Good morning Pristina!

By Hanna Berndt

Good morning Pristina! 

 

The morning for most of us started with checking our phones, taking advantage of the moments of Wi-Fi in the hostel. And what is the first thing you were greeted with? Yes that’s right, a good morning Pristina text from Anne. Day by day the faces in the bathroom while getting ready in the morning have gotten gloomier, in part from the exhaustion of still not having caught up on sleep, and in part from the particularly early morning of today, having to account for more time at the security of EULEX. Everyone felt the absence of those lost 20 minutes of sleep. 

 

On the way to our daily meeting point at NEWBORN, our group grew from two to three, as a stray dog chose to accompany us from the park all the way to NEWBORN, a walk of roughly 10 minutes. While a local woman seemed worried, speaking to us in Albanian and our confused faces the only response to her worry, we simply accepted our new group member and kept a watchful eye out for him as we crossed the street. During my pre-meeting presentation he sat not far removed from the group. I think he had felt my nervousness on the way and decided to be my moral support for the duration of the morning. But sadly we had to leave him behind as we got into taxis to go to EULEX, the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, slightly outside of the center of Pristina.

 

Having met many regional organizations in the first two days, EULEX was our first encounter with an international organization in Kosovo. Before entering we gave up our passports for visitor badges which were proudly held into the camera for pictures later on. Unlike the basements and small rooms we had previously huddled in together, making meetings feel a lot more personal, we were instead guided into a large conference room clearly designed for official (press) meetings. The room radiated formality and it did not take long for all of us to carefully inspect the tote bags hanging on every chair and their contents: a flower highlighter with 5 different colors, a notepad and post it notes, all embellished with a blue and yellow heart and at its center the EULEX logo. 

 

Aside from the childish excitement that hit all of us at the sight of free stuff, we also had harsh questions waiting to be answered, and patience did not last until after the presentation explaining the new mandate, as they began flying out one after the other. To our surprise, or rather our demise, asking the same question, slightly paraphrased, 5 times, did not result in an answer, but rather more diplomatic responses characterized by an elegant avoidance of anything (too) political. Even though I had expected this going into the meeting, I still felt myself growing more and more frustrated as the meeting continued. Simultaneously I was fascinated by the woman’s ability to dance around our questions with what appeared to be little to no effort, no matter how often we tried. Before leaving we could not resist to take a group picture on the stairs, flags running up the sides, and sneak a few pictures of the building itself with the security guards laughing at our paparazzi behavior. 

 

Taking the taxis back to the hostel was an experience. We have come to realize that many taxi drivers do not understand us and in trying to overcome the language barrier we simply hold our phones with the google map`s location to their faces, which is equally non-productive. So instead of being dropped off at the hostel we ended up at NEWBORN and had to walk the 15 minutes back to the hostel. For lunch we indulged in the pastries at the bakery just behind the hostel: Borek with cheese or spinach, something looking like a spinach quiche, and Fli. It was actually my first time trying Fli, a pancake like pastry with several layers, as though you had stacked Dutch pancakes on top of each other and smushed them together.  The consistency was a lot chewier than anticipated, a slightly rubbery texture, but hints of cheese and a little sweetness made Fli the new craving for the rest of the trip. 

 

For our second meeting of the day we met the Women’s Network Kosovo, but Laure has described that, so I will move on directly to dinner. We drove around 15 minutes into the forest by Pristina to eat at the Villa Gërmia. After struggling to recognize the taxis that were rerouted from NEWBORN to the hostel, because it was pouring rain, we sat in the car watching as our surroundings became greener and the brick buildings of the city were replaced by tall green trees towering above us. We watched the water spray up at the sides of the car as we drove through the puddles on the sides of the roads, which were transforming into little rivers racing down the hills.

After dinner we took the taxis back to the hostel, this time being dropped off at the right place by the sweetest taxi driver who found entertainment in our squeals every time he tried to overtake another car in front of us. I think he was trying to keep track of the taxis we told him to follow because google maps was not too helpful, but soon enough we lost them in the distance. We ended the evening in Zanzi Bar, a jazz club in the basement of a building where the smoke hung in the air and bodies collided from dancing. The live jazz band and amazing DJ made Zanzi Bar a set destination for future nights.