Day two

After a restless night listening to the wild dog packs that patrol the neighborhood and a band that was celebrating Albanian Flag Day I awoke early and walked down town with Lyndsey and Julia to meet up with some other staff members at a small café. When walking down the streets of Pristina you are constantly stepping on top of garbage, I was informed that this was because when the country was communist, what was yours you kept in your home, what you placed on the street or in public was the problem of the government to take care of. This helps explain a lot, when looking at the store fronts you should never judge a book by its cover. The café we run into is on an ally type street and is not decimated on the outside but is not what we consider to be a typical “nice” storefront. As soon as you open the door you see that the place is immaculate and the smell of baked goods and coffee enlivens the senses. The interior design is personal and lively such as if Starbucks was a small independent store with a real fashion sense. Everything is thought out and works together, the chairs are made to sit and have long conversation, and the drinks are made with an artistic nature and sense of pride that is well deserved. I found out later after getting about half way through the best macchiato that I have ever had, that this was the first restaurant in Kosovo that you actually go up to the counter to order. That is saying a lot since it just opened two months ago. This experience continues throughout the day going from small café to small café and falling in love with stunning interiors and the amazing food.
From there I get a walking tour from a local who works with AUK, through the city down to the newly unveiled Gold Bill Clinton Statue. The statue obviously says a lot about Kosovo culture and the locals for the most part very much dislike it. My immediate assumption was that they had issue with erecting a large statue of someone from another country who has mixed reactions from his home country. I was wrong, the people that I have spoken to about it actually just really dislike that the statue looks nothing like Bill, and It literally could be anyone. It makes me think of Harrison Ford being frozen in carbonate. The hands on the statue are just enough out of proportion to make it look very odd, also there are creases in the clothing that stand out in a very stiff way to make the jacket seem as if it was made of rough cut steel. I would say this is the perfect example of fear of commitment to an idea. That being said apparently the street named after him and the two giant billboards were not enough.



That night we were invited to a house above the city with an amazing view. The other plus of this is that owners with both architects and had designed the entire loft space apartment with huge windows looking out over the city. They also make their own wine and were very generous with the tastings. It was of course fantastic.