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.

Happy Holidays from the Kirkbrides,

It is amazing how much activity can go on by essentially staying in place. The usual holiday madness is always compounded by Adi's bday which involves both a school and separate family celebration. Plus a home Christmas complimented this year by a 3 family gathering at a local American's house accompanied by another St Louis former resident. Then we added a weekend away in Tirana to boot for cleaner air, warmer weather and fantastic food (sushi and the best farm fresh gourmet restaurant in all the Balkans). Not to mention New Years here is celebrated with the same fanfare of Christmas but add in the fireworks. Bitter cold weather and splashes of snow have added to the full holiday spirit but sadly everything will return to 'normal' this coming week as schools open back up and everyone returns from extended vacations. We have counted our blessing hearing about all our foreign friends various travel woes and have appreciated Santa locating us in Kosovo despite Amazon not being able to ship here. A local British toy store opened and the malls now have enough kid activities and movies we can all find a little something to do. And in the spirit of giving, I organized the Kosovo Cub Scout troop that I started for Adi to join the US Marines and visit a local pediatric ward to donate Toys for Tots.

We of course missed the spirit, commercialism, family, friends and Christmas routines that conjure up so many warm memories of my youth by not heading stateside this year, but as most you know, we were just there in Oct so will most likely not return till 2020. However we keep our guest floor warm and open for any adventures to include a trip to Kosovo this year as one of the top 50 unexplored places to visit...