The next day, a very enthusiastic Blazo has the
entire day completely planned!
First stop he organized us to meet both a television and newspaper journalist.
These things make me nervous and I get embarrassed, but we got through it.. it was special for a couple reasons. First,
Montenegro really followed these boys on their http://www.theridearound2010.me so I am sure it was good for an update.. Secondly, and most surprisingly to me is that the journalist tells me that women in Montenegro don't ride motorcycles.. I thought he was kidding, but it seems to be true from what the boys tell me as well! So in this interview, the journalist asked me if I was embarrassed to meet the guys in
Vladivostok, being a "woman" rider. ???? At the time of interview, I really didn't understand the question, but now I do. Here is the Youtube link:
(Couldn't work out why it wouldn't play the interview within this post, so it is a separate post above..)
It's funny the things I assume.. I have been told more since this interview that is rare for women to ride motorcycles in most of these
Balkan countries. So should I be embarrassed?? I'm not, but I appreciate cultural differences. ;-)
Blazo, Nino and Marko
Now we can go for a ride along the most gorgeous Lake Skadar (
Shkoder) in Montenegro. Being the largest lake in the Balkan region it also borders and views across to
Albania.
But wait! First we must have lunch.. better than lunch, a real taste of Montenegro food, fresh soup from the
Shkoder lake fish. It was soooo good, I can tell ya.!
Local fisherman
Gee whiz, I love experiencing local fresh food, the best! Sorry, now we can go!
Also sorry for the supersize photo, but I wanted to show that white bit in the middle. It is actually a fortress called Grmozur. Built by the Turks in 1843. Taken over by the
Montenegrans and later used as a prison/dungeon. I can only imagine what it would have been like in the day..
This is really fun...
Have you ever seen a prettier road?
There's the snowy white tips of Albania!
Next we rode down the hill to the coast again to pick up Blazo's wife, who finished work a bit early so she could have fun too..! Don't blame her! ;-)
Montenegro girls playing a dice game
We travel the coast from Bar to Budva.. with a little stop at a lovely little church along the water..
What a bummer church donkey has to go home early.. and we only just got here! ;-(
Central dome ceiling
Being an Orthodox church and I really notice the difference in art work after spending so much time in Italy. Although from the top tip of Russia all the way to Montenegro so far, there are masses of old churches full of history and they put a huge effort, time and money into the beauty and art of the church walls and ceilings.. do they still do this today? If so, not much..
And every country has it's way for burials. These graves have handles to open, which I thought was odd. They explain to me as each family member passes, they collect the bones of the previous, put in a bag and move forward in the grave to make space for the next one. Hmm.
A finish to a wonderful big day in Montenegro.. now a ride through the mountains back to Podgorica.
Thank you and Good night!
