Seasons Change

So, John got to town on Tuesday night. It was a harrowing day full of tired and weary (I worked the day shift on my own), and then joy and bliss (John arrived and we kissed). It was a nice reunion.

And so far, it's been a good visit. We haven't done a whole lot of sight-seeing thusfar. I blame John's jetlag and my sense of not wanting to sight-see that much in a place that I'd been calling home for the past 5 months. I wanted us to go to the first annual Petrovac Jazz Festival, but the weather (hot and rainy) and my health (tired and pukey) held us back. But, we did take 12 hostel guests and 3 peddle boats out to Sveti Nikola Island yesterday and spent 4 sun-soaked hours on the only completely deserted beach in Budva. No one believed me that the beach was going to be devoid of tourists, but I was dead right. Everyone had a blast, despite one lost t-shirt (by George), one lost pair of prescription glasses (by my beloved), and one lost lunch (by me, my first time seasick!).

It's strange how these past 3 days or so, this town has really emptied out a whole lot. I knew it would happen after August was over and the high season ended, but I wasn't really prepared for it happening 2 days before September, and also at such a dramatic rate! Where normally there would be bathing-suit clad couples and families coming back from the beaches at 5:00pm heading to their vacation rentals, or where I would see teeming hordes of humanity marching along the promenade at 7:00pm at night, checking out the carnival rides, the beach bars, and each other, there just AREN'T ANYMORE! It's sort of sad to see the end of the era of madness. I always hated crowds and never enjoyed this scene as it carried on all around me here in Budva these past couple of months. But, now that we're in September officially, and John is here, so I'm finally on vacation, it's just sad to see the season end.

This is the beginning of another change in my world here in Budva. This next month and a half will be about friends visiting, and taking lots of vacation trips around the region. So welcome, new era. Good-bye, old one. I will miss thee teeming masses and thou crazy hordes.

Tonight, John and I set off on a ferry across the sea. Italy, here we come!!!

Living off the Land

The other day, I came very close to being a Balkan version of Laura Ingalls. Or, rather, a Vietnamese-American, 33-year-old, 21st century, Montenegrin version of America's favorite pioneer girl from the Little House on the Prairie books. So, I guess not so close. But, I did go for a nice, long hike up the hills past the Hippo Hostel to a natural spring, where I drank my fill of the cool, clear water, and then meandered my way back down, picking wild blackberries and fresh figs along the way. I ate and drank from the land that day.

The pioneer party included me, Nadya, our neighbor, Jelena, and her mother, Sonja, along with Travis, an Australian guest staying at the hostel. We hiked for maybe an hour up the hill and the view along the trail was spectacular the entire way up. As we climbed, we could see the entire town of Budva, Old Town in the distance, a big swath of the Adriatic Sea, and Sveti Nikola island, a wedge-shaped mass of land 1 nautical mile offshore. And, we passed old stone ruins of houses that have stood on these hillsides for centuries now. Some of the ruins had been incorporated into lovely modern houses, sprawling across the hillside, and some of them had chickens penned inside. There was a small church, rebuilt and looking quite sharp, with headstones in the graveyard that were labeled in Cyrillic and which dated back at least a couple hundred years. There were lots of trees and fences made with twigs and barb wire. It felt like I was hiking Point Reyes at times.

The natural spring that we drank from has been tamed, put into a wall and piped out now in 3 faucet-looking things that continuously run, which kills some of the romance of the spring itself, but I guess makes it less muddy around where the water comes out of the rock. And, after drinking our fill of spring water, we picked juicy, perfectly ripe blackberries from bushes all alongside the hiking trail on the hill. We ate as much as we collected to bring home with us. And, the figs. Figs are in season now too, so there was an assault on all the fig trees that we encountered on the road home. Jelena, the scorchin' hot blond bombshell and her mom, with long sticks that they found in the woods, whacked at the high branches of the fig trees to get the fruit down. We all had fig seeds stuck in our teeth by the end of the afternoon, but there were no complaints. We came home to a nice cup of Turkish coffee, some good conversation, and playing with a kitten that Nadya and Sonja found trapped in a barn up in the hills, which Jelena insisted on adopting.

