Sunny days in Montenegro

My first foray outside of Albania occurred back in October. I went with a local group called "HASH" to Montenegro for the weekend. I'll spend another blog on the "HASHers", but for now, it will suffice to say that this is a very varied group of individuals who get together every weekend to go running in the countryside, followed by an evening of gorging themselves on chicken wings and beer. I'm told every country has a group, and quite frankly, I'm not surprised. :-) Anyways, they sponsored a trip to Budva, Montenegro and I was lucky enough to be able to participate.

Budva is Montenegro's jewel on the coast. A wonderfully preserved walled city, with a strong tourist economy and enough variation for all income levels. The best thing about this trip was that I met one of my best friends, Karolina, on this trip. Karolina has since unfortunately departed back to Sweden, where I plan to visit and cause some mayhem around June 21st. So stay tuned for more on that front...

We happened to be there the last weekend of the tourist season, and a large festival was being held for the Budva community, to celebrate another successful tourist season. There was fresh fish, free wine and live entertainment. A fantastic way to celebrate, if you ask me!

Here is the local grillmaster, hard at work!

And the yummy grillins!

And here is our little group, from left to right, Christina, Ingrid, Karolina, and Johan, patiently waiting in line for our free fish. :-)

Visiting other towns in Montenegro, such as Kotor...

...and Herceg Novi. Dougie likes Herceg Novi! :-)

Another adventure belatedly told...Bosnia-Hercegovina

Back in October, I had the good fortune to visit my girlfriend, Jacki, and her husband, who were then living in Sarajevo, BiH. Sarajevo is a fascinating place, and I would very much like to try living/working there next, should the opportunity arise. The city itself is comfortably nestled in a small valley in the Dinaric Alps, with the Miljacka River smoothly running its course around the city center. The historic center has a lot of character, with a bazaar, local eateries/bakeries, and a dozen mosques or so, with their white minarets poking above the tiled rooftops.

There were a lot of interesting shops, including this Shakira knock-off -- even the saleswomen dressed like the Shakira mannequins!

Jacki showed me a wonderful time in Sarajevo -- including that wonderful tasty treat of cevapi -- please see her blog (theneurotictraveller.blogspot.com) for her recipe on how to make!

As to be expected, adventure was not far behind us. We took a day to drive into the surrounding hillsides in the Republic of Serbska, to check out a local monastery and the abandoned ski resorts, still bombed out from the war. A fascinating place -- one of the buildings had a bright blue "UN" painted on it from when it served as a temporary field office for the UN. It didn't survive the wreckage, though.

After a wonderfully hot meal at one of the still operating resorts (even though there was no snow), we decided to head further up the dirt road to discover whatever was waiting to be discovered. Unfortunately, as we drove further up the mountainside, the fog swirled in, making it seem as if we were in a parallel universe, and could only imagine just how close the car really was to the side of those perilous cliffs to the left and right. Just as we thought we saw a beacon of light in the distance (it was only a brief parting of the fog as the sun set), we got stuck. Yep, and stuck we were. The car would not go forward. Would not go backwards. One very incredibly large rock had somehow managed to lodge itself firmly on the axles. (Note that I was not the one driving...) Only after some serious innovative, yet primitive, techniques were employed, were we finally able to dislodge both rock and car from each other. As one near-death experience shrouded in fog and darkness was enough, we thankfully managed to turn the car around on one of those 18-point turns on a narrow dirt road in the mountains and mud, and made our way safely, though slightly buzzed from our proximity to death, back to civilization.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip and good quality girl time spent with Jacki, which we both needed. Alas, Jacki and her hubby have relocated themselves to somewhere in East Anglia, to where I hope to visit sometime in the near future...