the old double hitch-a-roo hitchy hitch hitch

hitched with z from jaz to budva today. ok, it wasn't all that far, but it was our first hitch together - and z's first hitch ever.

as a female who has always hitched alone or with another female, i wondered how travelling with a male partner - a really tall, shaven-headed, kind of scary looking male partner - might impact the amount of time it would take to get a ride.

apparently not at all. it took us less than 2 minutes to be picked up by a guy in a mercedes.

so there's that.

the poetry of a language barrier

z, trying to find the words in english to describe a particularly warm and fuzzy hug-in-progress: "how can i say? if could just disappear into you, that would be best."

budva montenegro: internet access has never been so good

ok, it's not good in the way i would normally define good. it's slow and i have to pay tourist prices to buy beer in order to use it, but take a peek...


my favorite table at "the prince" internet pub in budva's stari grad


why i get bird poop on my keyboard when i use the internet


to the right of the internet pub


the "street" in front of the pub


the end of the street in front of the pub


the end end of the street in front of the pub...

caffe greco, budva montenegro stari grad

caffe greco is the most popular bar inside stari grad.
my balcony overlooks the place...


the music starts pumping somewhere between 9 and 10 and then i've got myself my very own private vip balcony lounge overlooking the teeming throng.








nothing like a nightly dance party to keep you fresh!


it goes without saying that the groove is in the heart...


Dee Lite Grove Is In The Heart

and i ask again, how did i get so lucky?

the first dinner on our balcony


life doesn't suck.

i live in a fairy talehow did i get so lucky?

budva, montenegro is 2,500 years old. they don't have a date for "stari grad", the old walled stone city, but they can accurately date one church there back 700 years. this is where i'm lucky enough to get to live in. look closely, my place is circled...


this is the vine covered balcony patio where i get to lounge, read, eat, drink and dance - as is the upstairs flat in the stone building behind it.


this is the street i get to walk down every day, and the doors to the stairs that lead to the incredible balcony patio.


these are the stairs i get to use every and to the left, the vine that climbs up and covers the patio.


the mailbox i get the privilege to call mine for awhile.


my balcony patio.


the vines above.


the nearest cross street to my place


uh, oh yeah. and this is the beach almost right outside my door...

breakfast of champions

before.





during.


after...


and for an encore:

Barnes and Barnes Fish Heads

things i'm not very good at yet

• dealing with a shared kitchen in an open-air hallway
• mosquito bites
• the uncertainty of waiting to see if we'll get a vendor license and trying to find an apartment while wondering if - given the economy - the tourist season will be good enough to even pay for our start-up expenses
• being comfortable with the whole busking lifestyle thing
• how long it takes to get anything done in montenegro

made it to budva, montenegro

budva old town - called "stari grad"


grabbed a room here while we're looking for a more long-term place to stay. here's the view from the window.

skopje, macedonia

next stop, skopje (pronounced "scope-ya" ) macedonia, birthplace of mother teresa, to visit ratko, another of zeljko’s old friends. the “busker festival” touring montenegro was in skopje for 10 days and ratko was busy making more money there during that time he could make in 6 months at a “regular” job in skopje. air brush tattoos. who knew. people were lined up waiting for him when he arrived each afternoon and he didn’t get a break until the last customers wandered off around 1 in the morning after the rest of the place had closed down.

safe in belgrade serbia, but internet access still tough...

visited mitza, a high school friend of zeljko's, and her family on our way to skopje, montenegro.






a little damage courtesy of uncle sam.

belgrade has a rather large gypsy population, many living in cities of shacks in, on, and bounded by hills of rubbish that are packed in for what seems like miles under large modern freeway overpasses. for those of you have been to tijuana 30 years ago and seen the squalor there, it’s similar. so strange so see in the shadow of rush-hour crowded multi-lane freeways and semi-modern high rise buildings.

bosnia: the bottom-line

ok, i could talk about what it was like when i first arrived and zeljko met me at the bus station, or what it was like to see my city again, or zeljko’s mom marija and brother zoran. i could talk about tea teodora and vuki and goran and majda… i could talk about the feeling of complete at-home-ness during zeljko and my daily walks through banja luka.

but the bottom-line is that it’s really good and real and that lots of time has been spent in bed, awake, asleep, and somewhere in between. reveling in the feeling of sinking so completely into someone, someone whose skin and scent is so familiar at a soul level, someone whose voice is so deep and rich that just hearing it soothes every jagged edge in me, someone whose mere presence makes me feel safe in a way i’ve never felt safe, and someone who knows me so intimately that there is nothing to hide, nothing that i can hide, nothing that i want to hide.

how is it that i found this soul - that i am so at home so many miles away from what i once thought was my home?