Our driver warned us not to go off the road for any reason. Those plots left fallow by farmers are suspected of containing land mines. Security dominates daily life. My first lesson begins immediately upon landing at the airport in Skopje, Macedonia's capital. I see several military helicopters.
Armed guards are everywhere.
But the realization of the scope of the military here really hits home when I try to cross the border into Kosovo. It used to be simple to cross the border, I am told, taking only minutes for a passport check. Now it takes hours or days. Tractor-trailer trucks are parked alongside the road for several miles. The drivers sleep and eat in their vehicles, waiting for the chance to deliver their loads to Kosovo or to Serbia.