Welcome to Danilovgrad!

On the whole, I feel I got lucky with my site placement. Although a small town (approx. 7K people), Danilovgrad is situated on the highway between Montenegro's two largest cities, Podgorica (the capital) and Niksic (famous for beer), almost exactly halfway, and about a 30 min. ride to either. A few "fun" facts:

• It was built to be the capital by King Nikolai and is named after his predecessor, Prince Danilo. But when Podgorica and Niksic were returned to the kingdom after the conference of Berlin, those plans fell by the wayside.
• The highest temperature ever recorded in Montenegro was in Danilovgrad on August 8, 2012 when it hit nearly 113 degrees. I've already been told multiple times by multiple folks that Danilovgrad in the summer is the hottest place in the country. "Yay."
• On 24 March 1999, the Milovan Šaranović barracks in Danilovgrad were bombed by NATO aircraft, killing a soldier named Saša Stojić. He was the first victim of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
• During that terrible time of the Yugoslav wars, a pogrom on April 14-15, 1995 drove out the Romani population of the town. Click HERE for more on this awful story.

Above is a plaza at the end of their main shopping street. I've walked the whole town as it's not very big, but I am VERY well situated as the host family I live with has an apt. in a building that is lterally right behind the school--and on the other side of their building is the Danilovgrad bus station. Across the street is the community health center, and I am in between their two major grocey stores - Voli and HDL - with each maybe a 10 min walk in opposite directions. If you were in either of these large grocery stores, you would never know you weren't in America.

My host family is awesome. Mom (Snezana) and dad (Dragan) are in their late 40s, both with sort of vague IT-related jobs. Snezana works from home 3 days a week. They have 10-year-old twins, Dmitri and Sofia, whose pic I shared on Facebook, and an adult son in his late 20s that splits his time between an apt. in Podgorica where he works, and their weekend home which is just on the outskirts of town. Lots of folks who live in cities also have a weekend home on the outskirts or further. I've been to their weekend home, it' very warm and cozy - esp. compared to their mordern and very spartan/very clean apartment here in town that looks like something out of an Ikea catalog or a Scandinavian Home magazine. 

The weekend home has multiple fruit trees, a small vegetable/herb garden, and a couple dozen chickens for eggs and meat. That weekend home actually has a small urinal in the bathroom - specifically put in by them at Snezana's suggestion! lol As mentioned, they are VERY clean. Probably the most obsessive folks I've been around in terms of keeping their home(s) clean. I'm also lucky in that Snezana is a good cook, makes a large variety of dishes, healthy, and with meat being served MAYBE half the time at lunch or dinner.  Yay! 

I'm also surrounded by mountains with awesome views from my balcony out the back of the building, and then more mountains on the other side of the building looking out towards the school. Being surrounded in a valley is part of what leads to the heat trap hot summer. And it also means virtually no snow in the winter, which is kind of a bummer.  We're also on the River Zeta (pic below) which I'm thinking will look very nice in the spring/summer when the trees are in bloom:

Next time: my school/the kids, my counterpart, and fun anecdotes from my time here so far!

Disclaimer: Any thoughts, observations, opinions, etc. are of course mine and not necessarily the views of Peace Corps.