The best bakery

By Xanne Vos

The other day Lisa and Petra asked someone in a little shop what the best bakery in Prishtina was – they were sent to the City Bakery. In the bakery they met Baker Toni, with whom they had a nice conversation. As Lisa, Petra and I are doing our project for Peace Lab on the future of Kosovo, we thought we could incorporate his ideas into the project. For the project we have set up an Instagram in which we have pictures with little stories containing dreams or visions of the people we met on our trip for the future of Kosovo. We will keep posting in the next couple days, so you are all encouraged to follow our page: https://www.instagram.com/kosovardreams/.

We went back to the bakery on Tuesday afternoon. What followed was a fun and interesting conversation, accompanied by the many generous treats that were offered to us by Toni. At some point we were joined by Toni’s friend Besim. As it was so much fun, we decided to go out for a coffee at Lulu’s with them. As Besim is very fond of hiking and climbing and often gives guided tours in nature, we were invited to join them to visit a lake the same afternoon for a little hike and swim. They picked us up from the apartment and we drove to a lake near Gračanica. Besim convinced us that the best way to swim was to jump off a bridge. Hyped by his enthusiasm we just rolled with it! After swimming we visited the Bear Sanctuary, where bears who were previously held in captivity, were given a lovely new home. When the sun was setting we had a raki in a café nearby and finished the day with an amazing meal in a former Serbian farm – now restaurant – called Ethno House, in Gračanica. Even though our two Albanian friends spoke Serbian, the Serbian waiter spoke Albanian much better and so within the Serbian enclave of Gračanica, among a Serbian audience, we actually spoke Albanian and English, while watching Russia play in the World Cup.

On Wednesday, we visited the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Coming into the meeting I was quite sceptical, as our previous visits with big international organizations – EULEX, OSCE, UN – had been a little disappointing, because the representatives were very careful with their words; often their answers to our questions were just a lot of nice words, without real meaning. Moreover, international organizations often work from a much broader vision, that is not as well adapted to the specific circumstances that the situation here requires, whereas most grassroots organizations had very strong ties with the community, and the results of their work were much more visible. The IOM however is a big international organization, but their projects are much more grassroots and small scale. In addition to that, the organization was very open minded and had an extremely wide range of projects in many different sectors, ranging from agriculture to fashion. We got a chance to talk to both representatives afterwards and took pictures so their stories will soon be posted on Instagram!

In the afternoon we worked on our projects in a café and afterwards Petra and I walked to the Bill Clinton statue, which is unsurprisingly located on the Bill Clinton Boulevard, and accompanied by a big US flag. Another fun detail was that the dress shop next to the statue was called Hillary. Kosovo’s extremely positive stance towards the United States stemming from US support for Kosovo’s independence is something that really intrigues me, and therefore it is fun to see signs that show this relationship.

The day ended with a swim in yet another lake – called Batlava lake – and dinner in restaurant Adriatiku which had an amazing view. After dinner we all shared our experiences and realized how close we had become as a group. All in all it made for a lovely but emotional last evening in Kosovo.

19 June

By Shambhavi Chouhan

The morning of 19^th June dawned overcast, which was quite reflective of my mood. It was one of our last days in Kosovo and I was not quite ready to let go, already. Things were just heating up after an interesting meeting with the leader of Vetevendosje, Mr Albin Kurti from the evening before. Everyone was captivated with his smooth oratory skills, with the right amount of philosophy sprinkled around and his (apparent) thirst for equality and cooperation. Voila! He was successfully able to serve a convincing nationalistic narrative at the detriment of Kosovo. My mind was still afresh from this colourful narrative of Mr Kurdi and I was curious to know how Mr Petrit Selimi, the founder of Millennium Development Foundation in Kosovo would receive the former’s opinions.

