Feeling Old-ish in Podgorica, Montenegro

First impressions of my fifth Balkan capital.

Today I’m in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. This is the view from my 10th-floor rental.

The city itself is fairly blah-ish, but the mountains that surround it totally make the place. My interactions with the locals in Montenegro have been my least favorite of the five ex-Yugoslavia states I’ve hit so far, but from up here, everything is lovely.

Last night I was invited to a bar called Berlin. Now I haven’t been inside a bar in three months, and I wasn’t sure I could stay up until 10pm (!), but since the guy who invited me described it as “a gay-friendly rock & roll dive,” and since it’s only 300 meters from where I’m staying, and since I’ve applied to a masters program in the real Berlin, I decided to give it a shot.

I arrived at 10.30, and I couldn’t find the person who had invited me. I used to be someone who had no problem going out alone, but I no longer drink, and I just can’t with cigarette smoke, so I was out of there in five minutes. Not even “Common People” by the Pulp could get me to stick around feeling awkward. By 11, I was fast asleep.