Saturday

By Minouche Tas

Friday night’s party plans meant we began our third day in Prishtina with an empty morning to recover from the night before. Despite our free schedule my roommates and I decided to skip the extra hours sleep to visit an exhibition we had heard about earlier in the week, on domestic violence in Kosovo. Held by the Kosovo Women’s Network, the exhibition was located in Skanderbeg Square, named after the Albanian war hero that liberated Albanians (in what is now Kosovo) from the Ottomans in the 15th century. Freely accessible to passers-by, the exhibition featured women sharing their stories of gender-based violence through striking images, statistics, a small interpretive installation, and a video. Designed as a means for ordinary citizens to walk in Kosovar women’s shoes, the exhibition concluded with a physical representation of the resources available for women who recognise themselves in some of the experiences presented to seek help.

“A Broken Home” - The Kosovo Women’s Network

In the afternoon we met up with the rest of the group to go to Gračanica, a Serb majority town near Prishtina, to visit a 14th century Serb Orthodox church there. Our guide was eager to convey the uniqueness of the building’s bold architecture and the secrets of the church’s past, encouraging us to share in his enthusiasm. The church’s history is written on every inch of its walls, with striking frescoes that depict prominent religious scenes illustrating the old and new testament narratives that shape Serb orthodox beliefs. The frescoes’ notable decay, and the occasional empty patches on the church walls, reveal the trials and tribulations that the town and its church underwent throughout Kosovo’s various imperial occupations.

 

We spent the evening at a beautiful restaurant at the edge of town nestled between fields of wildflowers. We ate for hours and hours with an incredible view over the meadows around the town, flanked by tree-scattered hills on one side and the approaching sunset on the other. Golden beams drenched the garden in sunlight and the colourful swings drew everyone away from the table to soak up the last rays of light as the evening drew to an end. Gračanica, in its countryside quietness, exuded a sense of peaceful calm, quite distinct from the hustle and bustle of city life in Prishtina. The slow pace of long-drawn-out dinners and sunset views have offered a welcome reprieve from the deadline-ridden everyday reality of ordinary AUC life.

Somehow it feels like we’ve been here longer than we have. The family some of us are staying with lives so central that we can walk everywhere. We’ve already figured out which spots have better veggie options, which streets are nice to stroll down, which pubs the local students frequent, and some secret hideaway cafés (not far removed from Amsterdam’s hipster coffee spots) where we can indulge in Kosovo’s famous macchiatos. Having the freedom to explore Prishtina a little on our own between the different meetings we have scheduled during our trip has been one of the most exciting aspects of our time here so far for me. A friend and I were reflecting on how these little pockets of time, hanging out with our new Kosovar friends, meandering along the boulevards, and finding our way around without google maps, have made this place feel a little more like home everyday.