It was still quite early, and I was not in the mood for anyone who tried to sell me a rosy philosophical vision devoid of reality. Though, Mr Selimi pleasantly caught me off guard with his relative simplicity and vision as opposed to Mr Kurdi’s exaggerated narrative. I liked the fact that this narrative (finally) focused on developing the economy of Kosovo singularly and not linking it to reunification with Albania for a progressive growth. The Millennium Development Foundation displayed a sense of structure in their initiative as they focused on increasing innovation, renewable energy and transparency. I was rather easily sold as I could visualize the drive for change instead of the idea of nationhood or ethnicity for propulsion, which had frustrated me with Vetevendosje’s narrative. Mr Selimi concluded his presentation by stating that the tagline for Kosovo which his organization had developed was “It’s not that bad.” I liked the fact that yet again, he displayed a realistic version of his country and elaborated with how his organization hopes to tackle the future. Overall, not everyone was convinced by him, while someone referred to him as the “Young Steve Jobs”, the others were not impressed that he chugged his espresso while still chewing his gum.

Right after the meeting, we were able to catch his assistant, Tada, in the hope of getting leads for our project (Art as an expression of peace building in Kosovo). She agreed to meet us later that evening in the (in)famous Soma café, where Mr Selimi had claimed that he had been egged by Mr Kurdi’s minions, a few months ago.

The morning progressed on as we scattered to work on our projects and we walked through “B Street”, the famous neighbourhood for graffiti in Pristina. We witnessed some remarkable artwork and were just happily soaking in the magnitude of the work under the sun.

Later that afternoon, we met with the magazine named “Kosovo 2.0”. The name itself was intriguing and depicts a thirst for a parallel version of the current state of affairs in Kosovo. A Kosovo without corruption. A Kosovo without inefficiency. A Kosovo without unemployment. The layout of the magazine, the analysis of the issues and the bold voice impressed me heavily. I was certain that I wanted to know more about them. Thereby, I asked one of the members and he readily agreed to talk with me further that evening.

Rinor from Kosovo 2.0, as he sipped his wine, expressed his frustration and helplessness experienced by nearly every young individual in Kosovo. High levels of corruption combined with inefficiency in the system, without any form of accountability. Nonetheless, the heavy resilience of the youth keeps the spirit of Kosovo alive. He stated that the Prime Minister increased his salary to 3000 euros (through his own accord), while the average salary in Kosovo was stagnated to 300 euros. The official excuse given was that he needed to buy more ties for his official meetings, in response, hundreds of ties were left outside the Office of the Prime Minister, on independence day.

Furthermore, more than 50% of the public spending is spent on government employees, while the unemployment and poverty rate remain at a very high rate in contrast to the rest of Europe. Despite these challenges, the optimism and the hope for a better future keeps the Kosovar youth inspired and driven.

Our last meeting for the day was soon upon us with Tadi, Mr. Selimi’s assistant. She is a charming feminist who instantly won Nour, Merci and I over. She vocally criticized the beauty standards in Kosovo and rebelled by donning trainers instead of high heels. She was not particularly happy with the governance either, but also stated seriously, “Where else would I be? This is home.”

As the evening began to fade away, I was positively delighted with the day and especially enjoyed meeting Rinor and Tadi. The courage displayed by the members of Kosovo 2.0 by vocally criticizing eminent politicians of corruption and for other issues was a spark for hope. These small actions may seem minor against the monster of evil in Kosovo which keeps shifting shapes in the form of corruption, inefficiency and unemployment but, they do assault it to some extent. Maybe like a bug, but it does irritate the monster. And sometimes, the sun is able to break through and the youth resign to “it’s not that bad”.

Monday 18th of June 2018: EULEX, YOUTH ASSEMBLY and VETEVENDOSJE

By Sarah Salaymah

I probably speak for many of us smart and pretty people if I say that today has been my favourite day so far! Now, “I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there – I’ll tell how we became students of life in a town called Prishtina” (Maybe, maybe not Will Smith, 1990).

All fresh and fruity, as we only had to meet at Newborn at 11, our first stop was EULEX. Although it was an interesting visit, I did not find it very inspiring. One of the students raised the issue of allegations of corruption within the EULEX, which could have been the starting point of an interesting conversation. Yet, the spokesperson (who was, interestingly, placed in the center of the three) came with a vague and politically correct answer, not even answering the question. I did not come to EULEX to hear the same things I could read on their website. Altogether, our visit felt mechanical and not-human to me. One of the most significant questions that one could ask to EULEX is when it can be considered that EULEX has done its job and it can leave Kosovo. Unsurprisingly, our charming and well-spoken spokesperson somehow managed to ignore the whole question.

