Christmas in the Dolomites, Italy

Luckily the holiday season provides the time and the memories to update friends and family around the world on the Kirkbride ongoings. A warm holiday wish and Happy New Year to everyone far and wide. Once again our location in Europe affords us another wonderful Alps vacation that we could drive to where friends and family met us to celebrate Christmas and our annual ski holiday. We chose northern Italian Alps this year as a world heritage site and half-way between Pristina and our dear friends the Kaisers who drove the opposite direction from Barcelona. Then being a 3 hour drive from the Venice airport allowed my dad and sis to fly in and spend several days in the sinking city before returning to the US. All and all, a holiday for the record books with non-stop kids craziness, laughter, skiing logistics, good (mauld) wine, great food and endless snow-white mountain vistas.

To add a little variety to the drive, we opted to take the  ferry from Durres Albania to Bari Italy which brought the driving time down from 18 hours to 13 (with an overnight ferry to break it up). Giving us time to have a great seaside dinner before boarding, all we should have had to do was board, sleep and wake up in the EU. Only the several meter waves seriously rocked the huge ship all night preventing any sleep or relaxed nerves to begin our holiday. Luckily the Italian highway was perfect and we made it to our snowy mountain destination just after nightfall the next day. Only after we passed around 1200 meters did snow start to collect on the ground once again highlighting global warming but ensuring we had a snowy Christmas.

We stayed in Selva Val Gardena located outside of town at a quant self catering apt complete with a pool with a view and ski in/out for those with equipment. It was great having the extra space of 3 units for the adults and kids to go in/out and separate for playing and talking/drinking time. Stacey/dad were with us the entire week to celebrate Adi's 10th bday as well and Andrew, Emily, Sefi and Ando joined for Xmas and 4 nights. Sooo great to have the kids paired up to entertain themselves and allow the adult kids to catch up on life and get updates on their new lives in Barcelona.

We had Adi and Rea checked into ski school for several days across town which involved enormous logistics and costs. I was able to do my first day solo where I somehow cracked a rib but was joined the next day by Andrew and a final day with Adi who has gotten good enough to handle any intermediate and I accidentally took him on one black which he hit a jump sailing several feet in the air and sticking the landing (0 falls vs 3 for daddy). It was fantastic to finally have a ski partner and inhale the incredibly fresh air we miss in Kosovo.

The charms of the Italian Alps were much appreciated  by visiting the Christmas market, ice skating, fine dining to celebrate Christmas Eve, snow hikes, sledding, snow ball fights. Santa was very generous but having all the family and our dearest friends certainly the best gifts of all. The week went by way too quickly but we added an extra day opting to avoid a return ferry trip by driving all the way thru the rest of the Alps to connect with the coastal route thru Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania before finally hitting home. Since we had to shut our heat before we left, it felt like we brought the mountain weather with us as it took 3 days to get the walls warm again.  We rang in the New Year with Pranvera's family and finally had some rest and relaxation with Pranvera still off work and having full pajama days playing with all the new games and toys. HAPPY 2020!!

Springtime Unfolds


Warm weather has finally been teasing us but still requires use of heat at night until we can claim winter has finally disappeared. We have had a full schedule celebrating different holidays, birthdays, special outings and personal achievements. Even the little things such as our favorite sushi restaurant in Skopje finally opening in Pristina have livened up our nights on the town. And a surprise visit from long-time Dutch friend Sander was a great excuse to hit the courts and catch up since we both hung out in Kosovo a decade ago.

We arranged another outing for the Cub Scouts to visit the KFOR (NATO) base on St Patrick's Day. A highlight was certainly visiting the fire station but the dad's appreciated the bag piper that joined us throughout the day. Marusha Waterfalls were a great way to spend a warm Sunday outdoors with both the kids hiking on their own. Adi had two momentous events on the same day where his school soccer team played in their first tournament ending in a tie. However he made his shot during the final shootout helping them win the game. And then he shuttled back to his school where he performed for the first time a guitar song that he had pieced together himself (video on FB).

And finally our princess turned 5. She had her first party and play date at our house of course with a Frozen theme. The girls all picked out different costumes and loved cutting Elsa out of the cake. The highlight must have been the micro sized LOL doll with a macro sized price tag (and environmental footprint).

I have luckily been in town without business travel this year but Pranvera is off for a US business trip next week for 10 days before I will then start some back to back trips to Asia and Africa. She has been keeping very busy running her local judicial reform project and I have been doing a lighter schedule of consulting mixed with running the Cub Scouts program and planning to start up teaching yoga again at a friends new gym. We are very blessed with good health and miraculously all survived the winter season without any illness giving full credit to having all received flu shots early in the season.  A happy Easter holiday to all and we hope your April showers bring May flowers.

A Busy Winter

Typical for a Kosovo winter, plenty of snow and cold weather kept us busy finding activities to beat the winter blues and we seemed to be successful. The Cub Scout program I am running with other dads has been a great bi-weekly event that has included a sledding day, a visit to the local bear sanctuary and an upcoming visit to our local KFOR base. For my bday in Feb we took a long weekend off to visit a mountain resort on the Macedonia/Bulgaria border to just rest, relax, enjoy great meals and nice warm nature walks around the resevoir and a couple full-on mountain bike adventures (did I mention the fresh air??). Adi and I then headed to our local mountain for one day of skiing as a refresher to keep his skills up but they never turned on the main lift that would have allowed him and I to ski side by side for the day. Luckily our local malls have improved their offerings to include a bowling alley and climbing wall to break up our days of hibernation;-) And March got well underway celebrating Pranvera's birthday locally with a day of family and relaxation including massage, outside brunch, hike in our local park (first time the kids walked without complaining), amazing sushi dinner at our brand new SushiCo restaurant and blowing out candles with her parents and brothers.