4 Countries in 4 Weeks

Just back from a 3 day weekend in Budva, Montenegro and quickly realizing the blessing of living in Pristina, Kosova: you are close enough to everything to be able to get out... Sad to say but true. Having just touched my fourth Balkan country, there is no doubt that Kosovo remains the most undeveloped of all the war torn nations: ie the reason why I and at least 10,000 other development people (UN, EU, GTZ, and any other acronym you can think of) are here. It is both inspiring and saddening to return to the pothole ladened streets with shells of empty houses littering the countryside and pile after pile of recycled cars lining most of the major roads...So aside from the fact that I have been adventuring out each night after work for either my Albanian classes, teaching yoga, playing ultimate Frisbee or just getting a drink, the weekends still seem to be holding their own special adventures.

Say this past 3 day holiday weekend (yes I get both American and Kosovar holiday) when at 2 pm Friday afternoon I had no plans and by 5:30 I was in a fully packed car with hiking gear and mountain bikes heading off to the coast in Montenegro. Little did I know that 8 hours later after passing over about a 2000 meter pass in solid fog we would arrive at a little place I'll call Balkan heaven. How about waking up to this view... The pictures tell it all. The short of the long is one of my new expat friends bought a condo in this quaint little town and heads here every other week. To say the least I'll be joining her again soon.

So the pictures don't have to completely speak for themselves our adventures including a bike ride each down since my shipment had just arrived several days back. SOOOO good to be back on the bike except I couldn't find any dirt roads that didn't do a straight vertical. So I hit the road to ride up a mountain or two and the views made the painful roadrash I got on the way down almost worth it (I forgot mountain bikes don't corner like road ones).



As if this wasn't enough we hiked up the top portion of a 1700meter mountain to pay homage to the Montenegran King that was buried in this incredible Moslem in 1851. As you can see we were all pretty close to God at this point.





The night ended with the perfect seafood dinner pulled out of the bay while sitting next to the ocean and a fish pool. Of course this was after wandering about the walled Old Fortress City of Budva where stone streets, house and walls transport you back to the times where high-end Guchii shops and cheesy Shell shops were nowhere to be found.



Sunday was pretty much a repeat of incredible street riding (we did find 1 dirt road), wandering through small fishing villages and visiting a UNESCO protected site of Kotor. One of the more magnificent Old Cities with fortress walls rising high above the city straight up into the mountains. If it wasn't for the earlier 3 hour bike ride, 2 mokiatos (expresso's) and a mixed meat lunch platter, I would have been all over climbing to the top (not). None the less magical to wander the narrow alleyways and plazas.




I look forward to our next 3 day weekend (we have one every other week for the next 2 months). Maybe Greece or Belgrade. Maybe Turkey this time... I'll keep you posted :-)

DH