Hi there,
You’ll remember that at the end of an episode last year, we left Jeremy Provost on a train.
So, after a year of roaming around we managed to track him down in Kosovo.
And as his mum was starting to get worried, we went to find him in the deepest depths of former Yugoslavia.
Is this train ever going to get here or what?
So here we are at Ferijaz station waiting for the Trans Kosovar to arrive
to drop off our good friend Jéjé!
He should be there shouldn’t he?
Oi you losers! So you thought you could just abandon me like that?!
Hey Jéjé!
Welcome to Kosovo!
I still haven’t forgiven you…
You’ll get over it!
Anyway, let’s go and get skiing!
 
14
00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:06,680
We just needed to tidy him up a bit because here at Bon App, we only work with people who scrub up pretty well.
For those who don’t know him, he’s a pal from the Three Valleys
who’s already done two episodes with us.
And came in overall third at the Freeride World Tour.
Once the hairy monster had been transformed into the pretty boy from next door
we were able head off to the country’s only ski resort, Brezovica. 
It was seriously wintery over there too: a chilly minus twenty
and even off the hill, there was masses of snow everywhere.
And this bloke here isn’t a Kosovan hitchhiker we’ve just picked up. 
It’s photographer Arthur Bertrand who worked with us two years ago
… and is our guide for this trip.
We got to Brezovica early in the morning
and with all the snow we had to dig out to park the car, 
things were looking pretty good!
We just had to wait for the lifts to open
which, in Eastern Europe, can sometimes mean five hours later!
The chairlift is about to open, it’s already working! But no-one’s on it…
It’s midday
Good job we got up at 6.30…!
Every time you go up, you have to give the lifty a coin…
Everyone jump on!
Having paid our 3 Euros to get up,
we were able to check out the area using the only chairlift up and running.
We could almost be in Macedonia, but with snow.
There are guys just going round and round.
Just as we took the chairlift, the clouds came in.
So off we went to face the arctic temperatures
here in former Yugoslavia.
Jéjé hadn’t skied in powder for ages
so kicked off with an epic head plant.  
And even if Jé was practically drowning in it, we were pretty pumped to have found more snow than we were expecting.
Hey Jéjé!
Have you forgotten how to ski powder or what?
Carving Italian-style.
With all this snow, we felt like we were starting to get wings.
But with only 40cm of snow and no baselayer, we often got caught out.
Ah, I just landed on a stone!
But what a great first time in Kosovan snow.
We got settled in at the local ‘Carlton’
and once ensconced in our rabbit cage
we had a really ‘great’ night’s sleep, what with the hotel manager celebrating his birthday and everything.
Yesterday involved a national festival on a Sunday evening, so no sleep for us then either.
Fortunately, winter was still on our side
and we had a brand new powder day ahead of us.
Fresh pow!
Not again!
On our travels, we came across Gérard Depardieu.
He wasn’t in Russia at all, but selling lift passes in Brezovica.
And since there was only one lift working again
Arthur took us to a forest on the outskirts of the area.
It’s seriously good!
This is the best part!
We just needed Bon App’s Helicopter to get up high.
It feels normal using Bon App’s Helicopter in Kosovo.
It felt odd in Whistler but here, it’s ideal.
Come on Jéjé, show us what you’ve got!
Skins in a scree with 50cm of fresh snow
is not exactly for everyone.
This is a real Kosovan climb.
Hey, this is going to be pretty hard core!
They say that you use up the most amount of energy on your kick-turns!
We couldn’t believe it.
As we reached the top, it brightened up. 
But we were right to doubt it, as the clouds came back in after our first turns.
Not that it mattered with the dreamy powder forest just below.
It was so good that we took our chances and went for it again,
with the risk of it getting dark.
So here we are, back onboard the Bon App Helicopter.
It’s a stage we to be overcome.
We’ve made it; time to put the blades away.
They’ve worked hard today.
We’ve run out of fuel, so it’s all about the descent now.
It’s about to get dark and we’re going to get proper lost.
It’s the best run of the day.
Cheer up Arthur, you’ll survive.
