Greetings from Kosovo (pt 2)

Oh what a long day yesterday was. Long, yet very enjoyable! Lauren and I joke that I have far more of a social life in Belgrade than I ever do at home and it seems that it is the same in Pristina!

After a full day in the office during which I had three Turkish coffees (yay!) and forgot about lunch, one of my Kosovar colleagues invited me to dinner with her family. She has a lovely family and a beautiful apartment. Everyone seems to speak excellent English (which is great because my Albanian is non existent, at least currently) and were all very friendly. After dinner I accompanied her one floor below to her mother-in-law's to attend a birthday celebration for one of her young nieces. I had an absolutely lovely time sipping tea out of tiny delicate glass cups (also singed my fingertips a bit) and eating biscuits and cake while visiting her family.

After the birthday party we went out to have drinks at one of the quieter cafes. Her husband joined us there and we moved onto yet another cafe, Phish. This one was far less quiet but I had a very nice glass of locally produced red wine that just about put me under the table. It was also mildly depressing being around so many of what Grizz would call "the Youth" and I felt all of my almost 29 years. I blame the jet lag. I must not yet be recovered. Also depressing is how pretty everyone here is, both men and women. And the men are pretty...did I mention that? My colleagues here and in Belgrade are determined to help me find a husband (I do need all the help I can get). In Belgrade I gave them my first criteria: he must be tall, preferably taller than I. No problem they said. Then I mentioned my second criteria: he must be Catholic. And oh how their faces fell. Here I give my first two criteria and no problem. They can find me someone. Odd as it may seem but apparently there are more Catholics in this Muslim country than there are in Serbian Orthodox Serbia.

After Phish it was onto a bistro called Odyssea which was very posh and happily rather empty. I prefer the quiet to shouting over music. Three cafes in a row on a Tuesday night...gives me illusions that I am some sort of social butterfly.

After turning down a trip to a bakery for burek which I couldn't possibly have eaten at 11:30 I returned to my hotel. While I had planned to simply eat dinner and go back to the hotel much earlier to keep working, I had much more fun with my colleague than I would have with my original plan. I was so tired when I returned that I did not even care about the power cut. But yay for generators nonetheless.