There will never be better-tasting blackberries or sweeter figs or clearer mountain spring water in my life than on this afternoon in Montenegro.

Bedroom Voice

So, I've been sick for the past week. Sore throat, bad cough, lots of juicy, juicy phlegm. The entire staff of the Hippo Hostel came down with something gnarley within days of each other, and we're all just now climbing out of it one by one. In the meantime, I've learned how to hock an impressive loogie. I can projectile spit them even. I'm almost southern with my jar of moonshine and my cut-off denim shorts, carrying a spittoon around with me wherever I go!

So, the result of a week of bad cough and torn-up throat is that your voice is very tired and deep. You know -- the I-have-a-cold voice, which is kind of sexy and raspy. The bad thing about the I-have-a-cold voice is that I can't sing whenever I want to, and at the end of the night, I'm really tired from a day of trying to talk. The impromptu karaoke thing happens a lot around here, can you believe it? And, I can't stand that I don't have the voice to belt out showtunes on command. Heartbreak! My fans are waiting!

Though, the sexy, raspy trade-off is good too. Tonight, I walked into the Irish Pub here in the Old Town and the owner of the pub, a guy that we all know pretty well because we go in there a lot with our hostel guests when we're on pub crawls, said to me: "Hey, I thought I heard your beautiful voice out here. Whatchou doing?" Also, there are these 3 Asian-Australian guys staying with us here, and the one who had to call a couple of days before they arrived to make their reservation for 3 beds, his friends told me last night that he had said after getting off the phone with me that I had a really sexy voice and he wondered what I looked like. You have NO idea how much a compliment about my voice gets me! I mean, I'm in radio dammit. You KNOW that everyone who works in radio inherently likes the sound of their own voice to SOME degree. Well, with my penchant for judging voices (I can't be someone's friend, truly, if I don't like their voice. I just can't!) on a regular basis, it stands to reason that high praise to me is a compliment on the sound of your voice. So, yes, when a person tells me that he or she likes the sound of my voice, I tend to get all soft and fluttery. It's a little button I have. Is it wrong of me to publicly admit this on a forum like my blog?

Well, now you know. It's easy to butter this bread. Just tell me you like the sound of my voice, and yes, you can have any favor you want. Even 2 extra nights for 3 people in a hostel so full that we turn away walk-ups daily.

Serbian Funk in the Garden

Last night, I went out and partied my body for the first time since early May and have now proven definitively that I am healed! The back is BACK! Rich Bitch, the Serbian funk band that I've been touting since I got hold of them at the radio station here, was playing an outdoor bar near Old Town, the Garden Caffe. (Did anyone ever download their album from my blog when it was up there for 3 weeks?) God, they were great live! My friends and I didn't sit down ONCE after the band's first song. A lot of good funk covers and then a number of Serbian hits from decades past. They brought on a woman lead singer who was the Yugoslavian Tina Turner in the 80's and were doing a lot of her songs from back in the day. She has a GREAT voice! Deep and strong, which I love in chicks!

We danced under towering trees on a stone deck in the balmy night air with a yellow-gold moon shining down on us: me, my boss at the radio station, Vukan, 20-year-old Aussie Stu with the indomitable energy, 2 cute, blond girls from Finland, American Brian, 2 Brits, and sundry other folks from the Hippo. I stood maybe 3 feet away from the horn section boogying down like it was nobody's business. They rocked the house (rocked the open air?)! And I finally remembered why it is that I came here to Budva for these 6 months. Because, it wasn't for the herniated disc in my back and 2 months of bedrest. It wasn't for the sweltering humid heat or the city-wide water shortage that makes cleaning the hostel and washing my hair a particular challenge. And it wasn't for the countless inconveniences that a language barrier, not having a car, and 50,000 tourists on the beaches here tend to cause. I came to meet and talk to and party down with interesting people. And the added bonus was working up a sweat dancing in the streets and then schmoozing with the Rich Bitch saxophonist all night.

