Montenegrin History & Politics - Featuring Big Bad Serbia!

The first thing you should know about Montenegro is that a lot of folks - including many within the country itself - believe there is no such thing as "Montenegro." That it is, rather, Serbian, belongs (or should belong) to Serbia, and that the Montenegrin language is simply a regional dialect/bastardization of Serbian. IMHO, from what I've seen/heard/read, while the latter has a grain of truth to it, the former does not. Montenegro has a fascinating history - as do the Balkans in general - and I highly encourage anyone with any interest in history to learn more.

The second thing you should know is that Montenegrins are very proud of the fact that in their approximately 1,000 year history as what could be construed as "Montenegro" in various forms/shapes/sizes/names, they have "never" been "fully" conquered. This is a bit specious and I've had interesting discussions about this with one of the other PCVs here who is also a history major with much more knowledge of the history of the Balkans. The crux of the claim lies in the mountains that are nearly impossible to completely control. And Montenegro DOES have a history of often getting "autnonomous" status within varous entites that otherwise controlled the surrounding area(s) - e.g., the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire.  While you can read more about Montenegro's history HERE, the long and short of it is:

• Initially called Duklja, it gained independence from the Byzantine Roman Empire in 1042
• In the mid-14th century, it was called Zeta (the name of the river that flows through Danilovgrad and also Montenegro's newest state/province - carved last year out of the Podgorica province) and operated as a theocracy for a few hundred years 
• It was in the 15th century that it first became referred to as Montenegro (Crne Gora in the local language, which literally means Black Mountain)
• In the mid-19th century it became a secularized Principality and was "officially" recognized as independent by the Treaty of Berlin on July 13, 1878
• In 1910 it became a Kingdom, ruled by King Nikola (already ruling the Principality) - their first and only king, as:
• After World War I, it became a part of Yugoslavia, and after WWII, a Socialist Republic within the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia.
• After the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992, it became a federation state with Serbia known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• After a referendum in 2006, with barely around 55% voting yes, the country for the first time became officially known simply as Montenegro. Thus, it is one of the newest countries in the world - also one of the most striking:

I'm not going to recount in detail the horrific Bosnian and Croatian wars of the 90s - you can get more than enough of a taste from the link above. But suffice it to say, it was NOT a proud moment in the country's history - and to their credit, many locals admit to a deep sense of shame and trauma over many of the events that happened during that time.  In 1996, Milo Dukanovic/Montenegro's government DID sever most ties with Serbia and the war criminal Slobodan Milosevic and started on the path to independence.

Today, about 45% of the population actually identifies as Montenegrin, while around 30% as Serb (and about 9% Bosniak and 4% - 5% as Albanian).  For me personally, I've always found the notion of "pride" in your "nationality" as silly. It's simply a matter of luck of the draw as to where your particular seed emerged from a womb. I consider myself a human. A human born in one place, lives and has lived in others, etc.

Anyway, this continues to be an issue as the country has been fighting over a new census for some years now. It was last done in 2011, was planned again for 2021, and has been postponed 4 times since then.  There is concern that a majority of citizens will identify as Serbian and/or speaking Serbian and that the language will then "have to be" reintroduced into schools.  There ARE actually differences, albeit minor, and even a slightly different alphabet - just as there are differences between Croatian and Bosnian. But the joke in PC is that when we return to the states we can claim we speak Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, AND Montenegrin, say a few sentences, lopping the endings off of some words, changing the emphasis and/or vowel pronunication in some others, and of course no 'Muricans are going to know the difference!  :)

Montenegro became part of NATO in 2017, despite (surprise!) Russian attempts to interfere and stop it. You will probably also be unsurprised to hear that pro-Russian Serbs are believed to be behind a lot of the continuing drama over the notion that Montenegro is not a "real" country or nationality, is simply Serbian, etc. Seriously, it will be a happy day when Putin dies and Russia grows up and tries to be a decent world player.

Even now, it's hard to say where the Prime Minister and most of the government's sympathies lie. Again, see the link above for more details, but the past few years have seen the long-time leader finally voted out, to be replaced by a pro-Serbian prime minister, who was bounced in a no confidence vote after just a few months, to be replaced by a coalition government of pro-European parties and pro-Serbian parties.  And Russia continues to meddle/push for Serbian control.  I need to read more about Serbian history and its peoples to better understand where they get off thinking they're all that.  Honestly.  They seem like the Germany of the 30s and 40s.  Maybe I'll change my mind as I learn more.  Maybe.

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

We interrupt this regularly not scheduled blog...

