Today (Wednesday 14 June) was my first full day in Pristina. We flew in yesterday, but only arrived at around midnight, and seeing as it was dark, I did not actually realize we had arrived in Pristina. Flying in was somewhat of a hectic process for me. Normally, I am super organized, but this time I almost forgot my swimsuit, sunscreen, but more importantly, my passport. Luckily, I remembered last minute, with the keys already put in the door, that it might be smart to take it with me. I did, however, forget my flip-flops, butI’ve accepted my defeat and I am glad the damage is bearable.
Overall, the journey went quite smoothly. We met at the airport, in front of the Burger King (apparently a travel classic) at14:30, meaning we had 3 hours until we had to board. I read my book, Conversation with Friends by Sally Rooney, most of the flight, so it passed by quite quickly. We had a layover in Vienna and some people decided to grab some food, we scoured place after place and everything was so expensive! I ended up paying €10 for a small bit of rice and lentil curry.
We boarded again and after a short flight of 1.5 hours we had arrived in Pristina. In the darkness, I wasn’t able to tell much of the shadows cast on the city. However, it was, surprisingly, much colder here than in Amsterdam (to all those in Amsterdam - good luck with the heat wave). A 30-minute bus ride and some talks about zodiac signs later we had arrived at the hostel and then I realized I would still have to prepare my pre-meeting presentation before the next day. I took a shower of which the construction was quite interesting (aka no privacy) and prepared for the presentation.
At 8 AM sounds arose from our quiet premise also known as Moon Hostel. The first alarms had gone off and people rushed to the showers, but I decided to turn around and close my eyes for an extra twenty minutes. At 8:45 we left the hostel in our well prepared outfits, showing no shoulders or cleavage. We walked by the building which I call the bubble prison (better known as the University of Pristina’s library) and ended up at the Newborn sign. I was surprised to lay my eyes on a sign which did not in fact say “newborn”, but rather “nonewbr” (in which br stood for “broken republic”). To me it reemphasized that this trip will have all sorts of unexpected twists and turns in the road and it’s important for all of us to stay flexible and open to new perspectives.
One hectic breakfast and pre-meeting presentation later we took a 5-minute taxi ride towards the CSGD group location. CSGD stands for Center for Social Group Development and it is a center that concerns themselves with LGBTQ+ rights and HIV prevention. As a bisexual person myself, I was eager to hear more about the position of queer people in Kosovo and what kind of things CSGD was working on to further their cause. Rajmonda and Arbor were super enthusiastic about their cause and hearing about their achievements, such as passing laws against discrimination and working on civil/family legislation concerning same sex marriage, was really interesting to me!
They also touched on the growing presence of extremist groups in other Balkan countries and how these groups have not yet become established in Kosovo (with an emphasis on yet). It was interesting to learn that, for example in these instances, CSGD looked at other countries and groups to see how they can prevent encountering the same problems. They also touched on the right to individuality and approaching people as citizens rather than a certain nationality, which in the context of peacebuilding is extra relevant I believe. Overall, it was very inspiring and on a more personal note, it made me think about how I could incorporate activism in my future career!
After the meeting, some of us went by a bakery next door because we hadn’t eaten since the small dinner at the airport the night before. The sun was shining, the borek was great, and we delved into conversations of favorite countries and music. We walked around, went to a Catholic church, and were amazed by all the Kosovo and Albanian flags hanging around the boulevards.
Up next we met with the Global Shapers Pristina group, part of the World Economic Forum. Josie will talk more about this in her blog entry, but I just wanted to mention that, before we started the meeting, one of the people played some beautiful piano songs. The meeting was interesting and afterwards we went for drinks with them at a bar nearby. The table I was seated at mostly played a game called “presidenten”, where I lost a lot until I suddenly found my luck and won for the rest of the games.
The rest of the night brought great food, good music, some drinks, and lots of very interesting conversations, with topics ranging from breast milk to ADHD to existentialism. Overall, I am very happy with how the first two days have been and I am even more excited to see what the coming week has to bring! I hope you all enjoyed reading this - I would be impressed if you made it to the end - and I will talk to you the next time.
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