April 16, 2009

Took this for Mel in the USA before I started my walk.

Looks interesting. Humantarian party?

I like how they let the grass and everything else grow here. I' was trying to show how high these things were growing. This yellow one is growing up to my waist.

I am holding my hands up to the top of two plants.

Masking tape to hold part of the sign together I guess.

Found in the bushes.

It is prettier than it would be if they cut it all down.

Dropping it into the dumpster.

Like many pple here, these guys called out to me when they saw I was taking pictures and they wanted me to take a picture of them. I really like this about the Montenegrins.

It is sad to me that they accept money from a liquor company.

Doesn't this look a bit like a handcuff to you?

If you know what this means, tell me plz!

This bikes are parked outside the cafe/bar Switch.

I remembered I had talked to the owner of Switch so I went in to see if he was there. He was and we chatted a bit and I took a few pics.

This is a good way to make friends with the police!

Then I talked with his friend and we relalized we had met a few nights ago when the Podgorica soccer team was playing. He had come down to see why I was video tapiing his friends, or his crew, as he says. When I told him I was from America he said Ok no problem. I thought you might be with the police.

I told him I would send him a copy of the video and he told he woud put it on his website. They are called the Barbarians.

His name is Chaka. I tried to put the video on his cell phone memory card but it has a problem and I couldnt do anything with it. He said he will take it to a friend of his who is a computer genius. He hopes his friend can fix the problem because he has a lot of pictures, videos and music on the card. I told him that I also hoped that the problem gets fixed and he thanked me. He didn't seem anything like a barbarian to me! In fact, I would say he was very polite. When he left he put his hand on my shoulder, shook my hand and said "See you friend." As I said in my list of what I like about Montenegro, it is easy to make friends here.

Now there are abotu five guys here, all friends of Zikica the owner. They are all what I would call good, sincere people. When I came in and asked Z how things were going he said not so good. He said business was slow. Yet later when I asked for an orange juice he wanted to give it tome "on the house" as he said (a good English expression). But anyhow I left him 1.20 euro on the bar anyhow. I feel bad for leaving it but worse for not leaving it. Besides I am here using his electricity. This is another thing I like about Montenegro. As far as I remember no one has told me I can't charege my laptop in their place, as I was told in Singapore at a fast food restaurant. I am sure the owner was making a lot more money than the people here. But still it was not enough. In case I haven't mentioned it before Singapore was one of the most depressiing countries I have ever been to. Nearly 100 percnt fake and materialistic, with the population nearluy all brainwashed. It is called a democracy by the way. On the topic of democracy, Montenegro has had the same guy running it since 1989 or so! People here are not into the whole "Change" and "Yes we can" mentality. They accept a lot of things people in other countries wouldnt accept, such as a lot of corruption in the government. Everyone knows about it and just accepts it. They also accept the school system and the economic system with prices for many things higher than in Canada or Germany with about one-fourth the wages.

Tatoo of the soccer fan club on Chaka's arm. Do you get the impression he likes soccer?