I wrote 90% of this while I was in Kosovo, but procrastinated in actually posting it. I’ve finished it up months after that trip finished – enjoy!

As a Brit, I have 99 problems but a bear ain’t one.

Britain has been completely and utterly bear-less since the Middle Ages – my ancestors made sure of this about a thousand years ago, bludgeoning every predator bigger than a fox to extinction. It makes it much safer to wander around the countryside, sure, but also it means our wildlife is rather dull – we’re lacking in wolves, lynxes, walruses and other dangerous animals that could potentially jump you and just ruin your day.

On the continent though it’s a different story. Bears remain a very real problem in much of Balkans – Romania alone has over six thousand of them. This has caused problems as humans have encroached into their territory.

Sadly for these Balkan bears, the ones that cause problems are either shot or captured and kept in tiny cages. Until recently this was especially a problem in Albania, where many were kept in cages outside restaurants as a grim way to bring punters in.

Fortunately, with the help of an international charity, the practice has now died out entirely. Many of these bears have been taken to sanctuaries to recover from their ordeal – one, located in the mountains of Kosovo, is open to the public. As a break from the overtly political sightseeing I was doing on my Balkans trip, I paid a visit to see how these bears were doing.

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The Bear Sanctuary is quite tricky to reach, so if you do go, I’d advise hiring a taxi for the day. Prices aren’t insane and you’ll get some nice views of the Kosovo countryside too! The Gračanica Serbian Monastery isn’t too far away – I paid extra to stop for an hour and have a look around. It’s very beautiful, but unfortunately I couldn’t take any photos of the magnificent wall paintings inside so you’ll just have to take my word for it 🙏🏻

The Bear Sanctuary is located in a mountainous area next to a lake, about 45 minutes from Prishtina. The park itself is built into the side of a mountain – something my thighs were not prepared for. My taxi driver pulls up and we agree that I’ll return in an hour.

The sanctuary itself has this beautiful wooden gate, sort of like Jurassic Park but for bears. Avoiding the stray dogs clearly excited to see a visitor, I make my way into a very fancy building and buy my ticket.

You can definitely tell from the architecture alone that this sanctuary’s gotten foreign funding, by the way – all the information is in English and it’s all very modern. Titoist architecture this is not.

But this is still Kosovo, so prices are not high – my adult ticket cost me the princely sum of three euros. the entrance then leads up a gravel path, forest on one side and fence on the other. Its completely serene. The crowds of screaming kids I’d feared are nowhere to be found.

So, the strange thing about the bear sanctuary is that it’s not a zoo – this really is just a sanctuary for bears. European brown bears too – there’s only one species here. There’s only a few enclosures, and all of them are huge, giving the bears room to roam and find privacy if they want it. You won’t find a bustling zoo here – this is a real, actual sanctuary for the bears they’ve rescued first, a visitor attraction second.

With that said though I saw my first bear pretty quickly, wandering up a hillside in the distance. I caught a blurry photo that I could probably pass off as a Sasquatch sighting.

I was a little worried that this would be my experience with the bears – the occasional glimpse from behind a bush, a distant view here and there – but I quickly found that actually you can get pretty close. I walked ahead to an enclosure and got close enough to two bears that I could actually record the sounds of them foraging for food.

I soon found that, while the bears do have plenty of room, they’re still curious animals. Several times, I’d approach an exhibit and the bears would come lumbering up to see me. Sometimes they’d linger, but more frequently they’d realise I’m not bringing food and wander back into the brush. So visibility isn’t really a problem after all – I got some pretty up close photos.

I’d found some reviews suggesting budgeting an hour to tour the facility – if you’re short for time you can get a decent look around in 60 minutes but I’d recommend longer. There’s several walking trails, the longest of which goes up a steep hill. It’s a trek, and I was rushing a bit due to time constraints, but the view at the top is gorgeous.

Up here, the sanctuary turns into more of a nature trail. Lizards skit across the path. There’s no noise except wind and occasional birdsong. Being nestled in the mountains, it’s a pleasant place to get some peace and quiet. This was the most peaceful point of my entire Balkans visit.

At the same time though, you’re still surrounded by bears. At the very top of the sanctuary I found this evacuation cage – it’s a reminder that, while they’re beautiful animals, bears can still rip you in half if they view you as a threat.

I encounter a family of bears, a young bear with lots of energy, a dim-looking bear who seemed to beg for food. I grow more and more emotionally invested in their life stories. These bears have all been through so much, and some of them will never properly recover. Not fully. But this sanctuary is the next best thing.

The path winds down a steep hillside, crosses a bridge and leads back to the visitor centre. At this point I’m treating the bears like they’re my own children. I find the gift shop and go a little feral.

There’s a café and some other facilities here too, but sadly time was running short. I didn’t have time to properly look around, but I can say that they all looked very fancy and well maintained. Having spent 30 euros on a bag (that I later realise is designed for children), a t-shirt and some magnets, I jog back to my waiting taxi and head back to Prishtina.

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Some notes that might be useful to you:

• As far as I know, it’s not realistic to get to the Bear Sanctuary by public transport – book a taxi! I booked one though Blue Taxi, costing me 45 euros for the full day’s transport, including both the monastery and the Bear Sanctuary. There’s a bit of a language barrier but I was able to book with them through WhatsApp.
• Some of the paths are STEEP. Bring comfy shoes. If you’re coming in summer I’d suggest bringing some bottled water.
• I’d recommend visiting for at least 90 minutes. The hour I spent was alright, but I wish I’d had more time to explore.
• There’s a (very fancy) café, gift shop and toilets at the entrance – but there’s no snack stalls or vending machines around the sanctuary.
• I’ve no idea if they actually live there, but I came across some stray dogs lounging around the entrance. They weren’t aggressive or anything but watch out for them.