The Black Crows and a Riot

If Alfred Hitchcock did not visit this city before he wrote his screenplay, 'The Birds' than he had quite an imagination. Except for us, it is a daily reality. They will wake me up each day around 6am (coordinated with alarm) as thousand scream over my hilltop heading towards the city center to caw, perch, and shit over everything. This pattern will be repeated at least one other time around sunset as they now amass in the tens of thousands to swirl in the air like a black ocean wave rippling through an otherwise pleasant evening sky. The sheer volume and noise of these crows is almost frightening and to say the least dangerous if you plan on avoiding any bird poop. Fortunately, the locals consider it good luck to get shit on. Regardless, many of the expats have just taken to wearing a hooded jacket if you have to walk on any of the city streets the crows have taken over.

On an equally exciting (and equally as dangerous) note was my Saturday night out to experience my first football match (soccer for us Americans) in our local stadium. Very cool since I can actually see and hear the games from my hillside apt. but this time we were center bleachers on the visitors side. This was by accident but for $3.00 a seat it was well worth it. Not only did we have a birds eye (excuse the pun) view of the Pristina fans going absolutely crazy, but we were also on the direct frontal assault at the end of the game as they stormed the field. The irony is that my Australian friend said that her local colleagues were surprised she was going to the game with me since she is female and they are dangerous. I laughed that one off till we noticed some bad calls and much team pushing toward the end of the match. Followed by some bottle throwing at the visiting team who then got in a pushing match with the refs for not calling against the home team. And as the game ended in a tie apparently the local fans who had not stopped cheering coordinated songs throughout the entire match rushed the barriers, overwhelmed the police, poured out onto the field like water through a broken levy and they swarmed around the visiting team and then came over towards our stands to rush the visiting fans.

Well fortunately by this time we had already made our way right next to the exit but once all the action started happening on the field it was amazing how quickly things got dangerous as thousands of fans tried for the exits. We made it out in the first wave with allot of screaming (all in good hooligan fun and chaos) and as we jogged away from the stadium waves of police could be seen jogging towards it. Now I feel like I have been initiated into the real European world of futeball! Play on!!!!