9th of April, 2009

I spend the night in Nis. It is a lively city with many bars, cafes and restaurants. People smile, couples hold each other and dogs look for food. The air is so familiar. At first hand I was surprised how similar the atmosfear was to an Argentine town. People kiss once on the cheek to greet each other. Vladimir tells me it’s only the younger generations that do this. He owns the empty hostel I slept in last night.
He tells me Kosovo is a very sentimental place for Serbs as this is where their roots lie. In the late 80′s the Albanian people living in what is now Kosovo, were told by the Serbian government that they should be more Serbian or they would lose their jobs. And so they were fired.
Albanian people living in Kosovo have done so since Albania was “Big Albania”. Then came Yugoslavia, and from then it was not easy to live under one roof.
Today, Kosovo as an autonomous republic is recognized by several countries world wide, but it remains for Serbia to accept this. (as we know history is written by those who win wars. This brief history is my history, taken from testimonies of Serbian, Kosovs and Bulgarians, all very different histories).

13:45
I got on a dodgy van to go to Kosovo, not very different than the illegal mini-vans of Buenos Aires.
The trip to Pristinha, Kosovos capital, was longer than I expected. The roads were bad and the driver drove fast while he spoke on the phone and to his girlfriend 90% of the way.
The Servian country side is a big trash can. The side of the roads, back gardens of the houses and ledge of the river are usually white from plastic bags and all sorts of garbage.
When we finally arrived to the border there was a bit of tension. Guards with machine guns sat on the shade smoking and staring. The road was narrow and railed by barbed wire and iron defenses. It took us about 30 minutes to go through. On the other side nothing changed. Same old dirty landscape.
The arrival at Pristinha was extremely shocking. I asked myself what I was doing there over and over. We desensed into the city from a hill. It looked like a favela from Rio and a Citee from Paris in one. Buildings and houses of naked brick, streets of dirt or broken pavement. I hoped the van wouldn’t drop me off now.
We crossed the city. Fear invaded me. I wouldn’t last to minutes on the street I thought to myself. We finally stopped on the side of the highway on the other side of the city. You are here the driver said to me. Where am I?, I thought. I got off and stood still watching the van leave. I must have stood there completely still for 5 minutes before noticing “Hotel Liberty” across the highway. I had called a guesthouse from Nis to make sure I had a bed, but this didn’t matter now. Hotel liberty was my refuge now. The interior didn’t match the outside at all. Leather sofas, glass chandeliers and bellboys in black suits. The price was farther from the context. 80 euros. Could you call a taxi for me please? The bellboy rushed to the phone.
While I waited for the cab I took some my camera and made some shots. The bellboy was very curious and exited about it. He took me outside and pointed a the roof of the hotel.

“We have the liberty statue, like in America, I will take you to the roof so you can do a good photo.”

The roof was under repair so management didn’t allow it. It would have been a fantastic shot.

The cab took me to my pension with no problem. At the basement of the building was a door with a sheet of paper stuck to is. It read “reception”. In the room, on a sofa, sat an old man with white hair, 3 day beard and glasses with black “vintage” frames. A Tv with bad reception on the kitchen stove spoke impossible words. The room was dark and there were old news papers and things piled up on every space.

“Welcome, I am professor Ivan,” he muttered slowly turning his head towards me, “are you looking for a room?”

Indeed I was. I learned that the professor Ivan was now retired with a pension of 45 euros, but until last year was a professor at the engeneering university of Pristinha . He had made his PhD on Electronic Engeneering in New Castle.
I said to him I would stay one night, and asked:

“Why will you stay only one night at the newest country in the world?”