I have to admit, I was quite apprehensive when I entered Kosovo.
What would expect me? Will I enter a totally devasted country, military forces everywhere?
Well, no.
But something else striked me.
All the houses are new, many of them still under construction. Isolate houses are surrounded by high walls, closed by huge iron gates.
In every village there are brand new monuments to honour those who dyed for their country.
Next to it, the Albanian flag. (There was no official Kosovo flag until a year ago)
Besides that, everything is normal, people wave at me, are friendly as everywhere.
No, there is something else: The currency! Here people use the Euro. Only the few Serbs remaining in Kosovo use the Dinar!
From time to time I see a destroyed house, a KFOR or EULEX jeep. While people generally think that KFOR should stay, their feeling towards EULEX (An international police corps) is that they should leave. Kosovo has its own police.

In Pristina there are huge ongoing works. Especially the road from the airport into town is being rebuilt and enlarged, so I get my first traffic jam since I left.

This morning I had a meeting with Mr Geiben, officer at the Luxembourgish contingent at the KFOR. Had, because, while I was just one hour away from Vucitrn, where they live, an SMS informed me, that for security reasons, my visit was cancelled.
You cannot imagine how disappointed I am!
Although I didn’t tell about it, this was planned for weeks. I even had changed my plans, did not visit Tirana, which I was very curious about. I made a 300km detour. 300km for me means 3 days! And now this. Well, if they say there is a security problem, I suppose they know what they talk about. Maybe in a few days I will know more about it.

Meantime I am in Hotel Pristina studying ma maps again.

Probably I will take a rest day today.

This afternoon I visited the office of the Kosovo Humanitarian and Charitable Society “Mother Tereza” Yes, they are not only in Calcutta, but in Kosovo as well. Do not forget, Mother Theresa was Albanian. Later I will tell more about this.

Then, I visited M Weber head of mission at the Luxembourgish Cooperation and Humanitarian Action in Kosovo. Again we discussed the situation, from his point of view this time.

To finish, I visited the Grachanitsa monastery, an Orthodox monastery situated in a Serb enclave 10 km from Pristina. Here I got thrown out by a very aggressive old nun! First time somebody kicks me out of a church!

By the way, unlike one might think, the different religions were not, or barely the reason for the fighting here, it was rather a year long Serb oppression towards the other ethnic groups who ended in a catastrophe. Too easy to generalize of course, but meantime I have my own, rather precise opinion.

Office of "Mother Tereza" NGO

Official Luxembourgish car

Grachanitsa Orthodox Monastery in Serb enclave near Pristina