Ramadan: Cafe's at Iftar

On Tuesday I went up to Kosovo to give some training in Quickbooks as well as to help set up a Quicken account (eek) for another colleague. The training went really well and the time seemed to fly by.... yet we worked at the details for a good 6 hours! Afterwards I enjoyed a grilled chicken kabab dinner with colleages before heading out with the girls to a cafe around 7pm.

Iftar (the breaking of the days' fast) was after sundown about 6:40, so when we arrived at the cafe it was pretty much deserted. My friends said that normally it's impossible to find a place in the cafes--especially at this time of night. But since everyone was with their families enjoying Iftar, we had our pick of the place.

Now here's something funny. Because it's such a busy place some people will actually call ahead and reserve a table. Well, like I said the place was empty when we got there, however there were several "reserved" signs on the different tables. When one of my friends asked about it they guy responded, "Oh, it's reserved for you!" lol.

As the night got later people began to show and the place did fill up (as the music increased in volume as well, moving from a mello jazz mix to a typical techno beat). What was interesting to me, though, was the cigarrette vendors who'd made the rounds through the cafe a good dozen times while we were there. Smoking is one of the things that people fast from during the daylight hours, so I imagine those vendors had quite the hoppin' business once the sun went down.

It's funny, but I don't go to Kosovo that often, but I always do seem to be there at some point during Ramadan (or Ramazan). This trip was no different. In fact, I'll be going up again right at Bajram (the ending of the months' fast) at the end of the month to help with closing out the books. I'm a little excited to be there at that time as from what I hear it's like a big holiday celebration with lots of baklava. :)