La Vie En Rose for 2006 August 9

I'm so glad that you are all considerate enough to not want to flood my inbox with comments while I have limited internet access, but really, you needn't worry. I have gmail.

I am in Budva at the moment as Susie reports. I left Valjevo last Friday with an international crew, and we were all quite relieved to see the back of it, although Valjevo's one redeeming factor is that you can make anything into which your car fits into a parking space. We stayed the night in Zlatibor, a Serbian ski resort which is quite happening out of season as well, and our Norweigen friend's boyfriend was there on a medical conference so she left us there. We continued on to the newest inedpendent republic, though some amazing scenery and mountains (hence the title of the below email). We kept passing places where I would ask, "Did this used to be called something else?" because I have read about so many of these places. We drove over a very small part of Lake Scutari, now called Skadar or something, amd through Podgorica, and it feels really weird to be making a holiday where so many tragic things happened, people dropping dead on the side of the road, but everyone else seems to have forgotten. I am re-reading Two Vagabonds in Serbia and Monetengro, which was orginally published as The Luck of Thirteen, to remind myself. It certainly keeps things interesting. I am having a really great time in Budva, bascially doing a whole lot of nothing--beach sitting etc. Yesterday we rented a pedaline and boated around the former fishing now resort island of sveti stephan. The weather has been hit and miss but generally pretty nice. I think I will probably be heading to Albania later this week, but I'm not sure about after that. I am trying to keep things flexible because right now I am with some cool people and I want to keep that going as much as I can.

Ciao, ciao. I wish it were easier to call the states because I miss you guys (some of you =p)