Even Good Things Must Come to an End...

 On Wednesday, April 15th, at a little after 2 pm, I closed out my two years of Peace Corps.  I left my apartment on Tuesday with the help of Danny.  He had to go to Prishtina to get a replacement cellphone, so we went together.  In true Kosovo fashion, the water went out just as we were leaving the apartment, and the power went out as we boarded the bus.  From this point on, the sound of generators will always remind me of my time in Kaçanik.  It was hard leaving, but I was glad to have Danny to talk to on the bus ride. 

Once we made it to Prishtina, we walked to the PC office.  I had some things to drop off, and Danny got his phone.  Another volunteer was working on her grant in the volunteer lounge, and she and Thom joined us for lunch.  It was a falafel wrap at Baba Ganosh.  We visited a bookstore, and then sat outside at a coffee shop for the afternoon until Sami called.  We were fortunate, because Sami brought all of our suitcases when he came to work in the morning.  Thom rode with him.  Sami was going to deliver our bags to the hotel.  Plus, he was able to give Danny a ride back to Koveçec.  When we got to the hotel, we took our bags up to our room.  Then we joined Danny and Sami for a final beverage before saying goodbye.  It was hard saying goodbye to both Danny and Sami.

After spending a little time in our room, we met a response volunteer at a restaurant called Soma Book Station.  It was a cute place that looked like a bookstore.  We had a nice dinner, but the portions were small.  Thom wanted to go to Heb's Chicken (Kosovo fast food).  Thom finally got to try Hebs, and he wasn't impressed.  Then we went back to the hotel for our final night in Kosovo.

In the morning, I went to the PC Office, while Thom got a taxi to take our bags to the bus station.  He was able to store them at the station until we were ready to leave.  He bought tickets for the 3:30 pm bus to Tirana.  David and I were the two volunteers from our group leaving.  We arrived 10 am and started the process of checking out.  There is a bit of paperwork, medical records to collect, and many goodbyes.  Thom and I grabbed a quick lunch before my final meetings with staff.  At 2 pm, David and I were done with all of the process.  We rang the bell, we said goodbye, and we hugged a bit.   

David and I ring out our service

After that, we said goodbye to David (he was flying out of Prishtina the next day).  We saw Cody (another volunteer), and we took our last walk to the Prishtina bus station with Cody.  We got our luggage and caught our bus to Tirana.  It is a long bus ride to Tirana, as the bus makes stops along the way.  We were fortunate that the bus stopped in front of our hotel near the Tirana airport.  Tomorrow, we take one last Balkan trip before heading home.