#montenegro

Montenegrin costume, Montenegro, by myguidemontenegro

It’s times like today, sitting the bus station in Podgorica, Montenegro, on my way to Pristina, Kosovo, that I think to myself, “my life is awesome and strange!”

I’m sitting in the station bar, joined by three men at a table catty-corner to me.  They all look ragged, and (of course) their story is unclear to me.  Are they also transient travelers?  I don’t think so.  Is this their bar of choice on a Tuesday night at 8pm? That seems slightly more likely. 

Despite these usual questions I ask while people watching, another thought is at the top of my mind-  Why is one of those men wearing an entire jean outfit?  Jacket and pants!  Fashion in the Balkans confuses me- and not because of some “this looks better than that” ideal, but because it really shows how disconnected (consciously or subconsciously) this area is from the homogenized global norm.  

All of this said, I think I’ve quickly grown to hardly question it.  Point proven by the fact that a guy my age just walked into the bar wearing a full sweat suit, and all I noticed was the dog he brought in with him.   A dog in a bar? I don’t know either.  He quickly walked back out though- maybe he realized what we were all thinking.

Oh, but now we four patrons have been graced by the presence of an elderly man (almost said “gentleman” but I’m feeling a bit pessimistic at the moment and don’t want to assume too much) who has sat down behind me and begun to smoke.  He is in the perfect position to read my writing… but I’ll gamble on language difference and his inability to decipher my awful handwriting.  Of any of us, he definitely seems like the regular to the train station bar.  I bet he could tell a hundred stories about this place- if only I could speak the language.  What is the language here?  Montenegrin?  I will have been in 11 countries this month so have lost all memory of language names, currencies, borders, etc.   And despite no shared language, I think I prefer my imagination right now.

On the small circular wicker table (the kind with a glass protector over it) my notebook is next to a single 1.5euro Niksicko (lines over both the s and c) 500ml ber bottle, half of the contents of which are poured into a small Coca Cola glass.  It’s a fine beer- I won’t pretend my palette or beer memory is enough to prescribe more than that single complimentary adjective to it.  I did think about ordering food as well.  I am hungry, have a three hour wait, and an eight hour bus ride after this…but from the seven page menu, only two options were available.  So I declined.  I’ll find something else soon.  Somewhere.  Though then I’ll have to take out more money at the ATM. Decisions…

What’s nice about traveling is noticing all of these little things and random people.  One gets in a mode of ultra-awareness of difference when going from place to place quickly.  This enables a heightened sense of smell, deeper respect for the beauty of vistas, acknowledgement of people and their jean jackets a bit more.  I think it’s because when we’re traveling we have the time to.  We are passive.  Taking the passenger seat to life happening around us.  We are in others’ lives when we travel.

We of course still find things weird when we travel, but unlike at home we can’t dismiss it so easily as such.  Instead, we spend time rationalizing, philosophizing, and hopefully not too quickly believing we “understand” it enough to move onto the next thought.   This makes travel a humbling experience- forcing the journeyer to say “I don’t know”.  It’s a transcendent juxtaposition between this forced lack of understanding and the heightened appreciation of the world’s beauty.

This exposure to the unknown (both places and people) is why some travelers love touristy places and others despise them.  Don’t you think?  Too much difference can be overwhelming.  Too many travelers are weak.

(side note) The jeaned man just left.  He was carrying a 2 liter soda bottle filled with a clear liquid.  He walks with a limb, has a scruffy face, and hair to his shoulder.  His one friend has a kind of fanny pack hanging from his neck.  The other is carrying a briefcase.  Understand them better now?

I find it funny that places like this bar (I’ve realized now from a sign on the door that it’s called “Aperitiv Bar”) were once new!  All shiny and quite possible fashionable- at least by local standards.  Maybe this simple blue carpet, the bar with green opaque-because-of-bubbles glass, or these dark brown wicker table sets were the “hit new thing” once.  Maybe everyone came to Aperitiv Bar- and slowly they have stopped- other than Mr. Jean Outfit, ancient old Mr. Smokes and SitsTooClose (oh I guess he left too), and the occasional random American on his way to an even more bizarre location.  

I wouldn’t be surprised if this cigarette-aged bartender woman was being chased by these men some 20 years ago.  They do say that bartenders have the best stories… 

Who knows?  I guess I do have 2.5 hours more to figure it out.  Though soon, after a few more gulps of Niksicko (don’t forget those lined consonants) I will find another strange location, but with food, and there I will once again try (and likely fail) to make sense of my surroundings.

But (closing thought) isn’t the point that through failing to make sense of others we get a new piece of the puzzle to make sense of ourselves?  But do we learn it immediately? If yes, then what have I learned from Mr. Jean Outfit?  No, I think it cooks under the surface for a while first.  But then how are these strange moments while traveling connected?

Do they make us who we are?  Or do they simply show us? 

