Lazy photographers like my angles
If you follow this blog or my photos, you might notice that the shot below from Montenegro looks familiar. That's because it's the same as this photo that I took nearly three years ago.
Andrew Testa's photo for the New York Times on slide 14 of their annual where to go series is a more balanced and processed shot than mine, but just as lazy. Why do I say that? Because it's a shot from the road. I took mine from the window of a bus as I made an ill-fated attempt to go to Albania from Montenegro. He probably stopped the car, got out and took a second to take the shot, but it's basically the same thing; a shot from afar that doesn't actually dig in to the surroundings. It's no wonder that photography has little value when a casual photographer like me can get the same shot as someone from a respected publication.
Also not a wonder is why travel publishers are having less revenue. It's not just that print is dying, but the fact that if you look at that list the Times concocted, it's uneven and generally lame, but such is the theme as of late for their travel department, which honestly, they should just shutter out of embarrassment. Of course I'm guessing they're still getting a good deal of advertising revenue from it, from those companies that aren't quite "getting" the net just yet.
09 01 2010 0 comments
Tags: journalism, montenegro, photography
My Precarious Adventures through the Dot ME Domain
With the breakup of Yugoslavia, various member states fared better than others. At the bottom of the list would probably be Bosnia who unfortunately inherited the front lines of a war between the power hungry assholery of Milošević and Tuđman. After them comes Macedonia which mostly seems to have inherited a name conflict with Greece. It gets harder after that. Croatia got amazing coastline for a ready made tourism industry in the postwar economy, but they were also somewhat shunned by the west due to barbaric actions in the war. Serbia didn't get the coastline, got the same shunning as Croatia and then some, but they also inherited all of the built-up institutions of former Yugoslavia such as the seat on the UN. Slovenia came out quite well, despite a touristic coast, as the West loved them as seen by their amazingly quick admission to the EU, EuroZone, and now even Schengen.
The one odd apple in all this group is Montenegro. Until this year, they were just kind of puttering along, doing their own thing. Sure, they had coastline, but it's somewhat polluted and being devoured by Russians at the moment. In fact, they were really low on my list of successful post-Yugo states until the most amazing thing happened. As I mentioned earlier, funny things were a foot when it came to the domain extension of Yugoslavia which went from .yu to .cs for Crna Gora (Montenegro) Serbia, and then, once Montenegro voted for independence in 2006, the name was split again to .rs for Serbia and .me for Montenegro.
What a windfall for this tiny nation of 600,000 people. The combinations are endless. Everyone who ever wanted www.fuck.me or www.la.me could have their dreams come through. Perverts who may have been desiring www.co.me are out of luck though as they've reserved that for country use, much the same way are co.uk exists in the United Kingdom.
I took a little trip down new domain registration land myself. I decided to take on registering www.taste.me as I thought it would have multiple uses from culinary to perverse. Unfortunately a lot other folks felt the same way which led me down an interesting path with how they are coordinating the deployment of these names.
Montenegro made a very smart initial move in that they didn't handle selling the domain names themselves. They bid out the rights to that. There's nothing new in this as most countries do this. So, when you're buying a .me name, you're not actually buying from Montenegro, but from some reseller in your country. I ended up trying GoDaddy for the first (and last) time. I searched around for a name that seemed to be available, which was taste.me, filled out the forms, submitted the credit card info and thought that I was the proud owner of this name. Oh how I was wrong.
First off, it turns out that GoDaddy had some problem with me. I registered this name while in Europe and for some reason they came to the conclusion that I was a fraudulent registrar. Given that assumption, they froze my account, locked me out, and sent me a single email that had no information but to contact them. I tried to contact them and the monkeys on the phone didn't seem able to do anything or tell me why I was locked out. They eventually refunded my money and I gave up on my dreams of owning taste.me.
It turns out that this was all for the better as paying that initial $100 for the name was not actually buying it. It was reserving a place in line to be able to bid in a domain auction further on. All of this is not readily apparent and with good reason. I doubt most folks would be $100 for the right to then bid on something as small and silly as a domain name. Let me also emphasize that it was $100 for each .me name you wished to chase down.
