After almost four weeks

It's been almost four weeks since I left Tirana for Pristina. All I can say is I have had absolutely great time in Pristina, the beautiful capital city of The Colony aka Republic of Kosovo. I want to say a big Thank You for the amazing people at Balkan Sunflowers for allowing me to come here and work for your fabulous organization. A good start - a good finish (or that's what I hope most!)

My time in Pristina has truly brought a radical change in my life: for the first time in many, many years I am waking up at seven in the morning to start working at half past eight. Come on, we all know how it is to be a student at a university with 24/7 library, how upsetting is that for almost anyone's sleeping patterns... Me no more a student, me no more allowed to sleep til midday. Almost every morning starts with a cup of coffee, usually Turkish coffee:

Enjoying the morning coffee at Ma Belle.

As usual, when moving into a new country, life will not be all about work, but also about adventures. So far I have visited quite a few places around The Colony, for example:

Just off Pristina is Gazimestan, the monument commemorating the Battle of
Kosovo that occurred back in 1389. The site is heavily guarded, which reveals
a lot about the extremely unstable security situation in The Colony.

Kosovska Mitrovica, a city infamous for being strictly divided into the Serb
North and Albanian South. In the picture there is the most famous landmark
of Mitrovica, St. Demetrius Church.

Mountains around the city of Pejë (or Pec) near the border of Montenegro.

Prizren, an old Ottoman city in Southern Kosovo. Kind of "Small Sarajevo",
do you agree?

For more photographs of The Colony and other places around the Balkans, please click the link below to visit my new Flickr account:

Elza Ivanovic "Finkinja"