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog so I can reminisce on what has been the penultimate travel experience of my life - hopefully some day soon to be matched or even surpassed (I'm thinking summer of 25 when I do a northern Balkans tour after a Virgin cruise!)  Voila:

I left Disney mid-May of 2013. I stayed just long enough to get my one year Mickey anniversary pin! Lol I knew I had the Peace Corps job in Lesotho, pending a background check and security interview, so I knew I would have some time to do some traveling. First, I managed to arrange a cruise with friends that conveniently left in mid-May out of Copenhagen and got to spend a few nights there ahead of time with my friend David. Copenhagen is an amazing city and I highly recommend it. Very clean, and the people are beautiful and very tall (Denmark has the tallest people in Europe - JUST ahead of Montenegro!) Cool palaces, historic theme park, it's definitely one of my favorite cities.

After a few days, we met up with more friends and went on a cruise of the Baltic capitals hitting Talinn (Estonia), St Petersburg for 2 days, Helsinki, Stockholm, and whatever that port is for Berlin in Germany. It was an amazing trip, St Petersburg is indeed an amazing city--especially Peter's palaces. Helsinki was kind of a dud but we were there on a Sunday and a lot of things were closed. Stockholm was cool, very different. Very Swedish.

At the end of the cruise, I spent a few more nights in Copenhagen with my friends Jeff and David, and Doreen joined us on the houseboat we were staying on for games one night before we said our farewells. And then I headed out on the rest of my journey.

I flew from Amsterdam to Paris and spent a few nights there. It was my second time, so I felt I could use a day to go to Euro Disneyland. Also, I had tickets left over from my just ended stint with Disney. Unfortunately, it was very hot when I went, and VERY crowded, so I ended up riding hardly anything. I don't recall them having any single rider lines. But at least I got to go, and I did get some cool pins for my collection so I was psyched.

From Paris, I took a train to Zurich for my first time in Switzerland and spent a few nights. I know this sounds weird, but my most memorable thing from my time in Zurich was this street taco stand near the train station. They were amazing. I actually went back a second time. Oh, and I guess it was also memorable when some rando walked into the Airbnb apartment I was staying at in the middle of the night and woke me up and scared the shit out of me. Giving me a hasty "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know (whatever dude's name was) rented this out." I was very unhappy. I think I did get my money back for that airbnb, or at least half of it. It was actually very well located and I had a nice view. I had the whole apartment. It was like a large studio. Anyway, otherwise, I found Zurich very Swiss. Clean and boring.

From Zurich I flew to Bangkok where I spent a month in Thailand--most of it in Bangkok. I got a cool Airbnb in a touristy/residential area, with an amazing little hole in the wall restaurant around the corner from me where I ate at least one meal almost every day because it was SO fucking good and SO fucking cheap that I could eat like a hog for $3 and get plenty for just $2. And I was a good boy and ordered something different each day even though every time I ordered something I thought "Oh my God, this is so good I should get this again tomorrow!" That kind of sums up thailand. Well Bangkok, rather, except also the kind of cool (IMHO) juxtaposition of the biggest, glitziest malls I have ever seen along with cool, ancient temples and then also the Tuk tuks and the very good subway system I used extensively. And of course the king's palace and grounds are amazing. I highly highly recommend Bangkok, and I would consider retiring there if it wasn't so fucking humid.

I did break up my Bangkok stay with a trip to two islands. At this point I don't even remember how I got there, but I'm assuming flew. I spent a few days in Koh Samui, in an Airbnb that was basically a beach hut which was cool (literally on the beach). I rented a moped one day to go around the island which is not very big. But I still was going to take what I thought I saw on the map was a shortcut that cut across without going all around the edge of the island. But once I crested the hill in the middle, the road really started to disappear into virtually nothing and I actually ended up tipping over on the moped at one point releasing HUNDREDS of butterflies, which immediately made me think of my friend Charlotte who I had worked with at Disney who was terrified of butterflies. I was not happy myself with these and I know I was screaming like a girl. But somehow I managed to get them off me, get the moped upright again, and find my way down the other side. I was definitely going through wooded Deliverance like territory.

Anyway, I then spent a few nights in Phuket, and I remember getting some amazing deal but I don't know how because I know there's no way I could have afforded this otherwise really cool kind of bungalow built into the side of a mountain at a resort and I had a jacuzzi on my redwood deck that looked out over the ocean. It was amazing. Phuket is definitely more of a party island, altho where I was it was quiet. But you didn't have to go far to get quote into town and it definitely was much more lively. Koh Samui was more laid back. So I feel like I had a good balance. I then went back to Bangkok for one more week to see anything I missed and eat at that restaurant again! Many times. LOL  Also did some cool day trips from Bangkok - including to the ancient capital of Autthaya, which I highly recommend.

