Where you would not dare to offend a taxi driver by wearing a seatbelt. Where the spinach burek is the most popular, but nobody ever sells it. Where the streets turn brown as soon as it snows. Where people pull a sad face, while saying that your proposal is 'no problem at all,' after which you should definitely drop the plan. Where Tuesday is like Friday and Friday is like Wednesday.
 
Prishtina, where everybody notices that you have left abroad. Where it is safer to smoke a pack of Marlboros a day than to go to the hospital. Where development is blocked by the need for institutions that support development. Where directors own clubs and musicians own bars. Where your landlord decides if you can wear shoes inside your house or not.
 
Prishtina, where the sluttiest girls are most likely to be virgins. Where you need your friends help to get a date, and where your friends are your most potential lovers. Where you joke about your friends' mothers even though you don't really know them, while jokes about their sisters are strictly forbidden, even though you know them very well. Where you get married in order to have a better sex life. Where guys hold hands and being gay is a disaster.
 
Prishtina, where the police takes your illegally parked car to Fushe Kosova, in order to make you pay the fine because they know you would never pay the ticket voluntarily. Where you renew your internet subscription each month in cash, because the company knows that you would never pay your bills voluntarily. Where the river flows under the streets, and is only to be seen in black and white pictures from long ago.
 
Prishtina, where being famous is the same as having many friends. Where the nicest park is fenced to be reserved for politicians. Where Muslims celebrate Christmas, and one of the largest new buildings in the city is a cathedral. Where you work six days a week in a coffee bar, just to be able to pay for your coffees on the seventh day. Prishtina, where it is both a curse and a blessing to be an international. Prishtina, where friendship is everything.
 
That's where I live, in a flat with a balcony. In a room with a rug, a kitchen and a bed. That's where I will cook dinners with good friends, while we talk about things we have also talked about last week. It is the city where I am happy to fall asleep in every night, to be woken up too early. By the singing of the hoxhas.

The article was originally written in English.  
Photo Credit: Enis Pakashtica

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