Some thoughts about Montenegro:

"When God finished making the world," runs an old Montenegrin ballad, "He found that He had a great many rocks left in His bag; so He tumbled the whole lot on to a wild and desolate bit of country- and that is how Montenegro was formed."

The Montenegrin people are known for being tall, strong warriors. They are a people that come from a rugged landscape that supports little and have tended flocks to support themselves throughout history. They have fought in numerous wars and are often compared to the clansmen of Scotland. All of the towns are small and linked together with serpentine roads through the mountains. Everyone knows someone that knows someone or has a cousin that can do what you need. They are very friendly and love children but are a little over protective while they are young.

They love their coffee, cigarettes, and beer. Beer is sold in 2 liter bottles and it is very common for people to grow their own grapes and make their own wine. Going out to eat is sometimes painful because of the cloud of smoke that hovers in the restaurant, even in the nonsmoking section. We don't go out a lot because of it. There is an entire section in the supermarket devoted to types of mayonnaise, as there is to pickled cucumbers and peppers. I had no idea there were so many types of paprika- at least 50 on the shelves in the larger stores.

They eat dried and smoked meats, feta cheese, Gouda, sausages, and most things fried. Papi tried a dish that was a breaded and fried sausage served with a mayonnaise sauce on top. It was pretty good. They get bananas from Ecuador, oranges from Spain and Turkey, garlic from China, but they grow great cherries, kiwis, and plums themselves. Lots of fresh bread. It is normal to go to the store every day for bread. They eat is with a type of sour cream spread on top. It is somewhere between sour cream and yogurt, but thicker. They have doughnuts filled with Nutella or jam, all the pastries you could want and their cakes are more cream than cake. The ice cream is delicious. Creamy and rich and served in small scoops on cones. Flavors like Snickers, hazelnut, cheese cake, tiramisu, in addition to the standard scv.

We live in the capital city and the largest. It is a very small town with its second mall just getting ready to open. The current mall is only a year old and is the place to be when the weather is bad. You can look in any direction and see beautiful rugged mountains with snow caps in the distance.

So far so good.