Oddly enough, I continued to receive updates about the auction for taste.me. This was interesting to follow because unlike a normal auction where there is a set time frame, the way this auction worked was that once someone submitted a bit, if there was a new bid submitted within 24 hours, the auction would continue. It basically just encourages people to bid like crazy to own the domains. In the case of taste.me, the auction went on for about two weeks and ended up at a final price of $6,505. Crazy, huh?
In theory, a large percentage of money from the sale of domain names if going back in to the country. It had better as it's apparent that Montenegrin's aren't buying .me. It's also about $20 now to register a name since this asinine auction system has ended and it's business as usual. There does seem to be some black box business going on with the registration still. If you try to register something like asdasjj90.me, you can. But if you try to register something like theearthiswaitingfor.me it will most likely tell you it's already been bought, but you'll get the offer to bid on it. I don't know what they're doing, but it definitely seems shifty and I hope that it's not just a few entrenched Montenegrin politicians making off like bandits on this.
This article is cross posted on Čevapija
01 09 2008 2 comments
Tags: internet, montenegro, the balkans, the europe
The Train Through Montenegro
The Bradt travel guide for Montenegro (the only one that I now of) recommended taking the train from the coast of the country if you decided to cut inland to Podgorica or onward to Belgrade. I really prefer trains over buses, so it seemed like a no brainer to take the train. The only catch is that you had to take the train from Bar, which is a sucky town.
But, getting over Bar, the train ride is nice. Actually, it's really nice. Stunning I would even say. It's a fast trip to the capital of about two hours. Onward to Belgrade is a slogging six and a half from there, or even longer as the train is often delayed. It took us ten and a half, which was two hours longer than it should have been. But the view you're treated to along the way is akin to taking Yosemite and stretching it out to the size of a country. There are jagged, looming mountains the entire way that jut out of the valleys you pass through. At times, it seems like you're in tunnels more than outside of them. These mountains made for one hell of an engineering feat to run a train through. Not to be outdone by the Swiss, the Yugoslavs did pull it off, but the price is that there is just this one line through Montenegro. Regardless, they actually have their own state-run rail company. I'm guessing it must have two trains.
There is one real highlight along the trip and that's when you pass over Lake Skadar. This is gorgeous. Someday I'll have to make it back to this lake and spend more time in Albania and Montenegro to see it properly. It's unfortunate that due to this being a very straight section of track, they really fly through here, so you need to be ready with your camera.
One last bit I need to add is that you really don't want to take the train from May through September when it is very hot, hot, or mildly hot. There is no air conditioning and the 37C that it was outside for the duration of the trip made for a miserable time inside the car.
26 06 2007 0 comments
Tags: montenegro, the europe
Bar, Montenegro is Unfortunate
I think that if someone held a gun to my head and told me that I had to say something nice about Bar, this port town on the coast of Montenegro, I'd probably be dead.
When heading there from Budva, it was originally our intention to head on to Ulcinj and then to Albania. When we arrived we were greeted by sleazy taxi drivers who were trying to tell us that there were no buses to Tirana (the capital of Albania) or even just across the border. Not wanting to believe these annoying guys, we asked the woman at the ticket counter if there were any buses to Albania. She said that there weren't. We then asked if there were buses from Ulcinj in to Albania. She glanced over at the taxi driver and said that there weren't. This glance was all we really needed to realize that they had a lovely little scam going to hook tourists. While we can speak the language, it's clear that we're not locals and so they were trying to take advantage of us.
With the realizing that we looked like cows ripe for milking, we made the quick decision to take the train straight up to Belgrade to stay with a cousin of mine and avoid this whole mess. You see, beyond the sleaziness of this town and the fact that the ticket woman was a remnant of the Communist attitudes that will hopefully die off in a couple more decades, there is nothing in Bar. Yeah, there's a little beach, but I wouldn't swim in it because their massive port is right there as well and the water is bound to be filthy. Maybe it's a bit cheaper to stay there for a holiday, but you'd have to be pretty down on your luck to do that, since Montenegro in general isn't that expensive just yet.
