New Years' Concert

We’d been up late the night before; Luke had suffered more with his shot of JD inside his pint (it’s how Finns drink apparently).  We leave late with plans only to make more plans because there is nobody to meet on Sunday.

We take the liberty to take more photos than usual on our way to the centre. We stroll down the steep hill through a park rebuilt by the international community.  Luke and Mark get increasingly annoyed at the number of photos as I snap away, but they relax in the end through sheer perseverance.  We miss our standard bakery trip and go in search of food in the centre.  We walk by the University of Pristina, but many of the bars and cafes are closed.  However, cafe Bosna is open, and there is therefore a clear opportunity for a hearty meat and bread lunch.

The cafe is not cold thanks to the gas fired almost blowtorch contraption which is roaring away next to the large gas canister.  We order kebabs for lunch.  We get given two sauces. One is obviously tomato ketchup and the other is in a yellow container which may well be mustard or mayonnaise in the UK. I shake this over my food, but quickly realise it’s oil. Luke confirms it’s unflavoured and we all wonder why anyone might want to add more oil to something which has so much oil already!  The bread, as always, is like a large pita bread but thick and filled with grilled meat.

We discuss our plans for the following week over a customary macchiato and make a large list of people to get in contact with the following week. We have learnt our lesson from attempting to “talk to the UN” and decide that an approach of contacting individuals or at least guessing their title is the correct way to go in order to get more potential projects. We even use the guidebook to get some names.

We get a text from our Kosovar friends who are at a bar on the other side of town and we decide to go for another macchiato. We arrive at the large coffee bar which always has young people sipping macchiatos and chatting or reading magazines. This could be anywhere in Europe, and in fact there is much to recommend these cafés over those in the UK.  For a start the coffee is much better and cheaper!  We meet our friends who we chat with for an hour or so, we communicate mostly in English but get taught some Albanian too.  We have an interesting conversation surrounding identity and what a Kosovan might be and how Serbians might be integrated into this identity.  Again we get the abrupt Albanian ending to meetings, which is perhaps refreshing but also always quite surprising.

We notice Agroni and Lu, the brother and girlfriend of Faz, walk into the coffee bar we are in. We go over to say hello and they invite us over. We chat for a while about what they are up to and their experience of English tuition. Agroni expresses an interest in going over a few issues, and I get a chance to use some of my English language teacher training. This means conversation moves slower, but it really feels as if he’s making progress.

We are then asked if we would like to go to a concert at the national concert hall. Naturally Agroni knows a soloist who is singing in the concert. We gladly accept and walk across town and beyond the “NEW BORN” sign unveiled with independence a few months ago. These are large yellow metal blocks covered now in public art and graffiti and used by children as a climbing frame, although this seems a rather dangerous activity.

We meet Agroni’s friend who is wearing black tie and appears not to be too concerned about his upcoming performance.  We sit in the concert hall which is lit by interesting fixtures above, light bulbs connected with pinkish tubes although it seems as if not all the bulbs are on.  We sit on stackable chairs which are arranged in rows, but even these in combination with the balconies is not enough to accommodate all those watching and there is standing room only for the performance which might have come from a classical music top 20.  Tracks from Carmen, Tosca, Trubadur and more are played with many different soloists taking the stage. The quality of the full orchestra is undeniably good and it is filmed by state television. New Year is celebrated after a count upwards to eleven in German. The attitude of the audience is somewhat more relaxed than in the UK with applause at moments which are considered extra good and one man in the row in front even is able to answer his phone!

Although we have not done as much as we had done during the week we are still tired so after we part ways we walk back to our apartment. We buy food from the local shop and Mark cooks. We are still unable to tell the difference between chillies and peppers and it also seems as if they are not separated in shops either.  Regardless we have a good meal and retire to bed early in order to be ready for the busy week we had planned during the day.

Tags: Kosovo, OXAB Kosovo Exploration Trip