In planning a trip through German-speaking Europe that I am hoping to take this December/January, I started thinking about other overland trips that I would like to take in future.  I came up with three really exciting ones and thought I would post the theoretical itineraries here!  

I’m not sure when- but I’ll definitely be taking one or more of these trips in the next few years.

I posted about the actual winter Europe trip and the first fantasy trip- in South America, from Buenos Aires to Bogota here:  Overland Trips I Want to Take: Part 1 (South America)

the third trip through West Africa can be found here: Overland Trips I Want To Take: Part 3 (West Africa)

Now onto the second trip

Eastern Europe

This trip would be amazing!  It combines ancient sites, Soviet era architecture, small modern cities, a beautiful coast, low lying mountains and more.  For me it would be unique in that Eastern Europe is really one of the regions that I’m least familiar with- I speak none of the languages, only know the basic outline of political history, and am not aware of much of the culture.  All of this would make it the perfect kind of travel- full of learning and experiencing new things.  

The trip would start in St. Petersburg experiencing the iconic “Mother Russia” before heading west through the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) this fast developing though often forgotten part of Europe interesting combines Eastern and Western Europe with some Northern/Scandinavian flair - or so I gathered from my short weekend in Latvia in 2011.  That brief encounter made me want to see more of the Baltics.

From there the route would go through Belarus and Ukraine. These two large countries were two of the more connected to the core of the USSR and still exist as more reserved (especially Belarus) than other parts of the former Soviet bloc.  These two nations being so large would mean long hours going through country-side, hopefully stopping in small towns, seeing the rural life a bit, making new friends, who knows. 

Next would be moving into the mountains of Moldova and Romania.  Considering I love low lying mountains and hills, I think this would be a highlight! Plus Moldova is probably the most obscure of the countries on the list, so getting to know it a bit would be really exciting.

Once in Bucharest, the plan is to cut directly West through Belgrade and all the way to Zagreb in Croatia and even further to Ljubljana, Slovenia.  These two capital cities are said to be somewhat unknown gems of Europe, with the latter being popular with cyclists and sharing some parts of Italian culture because of its proximity with Northern Italy.

The ride down the Croatian coast of the Adriatic sea will likely be the peak of beautiful landscape on the trip.  At some point though I’d move inland first to visit the campus of the boarding school in Mostar that is part of the United World College movement that I attended.  After crossing through the last bits of coast in Montenegro I’d move inland a second time, through Kosovo to Sophia, Bulgaria.

After Sophia I’ll be deep in old Greek territory, visiting Alexander the Great’s sites in Montenegro and then through another beautiful capital, Tirana, Albania. I will then leave the “Balkans” proper and head down through Greece to all the ancient ruins on the way to Athens!

Wow! I’m both exhausted and exhilarated from even writing about it!  Definitely would be a whirlwind experience. Hope I will do it (or parts of it) soon!

Bonus Trip: South Pacific  While talking with a friend we came up with three other long trips, and though I haven’t put much thought into them, I’m including one in each of the posts as a bonus trip.  This idea is to island hop around the South Pacific- seeing Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Marshall Islands, and many more!  I would be done ideally on a boat, though there are lots of small planes that go between the islands as well!  Who knows!

“Paul may be a minority in the Senate, but his view is much more practical and in line with the American people.”

Written by Daniel Depetris for The Hill:

This January, the Foreign Relations Committee recommended a vote to ratify Montenegro’s accession to NATO. This week, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) attempted to do just that, requesting unanimous consent that the Resolution of Ratification be approved by the full chamber without any more debate on the floor.

Sen.Rand Paul (R-Ky.) objected to the request and then walked off the floor, leaving McCain so furious that he openly declared that the junior senator from Kentucky was in cahoots with Russian President Vladimir Putin to dismember NATO.

“The only conclusion you can draw when he [Paul] walks away,” McCain remarked on the floor, “is he has no justification for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO that is under assault from the Russians.”

But McCain’s rationale is simple-minded and ultimately misguided. …

Fortunately, the bullying tactics aren’t cowing Paul into submission. There is a strong case to be made for why Montenegro becoming the 29th member of NATO isn’t a good idea. At the very least, the Senate should have a full debate on the matter, exercising its powers of ratification. …

Paul may be a minority in the Senate, but his view is much more practical and in line with the American people. For what, exactly, does Montenegro — a tiny country of less than 630,000 people, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of only $3.9 billion and an active military of approximately 2,000 troops — offer NATO that it doesn’t already have?

It’s difficult to see what the positives would be for Montenegro’s inclusion. The Montenegrin government spends 1.6 percent of its GDP on defense, short of the 2 percent threshold that NATO now uses as a guideline. As my colleague Charles Pena wrote last November, it would be unwise policy for the United States and the NATO alliance to take in yet another member that won’t contribute their fair share of the defense burden.

Currently, 23 of NATO’s 28 members contribute less than the 2 percent benchmark. Montenegro would add yet another dependent country to America’s coattails, while hardly making Americans safer.

Read the entire article here.

Advice from a river: slow down and meander