Rip Van Winkles Back to Kosovo

All I can say is that something better happen this Sunday – or Monday at the latest. I mean we have all been waiting around for this since 1389, or 1912, or 1981 or whatever it is.

I certainly feel like I have been waiting for far too long for something to happen here. In fact, to tell you the truth, I feel like I have been waiting so long that I am becoming more interested in Kosovo ephemera than anything else. For example, I know who is suffering from acute iPhone jealousy syndrome in Pristina.

Just been up to Mitrovica to see what is what and found several things. For example, inside the old Jugobanka building which houses the HQ of the UN there, there is a giant map of (old) Yugoslavia surrounded by the names of cities across the world where, presumably, they used to do business. Plea: When this building gets renovated can someone please make sure that this map is preserved in a museum?

Just before the Ibar bridge ProCredit bank have a large advert. It shows a happy couple getting married. I wonder if the person who put it up here did so as a joke? After all these people have been separated for eight years and are now about to get divorced properly.

"Don't be cynical!" chides a UN official. "Why shouldn't I?" I wonder.

Coffee in the Dolce Vita, known as (cliché alert) "home of the Serbian bridge watchers." Yeah, whatever. All I know is that the Dolce Vita makes all other cafes in the Balkans feel like smoke free zones. A day in there and you'd end up like a smoked salmon. Dark rumours of "somebody coming" from Serbia any day now to take charge of things round here...

I make a special trip up the street to see the new(-ish) statue of the Russian consul murdered here in 1903. There are also some Putin pictures dotted around. Reassuring to see that history does indeed repeat itself, and that that is not just an empty saying. I mean, of course, Russian interests in Mitrovica, not murders. Talking about murder though, on the way, I see that someone has stuck up a "Ratko Mladic Boulevard" street sign sticker on the window of the Serbian National Council. There are also posters demanding the return of the Serbian army here. Ha.

Sonja, Agron and I go back down south. She says the pljeskavicas are better here. Then we go to Gojbulja. It is an enclave 7kms south of Mitrovica and home to 250 Serbs. There is none of the Mitrovica chest thumping: "If they declare independence – we declare independence!" stuff here. People here are frightened, even though the French base is close by. It is not much of a life in Gojbulja. Just waiting.

Back to Pristina. Loads of journalists are coming. The worst are the Rip Van Winkles. Many were here on December 10 last year, because they were so out of touch they actually thought something was going to happen. They are known as the Rip Van Winkles because they write as if they have just awoken from a long sleep which began in 1999 or even after Dayton in 1995, and they think that the region has not moved on since just before they went to bed. Boring people. They make eyes glaze over.

I took some pictures. You can see them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timjudah/