When I first came to Switzerland from Zagreb in 1986, I liked it so much that I stayed put.Not because life was better economically, not even because of the war that had been raging in former Yugoslavia, but simply because I found the country so beautiful and everything so well organized. In that respect, I followed in my father’s footsteps. A generation earlier he had left Kosovo and settled in Zagreb because he liked the Croatian capital so much. There was nothing really to stop people doing that in Yugoslavia back then. It was much like moving from one part of Austria to another, like from Vorarlberg to Vienna. So I have Albanian roots and speak Albanian – my mother tongue – along with Croatian and German. There’s an Albanian proverb that runs “Stupid people stay where they were born, smart people move where life is better.” And that sums me up!