There's good music here in the Balkans if you know where to look. It's not all just techno club crap and bad turbo folk, ex-Yu style. Mario, the above mentioned saxophonist told me that the band is releasing their 2nd album next year. It'll be the first to go stateside. I want to see the music videos that come out with the new album. (No joke! I've been promised a DVD.) Good times last night! Good times seeing live music again.

Accidentally Drunk

And, in the category of Don't-Drink-It-Unless-You-Smell-It-First, I've committed just about the stupidest transgression I've perhaps done so far here in a foreign country just now. I've accidentally drank a shot of vodka. (Seriously, ACCIDENTALLY!) I mean, I think it was vodka. It was something alcoholic. And it was clear. And it was in an unmarked water bottle in the freezer. And the water bottle looked exactly like MY water bottle, which I also keep in the freezer. And anyone who knows me knows that I can't hold my liquor. Not even a few drops of it. So now, I'm 20 shades of pink all over, my head is throbbing, my heart is pumping like a jackrabbit, and I pretty much can't breathe because my throat is closing up. How pleasant.

All this because my people (and by that, I mean, members of my family AS WELL AS my race in general) lack an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase, which turns alcohol into sugar in your body so that you can metabolize it and not be poisoned by it. (Read the bit on "in humans" and not "in yeast and bacteria".)

I can't believe I did this! I can't believe I went into the freezer here at the hostel, took out what I thought was my innocent little water bottle, and swallowed a swig of it without registering what it was first. And, I can't believe I'm blogging about it while under the influence! God, the misadventures I can have just sitting around a quiet hostel on an idle Thursday night.

But now, for the ironic part of this story: Nadya is leading an excursion tonight for all our guests here at the Hippo. I was supposed to join her in it shortly after I grabbed my water bottle to head out. The excursion is a pub crawl through Budva's Old Town. And, I was tagging along with the intention of drinking nothing more than some carbonated mineral water with a slice of lime floating in it. Never mind. I guess I'm not going after all. I've already had my pub crawl, thanks!

Hi, I'm Still Here

I don't know if it's just because I had a REALLY quiet day cut off from just about everyone on the planet, or all of the Hippo staff went out to dinner tonight while I worked a busy hostel shift alone, or my days off are spent on my own all the time, or the heat and mosquitoes are getting to me in general, or WHAT, but I felt a little lonely tonight, and am getting kind of tired of my own company. Usually, I'm quite fond of my own company, because, let's face it, I'm a laugh-riot to be around (!), but after 2 weeks in seclusion at the back rehab spot, and then all of my days off since I've been back spent by myself, I'm getting a little fed up with just the company of my iPod, the short, two-word conversations I have with local sales clerks around here, my witty little observations on the fashion sense of some of the more scantily-clad young women around, and similar alone-activities. And, I don't know if it's my imagination, but I seem to have hit a dry-spell on comments to my blog, emails from peeps in my inbox, and letters from home. Have you guys forsaken me for more witty and interesting friends? Friends who aren't living so far away in such a tiresome place that most of you have zero interest in? Or, am I just being over-sensitive to the neglect? Don't answer that. I don't have a therapist here should I get the wrong response.

So, anyway, after a solid week back into the fray here at the hostel and at the radio station, I've got these few tidbits of news to share:

1. The high season is off to a staggeringly busy start as of July 1st. The Hippo is at full capacity almost every single night, which makes accepting walk-up guests who don't have reservations, or extending the stays of guests who do but like us so much they want to add a few nights to their total time here, a really tough juggling act. But, since I earn more money when we have more guests in-house, this is a good thing, and now, I can fund that trip to Italy after all.

