the Albanian Albanological Institute, the German Goethe-Institut and Friedrich Ebert Foundation.[ Other cultural centers in Pristina are, the French Alliance Française and the British Council. The Information Office of the Council of Europe was also established in Pristina.

The free city Kassel is after Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden the third largest city of Hesse and is located in the northern part of this state, on the border with Lower Saxony and Thuringia. Currently, the population is around 200,000 people. Every five years, Kassel is the venue of the most important international exhibition of contemporary art and has therefore been named "documenta-Stadt" since 1999.

The name of the town is probably derived from "Chassalla" or "Chassella", the name for the royal court of Konrad I, located at the Kassel Fulda. The name was first discovered on a document from the year 913. There are also other names derivations; Thus it could be of Germanic origin and translated as "buildings on a terrain", whereby the origin of the name is far back in the prehistory.

Settlements have existed already in the pre-Christian era, but there has been secrecy before the 10th century,when it first appears in the documents. Since the end of the 12th century, Kassel has been gilded in the modern sense as a city and became the headquarters of the Hessian Landgrave Heinrich I a few decades later. The townscape was decisively influenced by Landgraf Karl from 1700 onwards.

Kassel - had man been seen in the city's ice cream?

During the Second World War the old town of Kassel was unfortunately massively destroyed, so there is no longer a closed historical cityscape. Nevertheless, as a former residence, Kassel has a lot of locals. The Protestant Brethren Church is the oldest church building in the city. A typical baroque building is the Ottoneum, the first permanent theater building in Germany, which now houses a museum of natural history. From the 13th century we have the Renthof, the relic of a former Carmelite monastery. However, there is also the Martinskirche with its distinctive towers, the Karlshospital, the Druselturm, or the Ständehaus, built in the neo-Renaissance style. Also worth a visit is the Fridericianum, the famous museum building in Kassel, which every five years is the site of the documenta and is already impressive by its architecture alone. It is also recommended to take a walk through the Orangerie at the Karlsauesowie, a walk through the district of Vorderer Westen. The parking area Bergpark Wilhelsmhöhe, which has been part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage since 2013, is one of the top 100 sights in Germany. The Wilhelmshöhe Castle, the Löwenburg Castle, as well as the Herkules, the landmarks of the city of Kassel, can be visited from the beginning of the 18th century. The popular Kassel water games are held twice a week during the summer months.

Kassel is an extremely culturally shaped city. There are also plenty of art galleries and community theaters, as well as a variety of museums and galleries. In addition to contemporary art in the Fridericianum, In the Wilhelmshöhe Palace, as well as in the Old Masters Gallery you can admire an antique collection. The Grimmwelt, which was inaugurated in 2015, is dedicated to the work of the Brothers Grimm, who spent a long time in Kassel.

Kassel offers a wide range of hotels, guesthouses, hostels and holiday apartments for its guests. In addition to art and culture, you should not miss outits cuisine. Typical specialties in Kassel are the "Weckewerk", a dish prepared from cooked rind and minced meat. There are "Ahle Wurscht" and the traditional Speckkuchen.which is  equally popular with both locals and tourists.