Preparation and travelling

 Preparing to return 

Hi! I am writing this blog to record my trip to Kosovo. I am a student from Bournemouth University, in the UK and currently completing a working placement year between my second and third years of study. I have already completed 20 weeks of work, starting in summer 2024. My first placement was to work as an intern in Kosovo for an NGO called Oral History Kosovo, read my previous blog to find out about that trip.

Anyway, I am now preparing to return to Prishtina, Kosovo to work for Oral History Kosovo once again. This will be 4 weeks of volunteer work to support this important and interesting organisation who record and archive personal stories of lives that impacted the social and cultural status of the country.

Getting ready to leave has been less pressure than my previous visit as I have more knowledge of what to expect and already know the lovely people I will be working with. However, this time I will be travelling alone, on my last visit I was with two colleagues and friends from the university who went to work for different organisations. There is part of me that is slightly nervous to come by myself, but I know that it will be good for me as it will give me more freedom to explore, work and travel with my own independence; I am relying on me, myself and I, which will be important for my confidence. I enjoyed working last time and hopefully now I can offer more to support my colleagues.

Travelling

It is the evening of the 15th of January 2025, and I am currently sat in my one-bedroom apartment in Prishtina, Kosovo. I flew from Bristol airport at 7am, stopped in Geneva, Switzerland for a couple of hours, before arriving in Prishtina at 3pm. Some people do not enjoy the travelling part, however, I always quite enjoy the adventure of getting from place to place, even if it can be tiring.

I had already booked a taxi for when I touched down, so I did not have to worry about the chaos of taxis at the airport, learning a lesson from last time. I had an extremely interesting conversation with my taxi driver, who spoke good but broken English, about the country’s history, where it is in terms of the global political environment, the influence of more powerful countries, Kosovo’s own economic state and his opinions that he all freely gave to me without much persuasion from me. Interactions like these are one of the main reasons for me wanting to travel, as before last summer I did not know anything about Kosovo. This is where you can understand the culture form within, where people have similarities, differences, and why this may be. It is fascinating to see how people are directed differently within the same culture from an outside perspective, this is developing my ability to go home and do the same thing. As without leaving your own culture I don’t think that you can see those sometimes quite obvious effects and influences on our lives that may seem obvious somewhere else.

Again, anyway, I paid the taxi driver, said goodbye and found my apartment. It is on the 9th floor of a rather derelict building, a lot of the large blocks of flats are ex-communist buildings that now look quite run down, but this doesn’t bother me. Entering my apartment, I am very happy, it has everything I need and a comfortable bed, so can’t complain! I went into the centre to see the Christmas market and to get dinner at my favourite spot, although it felt a bit strange without Tom and Ethan (my friends from last time). By the time I got home I was exhausted so went to bed.

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