Next up: the Youth Assembly. In a country in which the average age is 26, 28 or 30 (depending who you ask…) I was extremely excited to meet young, like-minded students in Kosovo. Besides the content of what we have discussed, among others youth empowerment and where their money comes from, what I found most interesting is how welcome we were. They all seemed so, so excited to get to know us, reflected by the fact that afterwards they went with us for some drinks at Soma, and later in the evening again in Bon Vivant. Unlike the EULEX visit, it all felt very honest.

After that, we all made our way to the Parliament building. One of our pretty and smart students asked about the 5 main topics being discussed in parliament, after which the interpreter jokingly said “corruption, corruption, corruption, corruption and corruption”. Although everyone, including me, were laughing about this answer – it was actually, everything but funny. Besides corruption, it was visa liberalization, demarcation of border and the role of the army that were the other main discussed topic, according to the interpreter. Interestingly, this perfectly corresponds with what is brought up in class or during my interviews. After that, we all went together to Soma. 

This kind of day was exactly what I was hoping for when I registered for Peace Lab, yet I ended up being somewhat disappointed with the students not being around at the University of Hasan Prishtina and the University of Pristina Mitrovica. 

When it was time to go to our next meeting with Albin Kurti, the Youth Assemblers refused to let us pay. They taught me the Albanian custom called ‘Konak’, which loosely translates to house. This means that if you are kindly invited by someone, whether that is inside that person's home or outside – that person is expected to pay. I tried my very very best to implement Anne’s advice to pay the bill as a way of thanking people for their time, but I failed miserably. There was no way around it. 

I loved the fact that they posted this on their Facebook Page immediately after we left.

Next up: the infamous Albin Kurti, leader of the main Kosovar opposition party Vetevendosje. He set the tone within the first paragraph, when he opened his half-an-hour, nonstop, mesmerising speech with “We do not think of politics of representation – but activation”. This philosophy soon became clear, reflected by the fact that he called Vetevendosje a social movement. Not a political party.

He completely blew our mind.  He nearly convinced me with his impressive rhetoric of Monsters evolving into human beings, Russian octopi and quadri-puses, elevators and catapults and tables lacking agency –  together with all the dates and facts he threw at us.
            Halfway through his ‘speech’, I stopped taking notes. I realized that the take-away message of this meeting was not necessarily the content of what he was saying – I mean, everyone could support his “education&jobs – universities&factories” dichotomy, but, to me, the real lesson here was a lesson of critical thinking.  

 
With a confident voice that you almost forget to think critically. When I realized that, I started noticing inconsistencies. For example, when Albin Kurti replied to the question on reaching democracy through undemocratic means, he warned that “what is valid for the individual is not always valid for society’, yet afterwards heavily critized the UNMIK for ‘not thinking about the individuals but only about what is good for the state’.

After the meeting, we were all in strong need of a drink, and most of us went to Soma for dinner. I don’t think there was any other meeting after which we spent hours debriefing. Unsurprisingly, it did not take long before everyone ordered fancy cocktails, beer and wine.  

Around 10 we left for Bon Vivant, Bartha’s favourite bar in Prishtina (and now, three days later – also mine). Although I would have preferred to get to know ‘Kosovar’ cafés, as Bon Vivant was a mixture of Colombian and Cuban vibes, Bon Vivant is a lovely place. After a while the majority of Youth Assemblers joined us. Bartha arranged a cake as a surprise for the birthday girl Chiara! 

Learning to shift gears

By: Nour El-Azzouni     

Today is day four (already!). Petra, Xanne, Sarah, Iman, Sahar, and I wake up to a very lekker breakfast of traditional Lukoma bread prepared for us by Bardha’s wonderful Mum. Lukomas are basically the bread version of what one would imagine a cloud to taste like, all fluffy, warm (well maybe not so warm in the sky but you get the gist) and soft to the touch – we also get to eat these later in the evening, but this time, with powdered sugar and chocolate paste. On this note, I would like to take the opportunity in this blogpost to say thank you to our host family, who have made us feel incredibly welcome, well-taken care of, and at home.

