Sunday Fundays

Sunday Fundays

After falling victim to the ever increasing spread of the Kosovan cold, A.K.A the Prishtina man flu, Friday and Saturday were a social write off.  After managing to stick to my will to avoid a massive Friday night by refusing to be persuaded by a barrage of texts and calls at 2am by Bastian, then deciding to not join Arita and friends at Depot on Saturday night it left Sunday as the day to reclaim a somewhat lost weekend. 

After waking up to a surprisingly sunny Prishtina late Sunday morning, cooking a breakfast that wanted to be fit for kings I then sent the message round that I had recovered mostly from PMS (Prishtina Man Flu) and headed into town.  First stop was Churchill’s; a pub/house that lived up to its name with numerous memorabilia, pictures etc of Winston.

It seems that Sunday has recently been filled up with some drinks and pool on the reg.  However this Sunday would see me become initiated in my first Sunday Funday, aptly named by the Hero of the tail end of weekends, Mr Steve “the gator” Lindsey; a fine gentlemen from New Orleans, Louisiana.

After an eventful group dinner where much banter was shared, Sunday Funday was in full motion.  We (Gator, Gerry and Frency) headed back to Steve’s to continue Kosovo’s best weekend event.  After plenty more banter and even more ghetto talk we headed to Tak’s place to watch the NFL.  After a few more drinks it was time to leave.  Sunday Funday was over, well until next weekend.

Got soaked walking from the cab to the flat, woke up this morning with no running water, showered with bottles.  Not sure if electricity is working when I return from the office. 

Welcome to Kosovo.

Rubbing Shoulders

Everywhere you look in Prishtina there's diplomats, UN personnel, young entrepreneurs, models (well they should be) and oh yeah I forgot to mention, DIPLOMATS! All joking aside, it's an amazing city when it comes to meeting some interesting characters.

So the weekend came around again and I started the Saturday off with watching a bit of the Man U game, some SA Rugby and more importantly the Ryder Cup.  Casual drinking and eating some decent pub grub all afternoon with Declan and his was the calm before a more interesting/top brass experience later on.  So Chris and Steve joined at around 10pm, C&S on the tequila's and B52's in Paddy O'Brians.  After Johnny Cash started on the speakers a change of pace and thus scenery was needed.  We headed to a bar/shack round the corner and were immediately met with a completely different scene.  Perched next a group of run of the mill attractive women of Prishtina celebrating someone's birthday we had the view and more importantly we had the music; house and electro coming from everywhere supplemented by the standard MTV on a flat screen on mute.

So I order a couple of beers, a few more drinks, go next door to grab a water, rehydrate, public urinated then back in to pay the bill.  Well that's what I thought I would be doing until C turns round as says, "no need mate, out with one of our clients and his mate, all expenses covered for tonight."  It turns out that all expenses meant walking into anywhere we wanted, having a "reserved" seat at every place and not having to cloak anything; the bouncer closely guarded my bag.

Peppermint was next on the agenda, underground off the Mother Teresa Boulevard and looks wise pretty reminiscent of a mid-market London club.  The real surprise came when the bartender plonked a bucket of Ice and a bottle of Remy Martin cognac in front of us.  Result.

After Peppermint came Depot, same stories on the entry and "prices" but this time, a few vodders down and raring to go, Prishtina was ready for some dance moves of pure tekkers.  Actually...well... it seemed not so.  Fairly disappointed with the lack of local creativity on the dance floor we headed back to our area to be pleasantly met by a girl sounding like she lives in the Sugar Hut (Slut for short).  Even more surprising was the fact that she was born and raised in Prishtina and was Albanian Kosovan!  Although she had lived in Essex for 11 years.

Boom, club DONE (said in a Gordon Ramsey fashion) and time for a taxi home stopping on route at a quality little pizzeria for an early breakfast.  Back in the cab, munching away and being entertained by the Albanian Danny Dyer and his Mercedes A class.  Back indoors at 4am.

Next day = mong/fester/steak sandwich and MOTD.

Another weekend in Prishtina completed, lets hope this one throws a few characters along the way, I'm sure the city wont dissapoint!