2. My back is fine these days. I never pick up anything from the ground without going into a full squat and working my quads and glutes, but I'm fully-functional again now. I'm also taking fish food as a supplement 3 times a day too. Or, at least the container LOOKS like a bottle of fish food, and the contents SMELL like a bottle of fish food. But, really, it's brown colored capsules, and not multi-colored flakes, so I shouldn't joke. Those crazy Germans and their Vitaminkapseln mit Muschel-Extrakt!

3. Fire season began here this past weekend with a grassfire on the hill over part of the Budva Riviera just south of where we live. The blaze took more than 2 days to contain, and all last night, you could still see it lighting up a huge swath of the hillside while firefighters tried to get it under control. Budva is already suffering a water shortage, which tends to happen every summer when the population of the town jumps from 17,000 (local, normal population) to 70,000 (tourists and tourism industry staff added), but 2-day long grassfires that need water for putting out must really add to the challenge. I guess I should seriously consider taking fewer showers from now on. Those who have to live with me probably won't appreciate it, given how hot it is here these days.

And, finally, 4. Ponta Planet has been going strong these past few weeks and we've hit our stride as far as content and production values at last. I don't want to brag, but last night, when Nino, my engineer, was directing my voice-tracks, he made some sort of comment about it sounding good now that we're 10 shows in. What?!? We're 13 shows in, Buddy, and I thought we were sounding good 6 shows ago! Jeez, everyone's a critic!

If you guys get the chance, send up some smoke signals to tell me how you're going, or listen to a Ponta Planet show archived here on this blog (links to download episodes appear to the left of these ramblings). Prove to me that these feelings of neglect are all part of the lack of breast-feeding I had as a baby and nothing more.

Gathering No Moss

The Rolling Stones are here in Budva playing a concert date on Jaz beach tonight. (Yes, here in Budva!) Everyone from the hostel and the radio station went to the show except me. I get to do the Cinderella routine because I have a bad back that wouldn't support me walking, standing, jumping around, dancing with the hordes, or getting jostled by rabid Stones fans, for hours at a time, with no place to sit down should my back need a break from it all. Anyway, you know, those old rockers just aren't my thing, and neither are these big, giant stadium concerts. I just don't do crowds. Though, I had originally wanted to go, just so I could say I saw the Rolling Stones perform -- in BUDVA! And, that would've been a laugh. But, I guess I'm keeping my €50.

So, I'm minding the store tonight here at the Hippo. And, blogging my way through the peace and quiet. It's rare to get peace and quiet right now at the hostel, given that the summer rush is fully upon us, and we're at max capacity every single night, pretty much. It's been a crazy couple of days since I've been back to work here and at Ponta Radio. Ridiculous amounts of non-stoppedness. I'm going to WANT my days off when I get them now!

In fact, this Wednesday, for my first full day off from work now that I'm back *at* work, I'm taking a day trip to Dubrovnik -- the pretty, clean, more cosmopolitan, waaaaay over-touristed big sister of Budva, located on the Croatian coast. I signed myself up for a bus tour for the day. Why, oh, why, you might be asking me? Since, I've already been there, seen plenty of it, and don't like it all that much, etc. etc. I'm going because I've got to cross an international border before July 18th, to legitimize my stay here in Montenegro, and a bus tour to Dubrovnik is the cheapest way I can do that. Them's the rules, since I don't have a work visa to stay here for longer stretches of time. It's been just about 90 days since I was out of the country last. Which means that it's been 3 months since I've been here in Montenegro! I can't believe how the time flies. Though, I feel like I've been here for ages. I can't believe what HAPPENS to you as the time is flying, is more like it.

It's been 3 months! I've been in and out of home-sickness, in and out of back injury, in and out of fights with David, in and out of photo albums, and in and out of epic friendships with our hostel guests. And, there are 3 months left to go. Crazy! This stone continues to gather no moss.