 

After our breakfast, we board the bus to head to The Ideas Partnership, an incredibly inspirational non-governmental initiative founded in 2009 with the aim to respond to the needs of the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian community in Fushë Kosova. The initiative responds to the needs of the community primarily by working alongside the community to improve the venues of education, health-care, and economic development. Walking into the community center, we are greeted warmly by several of the volunteers, teachers, and community leaders who take us upstairs to meet the students, all sitting in their chairs with smiling faces. 

 

In the course of the morning, one girl sneaks a coy smile over to Suz and Louise, Rayan and Bardha talk football with two boys, Lisa sings head, shoulder’s, knees, and toes with another girl, and Shambhavi, Xanne, and several girls play with the camera. The initiative involves various projects that not only include education, but also provide maternity care classes for the mothers of the children, and work with individuals of all ages to promote the importance of education as the key to community development. This experience was unique to the whole ten days here, and unfortunately, was one of the only times this community was discussed as many of the international organizations we talked to hardly discussed how they were engaging with the community to improve their access to opportunities and adequate living standards. We leave only an hour and a half later, feeling strange to have walked into this space and left so quickly, without offering any sort of support except through buying several tote bags and lavender sachets. In the bus to our next stop, my mind tries to process everything, and I find it difficult to do so not only today, but the previous few days as well. I try to remind myself of trusting the process and it feels like we are always shifting gears with no time for reflection in between, and I am struggling to adapt to that, but I will indeed trust the process, and see where it takes me.

 

After we got to spend some time, albeit too little, at the Ideas Partnership, it was already time to get back on the bus and head towards what Anne and Erik described as a “very strange place” for lunch, otherwise known as Restaurant Anija Janjevë. It is some sort of a theme park, but also not really, with an Eiffel tower that Rayan raises his eyebrows at, a beach of some sort, and a little body of water with a pirate ship. We have a lot of fun posing amidst the different monuments (see photos below) and sit down together to all have lunch (food is a big theme of this trip so far, – especially the coffee and Greek salad!). It is indeed, a very strange place, mainly because of its location which seems quite isolated from any surrounding towns or villages, but also because it is a significant contrast to the Ideas Partnership, where we were, only a couple of hours ago. We don’t really talk too much about it, but I think everyone was feeling uncomfortable with the fact that we were just spending time with young students that are working extremely hard to pursue an education in a space that does not get much attention by the local municipalities or government for that matter, and that is largely excluded from society, and now we are sitting in this beautiful space with lots of amazing food in plates filled to the brim. 

 

We end the day with a trip to the Gracanica monastery, which was really exciting to get to visit having read about it in our first week of Peace Lab and learning about Balkan history. The tour guide tells us all about its history and we walk around looking at the paintings and the art on the walls, some of which is slightly terrifying and some of which is incredibly beautiful and vivid with lots of colors. 

We head home afterwards to rest a little, and go for dinner together. Afterwards, we head to Club Zone. On the way there, Gjini Gjini becomes Suz, Louise, Rayan, and I’s favorite new song (listen to it, you won’t regret it!) that we hear on the cab ride there. Our group seems to be the only ones dancing, while everyone around us is nodding their heads (although we managed to get the groups of people around us dancing by the end of the night too). I’m excited to finally fall asleep towards the end of the night and ready for day 5, going to visit the beautiful city of Prizren!

GN.

Our Home in Kosovo

By Jan Rustemeyer

Sleep is important to most people, even during a trip to Kosovo. The location of one’s bed is as well.