From Bangkok, I took a nice bus to Kuala Lumpur because it wasn't that far. I didn't expect much from Kuala Lumpur so I only booked a stay of about three or four nights. I got another airbnb, it was in a hotel so it was nice. But I was pleasantly surprised by Kuala Lumpur. Some similarities to Bangkok in that there was a good mix of the modern and the exotic/historic, and I'm a big architecture person and I did like the architecture as well - but they also had cool modern conveniences like this elevated walkway all through the center of town that was air conditioned. Because believe me, again, like Bangkok, it was muggy hot. Curses on that coz otherwise I would totally consider retiring to one of these places. Anyway, the elevated air conditioned walkways were really cool and I was able to walk maybe two blocks to one from my Airbnb and then was able to take it to a quote exit right next to the Hard Rock so I could get my hurricane glass there. I also went to a cool market, I think a couple actually, several cool architecture and historical things--definitely a place worth a look if you're in that neck of the woods.

From Kuala Lumpur I took a nice bus for same reasons to Singapore and I wish I had spent more time in Singapore, as well. I was assuming, even though I got a good deal on a hotel (a cute little art Deco thing just on the outskirts of the center of the city, but very close to a metro stop), it would be more expensive once I got there. But I actually found a lot to do while not spending a whole lot of money and wish I had stayed another day beyond the three nights I had. Cool museums, amazing architecture, so SO clean. Amazing food. Shopping. Just a really cool place all around. I mean we've all seen Crazy Rich Asians.

From Singapore I went to hell...excuse me, Indonesia. Actually, it was very mixed, but almost like the mirror of Thailand in that the capital city that I spent, stupidly, three of my four weeks there (Jakarta) is one of the most boring, if not THE most boring capital city I've ever been to. Especially considering its size. But even with that size, no mass transit. Just a shit ton of Tuk tuks all over the place. The apartment I had for the first few weeks was nice, but was kind of on the edge of town, but again it's not like there was anything to see. I saw Barack Obama's birth home, and then the school he went to. There was some kind of war memorial pylon or obelisk or statue or something that was worth a look. But beyond that I didn't do shit except probably play on my laptop in the hotel room I was staying in most of the time.

Luckily, I got away twice as I did in Thailand. I went to see Borobudur, which was very cool even though it was hot as fuck and I wish I'd had an umbrella like all the Chinese tourists had who I was initially mocking. Lol. But I'm glad I saw it. And then nearby was another temple of lesser renown I forget the name of but it was cool as well.

Then I took another three nights and went to Bali. Of course that was significantly better than Jakarta, especially now by comparison. I had a nice hotel room at a good price, with a rooftop infinity pool that looked out over the ocean. Very travel agent poster. Lol I enjoyed Bali even though in my later years I've become less enamored of the beach itself (ugh, get all the sand off me - it's like glitter!). But I like being near it.

As I was in Indonesia, my Peace Corps clearance was wrapping up so they arranged to fly me to Lesotho from Hong Kong since China is where I had been living when I applied and I wanted to go back and see friends from Disney before I left - and of course go to Hong Kong Disneyland one more time. Lol

Hong Kong is definitely one of my favorite cities, although I don't know what it's like now. The year I worked for Disney I went there four times, counting that last trip at the end. Every time, I went to Hong Kong Disneyland, which does not hold a candle to the original in Anaheim, although I like it just as much if not more than the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. And I just like Hong Kong's vibrancy. And of course the food. Many very cool, very pretty public parks. And always just a shit ton to do.

To be fair, I probably should have cut out a couple of those Hong Kong trips and went to other places in China while I was there, but I did spend almost a month in Shanghai during training and that was an experience. There are definitely pros and cons to Shanghai. And then of course I lived for a year almost in Guangzhou (nee Canton). And I definitely got around to a lot of cool cultural and historical spots there. And believe me there are plenty. Also made it to Macau, which was a bi of a disappointment.

And I did manage to get down to Shenzhen for a few days, which is in between Hong Kong and Guangzhou and is a trip of a city on multiple levels and probably deserves its own blog post. And also while I was in China I got away on vacation to Vietnam where I spent about a week, in mostly Hanoi but then with some cool day trips. Vietnam was definitely a surprise in a happy way and one of the most beautiful countries - if not THE most beautiful - I've ever visited. Witness:

So yeah, that year before was not too bad, but I don't think I'll ever be able to top that 3-month excursion from mid-May through mid- August where I went to Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong before heading to Africa. A semi-close second would be my Summer of '98 trip in between my Peace Corps Kazakhstan teaching years. Might do a blog post on that too, just to have it on the web before my memory fades!  :)