AROUND THE WORLD IN 23 YEARS~MONTENEGRO

Montenegro is a hidden gem, a tiny Balkan country on the Adriatic Sea, bordered by Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Albania.

I was stationed in her capital, Podgorica, a charming city of red roofs, fabulous food, charming cafes, and extraordinarily attractive people, tall and beautiful, both men and women.

The Adriatic is a sailors paradise, with calm blue water, and a rugged coastline dotted with inhabited islands, especially off the coast of Dubrovnik, Croatia.

I was working with the timber industry, we were repositioning nationalized sawmills for resale to the private sector.

I worked and socialized with a mix of Montenegrins, Russians, Croatians, and Serbians, now that was an experience, When they sat in a local cafe they ordered Vodka by the bottle, shot glasses all around, and water on the side, that was for the pussies.

These guys spoke broken English with accents so strong I needed interpretation. They loved to tell stories about life under the strongman, Josip Broz Tito, President of The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which included Montenegro.

These guys were the real deal, most of them started as lumberjacks, they were hard men who lived for the moment, I was totally absorbed by a lifestyle I couldn't have imagined back in New York.

Living and working in this region was unusual, even for me, most of my consulting projects were in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The former Yugoslav Republic took extra pages in my journal.

Next stop, Uganda, East Africa

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