Frankie, Louis, Ella, Shambhavi, Merci and I stay at the house of Enver, our host, guide and friend in Kosovo. It is located in Fushe Kosova, a town close to Kosovo’s capital, Prishtina. When we entered the neighbourhood for the first time, darkness had already arrived, and besides the welcoming howls of Kosovan dogs and the lights of a few cars, we didn’t perceive much

The house is constructed out of different materials, including a nice wooden corner, but this does not mean that the building has a chaotic appearance. On the contrary, when you open the gate and walk towards the door of the house, a certain form of calmness arises, perhaps created by the large garden and the house itself. Although the house has one floor, it is positioned a couple of meters above the ground, which allows you to sit on the doorsteps and look down on the garden.

The front yard is divided in two by the path to the entrance gate. To the left, Enver has made his own farm, where he grows several crops such as onions, tomatoes and huge quantities of corn, in which his children could easily play hide and seek. Closer to the house but still on the left side, two wells produce a water supply, to make sure Enver and his family are not affected by Prishtina’s water systems breakdowns (which have become less common). To the right of the aisle, a large green net announces the presence of the swimming pool, which again Enver built on his own. Nearer to the house we enjoy our extensive breakfasts prepared by Enver’s wife, and in the evenngs, beer and wine at the wooden table. In the backyard, we played a great game of football with Enver and his children, Tea and Tiar, whose dribbles and shots were unstoppable for the aged players from London and Amsterdam.

Besides the calm nature of the place, there is also something extremely cosy about it. This is even more so when we see Enver’s friendly parents, whom we talk to by body language (except for Louis who exchanged a few French words with Enver’s father).

When we walked to the taxi stop at the busy road to Prishtina, we saw graffiti text on one of the walls in the neighbourhood. We asked Enver what it stated. He answered in sorrow that it is written in Serbian and says something about killing Serbs. Later he tells us that Serbs used to live in the neighbourhood as well and that they had to flee.

Personally, I find it hard to imagine how these terrible events have happened in a neighbourhood which seems so friendly and calm now, except for the few howls of dogs during the night. But perhaps, this is a positive thing because it shows that something has changed, and that the people and dogs of the neighbourhood can sleep quietly again.

Prizren

By Sahar Afzal
 
My blog post will be about our lovely day in Prizren: Sunday 17 June. Before starting my blog post on Prizren I want to write about something that I noticed quite often these past days. When walking around the University of Prishtina I saw two small boys carrying around fake guns. (At least, I hope they were fake). They would walk around, hide behind cars and pretend to shoot each other. For sure, I know this wouldn't be accepted in Dutch society. However, many kids in the Netherlands play video games like Modern Warfare, Grand Theft Auto, and War Games. How does playing in real life differ from playing in virtual life? I just want to keep in mind that these young boys are growing up in a post-conflict area. Therefore, I wonder how effective it is if they walk around with (fake) guns and play with them. I'd love to hear from other people, reading this blog: What do you think? Is playing with guns something that can also be seen as something positive in a conflict area?

 

 

All of us, woke up quite sleepy since we had a great night at club Zone. Therefore, many of us slept during the relatively short bus trip. A new highway was built so our bus ride only took one hour! I also slept and woke up quite amazed by how beautiful Prizren is. My first view was the beautiful mosque you could see from all over Prizren. This sight looked like a mix of Venice and Istanbul. Something that immediately struck me, was how many Turkish flags were hanging around. Turkey has a lot of influence in Prizren.

A nice tour guide took us around the city. Firstly, we went to the largest Serbian Orthodox church in Prizren. I was shocked to hear that only 30  Serbs are left out of 14,000 in Prizren. This is some context which is important to understand in Prizren. Prizren is a city like Prishtina where almost all Serbs left after the Kosovo war in 1999. They either went to northern cities in Kosovo like Mitrovica or moved to Serbia or died in the conflict. During this guided tour, the tour guide explained to us the 2004 riots that burned down several Serbian Orthodox churches in Prizren. I will come back to that later. Slowly the church got re-built, mostly with money from Russia. As Anne described it: "From Russia with love". I hope that the church will be fully restored soon. Moreover, this church has been under protection ever since it got attacked. It is quite sad to see that holy places like this church need protection.

