But I was particularly intrigued to see small yellow signs with pictures of animals on them accompanied by direction arrows during my first few weeks in the territory.
What could they be? A warning about some feral cat, rat or snake population ahead? But what of the penguin? Surely there are no penguins in Kosovo?
Was it a clever (and weird) marketing campaign for a zoo or new product? Or some kind of animal shelter network? (Again, penguins?).
A rapidly developing, war-torn country could expect to see the development or renewal of leisure and entertainment facilities, I supposed a zoo was not completely out of the question. And the number of abandoned and stray animals certainly increases when there is conflict and increased poverty and require the need for shelters.
The possible explanations ran through my head for several weeks, but each time I came up with one, I would travel on a new road, see a new sign, a new animal and be forced to re-think.
As it turns out, and interesting for a spatial planner working on transport issues (among others), these signs were in fact a kind of universal road naming system created by KFOR (The NATO Kosovo Force) and particularly utilised during emergencies. The main road to the town I am living and working in is Route Fish, after travelling Route Dog from the Airport through the city. To make things even more interesting, or confusing, the local UN mission names some emergency relocation routes after famous composers. I like the idea of soothing classical music playing as I drive down what would be known as Passage Mozart should there be an emergency situation!
The issue with road names in Kosovo is an interesting one, as most road names have been changed several times in the recent past. Most people do not know the current, official names of roads and are more likely to describe a road as “the road to…” or use landmarks or business names to indicate which road they are talking about. For instance, ‘Police St’ in central Pristina is not the name of the street, now or ever, but it contains the main police station and one long section of it is restricted to the parking of police cars only….
