Wednesday

By Dania Elahi

Our Wednesday started off with a nice breakfast, made by our host family, of eggs and vegetables perfectly plated with tea and bread.

We ended up walking through the university campus towards the City Centre Square. On the way there, we saw the public library, which apparently won the tenth prize for the ugliest building! What was also interesting was that right next to this library was an abandoned church. This was made during Milosevic’s rule, however this was made illegally but was never finished or used.

Our first step of the day was a meeting at the University of Pristina, with a professor in the fields of international law. We covered a variety of topics, going from the elections that occurred on Sunday 11^th June, to how effective Vetevendosje (one of the parties) is and how the youth is more satisfied with what they are doing in comparison to LDK and PDK. Moreover, she talked about EULEX and what they were doing in regards of peace, and how in some time the authority will be transferred to the Kosovar institutions as well as the difficulties she faced being a judge in the constitution. What was interesting was that when the professor was talking about ‘national identity’, she spoke about how you either feel ‘Kosovar Albanian’ or ‘Kosovar Serbian’ and don’t really feel just Kosovar. However, when we were talking to Bartha, one of our tour guides, she expressed that her national identity is just Kosovar, and no affiliation with Albanian or Serbian.

For lunch, we got this traditional Kosovar dish – Fli. This basically consists of multiple crepes like layers, at least twenty. This can be either served just like this (mostly like this in restaurants), or with honey or yoghurt (mostly eaten like this at home). This is a special dish, which is usually made for when special guests come over, and for family visits.

Our second meeting was with the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, where one of the members gave us a talk on the different projects they have accomplished, which is explained more in Lea’s post! We got to relax for a few hours, before going out for dinner again with the whole group. This was at a restaurant up in the mountains, with a beautiful view and good food with good company.