After the visit to the church, we prepared ourselves for a hike through Prizren mountains. We got some water and went up-hill for the hike. It was quite heavy and I got very sweaty. Our first stop was at another Serbian orthodox church. This church was also destroyed by Albanians during the 2004 riots. Comparing this church to the church we visited earlier during the tour, this one did not get re-built. The roof is gone and it cannot operate as a proper church anymore. Personally, I am quite shocked by the level of violence used against these churches. Many Serbs already left, so why did they just not turn the churches into mosques? Why did they need to be burned down? What for example happened to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. I do not really know the answer to this, but it is interesting to think about. We spent some time next to the church enjoying the view, which is amazing. Our hike continued and it was very heavy. My legs were hurting a lot. So I was very happy when we reached the top. Together with Rabiya, I sat down and looked after everyone's bags. We enjoyed the sun and view all over Prizren.

One thing that I found very funny during our stay in Prizren was the following contrast. The Azan (call for prayer) would ring throughout the whole of Prizren. You could hear it everywhere. When we got down after the long hike, we stopped by the biggest mosque. Next, to the mosque, a hip-hop festival was going on. Hip-hop and house music was played so loud that you could hear it throughout Prizren, just like the Azan. Even when the Azan started again, the party and music would continue. So it was nice to see that religion/prayer could happen simultaneously with partying. By the way, the mosque looked so beautiful from the inside. The architecture and Arabic holy scriptures were written on the wall in a very nice way.

Our final stop of the night was close to the Albanian border. We had dinner between the mountains next to a lovely lake. It was a fish restaurant, which I particularly like since I do not eat meat but only fish. After eating our meal, we went outside to sit on the grass and talk to each other. With the sunset on our backs, we enjoyed the lovely view. When it started to rain, it was time to go home. We tried to watch some Brasil-Switzerland on the bus since many Kosovars support Switzerland. The reason for this is that many players in the Swiss team have a Kosovar background. Back in Prishtina, 30 minutes of the game were left. With a lot of excitement, I watched the match in a café at Newborn square. Finally, the score was 1-1. What made us all very happy and gave us a good night of sleep.

Crossing the River

By Iman Azganovic

It is the third day of the trip. I barely began to grasp the issues of Prishtina and we are already thrown to the deep end and the segregated community of Mitrovica. Considering the big international presence in the city we had a chance to see some top-down peacebuilding.

As someone who always aspired to work in international institutions, I have to admit that during our visit they didn't live up to my expectations. We had an opportunity to visit UN agencies and OSCE in Mitrovica. The people from UNMIK, UNDP, and UNFPA were very nice and professional. However, I was quite surprised by how little they work with local NGOs. When we asked them about it, they said they had no reason to cooperate with them since they had their own budget and agendas. In my opinion, that hinders the creation of sustainable projects. On the other hand, I was happy to hear that they were at least working with the Orthodox Church on the issue of gender violence - the idea that was completely disregarded by the Women's Network the day before. But again when asked about doing the same project with mosques in Mitrovica, they weren't as enthusiastic. Generally, they didn't have a lot of, if any, success stories about reconciliation between the Serbian and Albanian community in Mitrovica. OSCE, on the other hand, had a lot of projects that attempt to provide space for dialogue among youth. Unfortunately, again a lot of them are unsuccessful. I was sad to hear that most projects that were supposed to include youth from both sides of the river were declined by Serbs. 

Our next stop was the International Business College Mitrovica – the only multiethnic university in Kosovo. The presentation was very promising and inspiring. We expected to have the first (and maybe only glimpse) of cooperation among the ethnicities. Yet, it seemed that the extent of that conversation was contained in the university. For the most part, I thought that the language barrier was the issue. I was very surprised to hear that that may not be the case. Both Kosovo Albanians and Serbs had long-lasting friendships with Bosniaks. With Serbs, they shared the language and with Albanians they communicate on English and have a lot of culture and religion in common. One Serb said that “whenever Albanians and Serbs have a dispute they both go cry about it on a Bosniak’s shoulder”. So I was sad to hear that the university didn’t have a bigger impact on a community. But as some students pointed out, at least they are talking and the general opinion of the “other” has improved. 