We gave it our all and managed to get Sergueyedu’s car out.
Yep, it seems that the locals aren’t the greatest of drivers.
We then got back on the road for dinner at the White House.
You’ve trashed the car…
So, I’m afraid that you won’t be getting paid for this episode.
That’s right, it sounds as crazy as it actually is… there’s a hotel restaurant
which is the exact replica of Donald Trump’s house. 
Round Table!
Hey, this White House has given me an idea…
a big wall around the 3 Valleys
funded by all the snowbladers. 
I reckon it’s a good idea!
In fact, it’s not as crazy as that, seeing how Kosovo is heavily influenced by America
In terms of its history and geographical location
Kosovo has long been a disputed territory between Albania and Serbia.
At the end of the 90’s, NATO and in particular the States
stepped in to help the Albanians create the Independent Republic of Kosovo.
After this intervention, the country’s situation was not clear. 
In 2008, the parliament declared Kosovo’s independence.
And there are still 35 states that, today, consider Kosovo as a province of Serbia.
Anway, so all this mess and war was only 20 years ago.
Which explains why this country is so under developed
and why life is so hard here.
After some background history,
it was time to head back up into the mountains
with a beautiful day in sight.
What’s good here is that there’s bright blue skies, but it’s not guaranteed that you’ll be able to get a lift up.
It depends, have you got a wad of cash on you or not?
We were ready to wait for the lift to open again
but this time, it was being serviced. 
So we took the opportunity to introduce génepi to some of the locals,
and since they are used to brushing their teeth with the hard-stuff 
génepi for them was like cough syrup for girls.
They thought your génep’ was like Malibu
A few swigs of anti-freeze later and the chairlift finally opened.
It’s for starting up the chainsaw.
The wind has hit the area pretty hard but there were still options.
After you Jéjé?
Are you going to take the line? Look, our tracks have been covered!
You’re going to have to work hard!
We’ve lost Jéjé. He’s trying to work on the hairdo!
Not bad!
Is that why they don’t use 190s for ski touring?
Ski touring is stunning!
I’m not sure if we’re going to get caught out by the clouds
like we’re good at doing on Bon App.
After ski touring up in the sun, we often get there when the clouds come in.
You have to get changed in seconds.
What do you reckon? Have we been screwed by the weather or not?
We’ll just have to be patient right.
He’s lucky that I’m shooting blanks.
Damn, Jéjé is really letting his hair down.
Jéjé is back; he’s not falling all over the place anymore.
It feels great linking more than two turns.
We’ve really been lucky here. 
We could head back to resort for a run
Brezovica was built in the fifties.
It’s amazing. We only saw one lift working all week,
even though there are ten or so of them.
Some look as though they’ve been abandoned, others seem fine
and the locals even said that not all of the lifts have been used.
The wind had given us a good old beating
so we enjoyed one last run before packing up ready for our departure the next day. 
Come on guys, we need to get a move on. We’ve got a way to go to get to Pristina! 
Yea, don’t worry, we are hurrying!
Arthur was ready to go home
but we weren’t quite ready to do the same… 
Unbelievable, where’ve they gone?!
The bottom of the slopes in the Balkans is complete chaos!
Hanging around here is all about survival.
If they don’t get here, it’s not going to happen…
I’m going back on my own!
We don’t exactly have the same notion of time!
I left them three Rakija and then I was out of there!
This is when we trained up a young Kosovan boy. 
The Rakijas got them. I’m off!
They really are Kosovan.
Off I go!
I think he’s doing one!
Kosovo was an incredible experience.
The people are super nice and the mountains have a ridiculous amount of potential.
We hope that the Brezovica and Kosovo will
will develop and see better days.
Anway, as you wait for the next episode to come out, we can highly recommend a trip over there!
What sort of tree is that?
Looking at that at the bottom of it, it must be an oak-tree!
I did the same thing as Kilian today
and took some Snickers.
He can’t put his skis on anymore so he’s trying to kick the tree down.
That’s the Fab Maierhofer technique!
Got caught in an avalanche of crates!
Look at the snow!
Don’t be an idiot!
It’s for the end credits!