All of this is not to say that I had a disappointing day. On the contrary, I learned more than I ever expected. It reinforced that we can’t impose the projects on the people, especially not in sensitive situations like this and we need to be conscious of how painfully slow the process of reconciliation is. People need to be asked what they want and need. As the following days will show, the smaller projects, everyday bottom-up peacebuilding drops in a bucket just might ensure the bright future of Kosovo. 

The day finished on an incredible note. We visited the lake. There was a lot of swimming, great food, and even better company. I think we really disappointed the cook when barely anyone touched the mountain of pork he made but at least everyone was really happy with all the other food. Well, almost everyone. The highlight was when Erik decided to take matters into his own hands and heat up the vegetables on his own on the grill. I think it is safe to say we all feel quite at home here.

Friday and the Run

By Rayan Vugdalic

After we had spent the night in the north of Kosovo, early on Friday morning (15 June), I started the day by going for a run around the hotel. I was quickly stopped by a police car. The two Kosovar police officers asked for my papers, which I happened to have with me. They were not really convinced by my story (Frenchman, from Amsterdam, with a Bosnian name???). After asking me follow-up questions and checking with their colleague, via walky-talky, the information on my passport, they let me go. 

After this slightly uncomfortable encounter, I joined the rest of the group and we had a quick bus ride to the University of Pristina Kosovska. It is a Serbian state-funded university temporarily located in Mitrovica. For how long, no one really knows – the man who gave us a presentation was not even convinced that the university would ever move back to Pristina. He informed us that, unfortunately, the diplomas delivered at their university are not valid abroad, for they are provided by a parallel university; this is an issue they are currently trying to solve. The university representative also expressed the wish to remove politics from the university and to live a more relaxed life. Indeed, the tense relations between the North and the South of the country, as well as with Serbia, are a major obstacle to the development of the school nationally as well as internationally. The main concern of the university, as expressed by their representative, is now to improve the facilities for students. 

We then walked in the city of Mitrovica and stopped at the Peace bridge, which connects the Northern, Serbian side of the city, to the Southern, Albanian part. Cars are not yet allowed to cross, but people are. The representatives of the New Social Initiative arrived and led us to their office – somewhere North of the city. Their presentation and, more specifically, their trust in the power of civil society in building peace was truly inspiring. It was also refreshing to hear the perspective of Serbians, and to be reminded that people on both sides of the ethnic divide are spending their time and energy to build peace. From the balcony of their office, on the 10^th floor, we had an absolutely breath-taking view of Mitrovica. It was easy to see where the North ends and the South begins, since the two halves of the city are separated by the river. Yet, I found that the architecture of the North and the South was very similar. In fact, it would have been easy to miss that the city was divided. Only because we had been told about the conflict beforehand could we understand the view we were seeing. This is, I found, something worth thinking about: how many times have we visited countries and cities without really studying their history, and how many times have we been, therefore, completely oblivious to the historical, cultural or social meanings of the places we were seeing?

 

After a round of questions, we left the New Social Initiative offices and walked towards the bridge. Apart from one KFOR car parked at the entrance, I must say it looked like any modern bridge. 

On the other side, we found a little fast-food restaurant where a couple of us grabbed lunch. They were not showing the football game, unfortunately. But considering, I only paid 1.50€ for an amazing burger and some fries, I really cannot complain! We then went back to our UN bus, and took off towards the Field of Blackbirds where the famous battle of Kosovo took place in 1389. A big tower stands in the middle of the field, in memory of the fallen soldiers. 

  Most of us climbed all the way to the top, trying to imagine the raging battle that took place in the fields surrounding us, over six centuries ago. 

Finally, we had dinner in a beautiful restaurant in the woods, next to an enormous swimming pool. The dinner was excellent (as always) especially the starters. As Cristiano Ronaldo was scoring a hat trick for his first game of the World Cup, we enjoyed the fresh air of the evening in a gezellig atmosphere, happy to be back home, in Pristhina.

In the evening, Nathan, Suzy, Lisa, Lou, Chiara and I went to have a drink near the centre; we did not make it too late, however, knowing we would go out the next day.