Oh, once we decided to move on, the taxi drivers kept following us and even a polite, "Stop it, we're taking the train." Was answered with, "The train?!! That takes two days to get to Belgrade." A slight overstatement as it's really a scheduled 8.5 hours and just another reason to mention that if you find yourself in Bar, Montenegro at any point, get the hell out as fast as you can. Now if you happen to be a Brit, Aussie, or Yank on a drinking holiday and then, "Bar? Bar?!! You mean it's spelled B-A-R?!! Oh yeah, get the lads, we're there!" by all means go to Bar immediately and begin the binge of a lifetime.
25 06 2007 7 comments
Tags: montenegro, the europe
Budva Makes Me Smile
Charming is not the first word that comes to mind as I sit here writing this in Budva on the Montenegrin coast. But, given time and a willingness to see the town, there are aspects of it that I find quite nice, which spurred Elia and I to spend a full three nights here. My association with the city started two weeks ago though in a strange way.
It was in Dubrovnik that I bumped in to some rather crusty New Zealanders. They immediately complained about the cleanliness of the pension we were staying in and admittedly it wasn't a baka-cleaned (baka = grandmother in Croatian) place it wasn't that bad and I could show them worse if they were interested. But, we put that aside and chatted to them about the package Balkan trip they were on. We looked down a sheet of their itinerary and asked them what they thought of Budva. They then said, "Oh yeah, Buhdva was nice." I didn't bother to correct their pronunciation as this is common problem with many English speakers in that we'll continually pronounce something from a foreign language wrong even when corrected. I try to make the effort to say it the right way, but often fall short myself. But beyond that, we now will jokingly refer to Budva (really pronounce Bood-vah) as Buhdva.
So, I am enjoying Buhdva and marveling at how easy it is to get around. The beaches are in one spot. The crappy touristy promenade, where you can buy t-shirts that say things like, "THE MAN" is in another spot. The old city is in another spot. Then the bulk of rentable housing is in another spot. But, by "another spot", I mean that they're well separated in a manner where they don't bleed on to one another. It's more of a San Francisco tourist layout as opposed to a Santa Cruz layout. If you want to traipse around the old city, you won't get someone trying to push you in to buying pirated DVD's. When you want to sleep at night, you don't hear the discotheque. And then, it seems like everything is a 15-20 minute walk from everything else. Naturally, there is a Fatty Train to drag around the lazy tourists who can't make the walk.
We can thank the Communists for this. They developed the hell out of this place and they did a good job because well, that's what Communism did well; deal with lots of people. It's just a real pity to think that there was a nice vineyard in the spot where this whole tourist villa got erected called Slovenska Plaža and given the lovely size and quiet nature of the old city, it must have been an amazing site at the turn of the century.
As for highlights, I would have to say my top items are: the beach, the old city, and tourist watching. You really leave the English language behind once you come down here, so you get a taste of some pretty silly tourists from all over the place. The old men with the pot belly in the speedo, while revolting, never get old in their macabre display of far too much leathery, sunburned flesh.
In another two or three years, I'm sure this is going to get just as packed as other former Communist areas on the coast and a lot more expensive that the relative bargain it is now. This is especially true if the budget airlines open up flights to here. All hail the impending influx of the Lager Lad!
24 06 2007 0 comments
Tags: budva, montenegro, the europe
Montenegro is Not the 'Next Croatia'
It's more the fact that Croatia was the next Montenegro and there is a bit of history behind this that people who run around making uninformed off-the-cuff statements like this often don't know.
You see, the areas of Croatia that are now the real hot spots for foreigners, namely the southern Dalmatian coast, were traditionally some of the poorest areas in Croatia and then Yugoslavia. It wasn't until the Germans started popping down there in the 1950's to roast themselves in to oblivion that tourism started to develop and escalate through the 1980's until the war, pause, then start up again. In contrast, Montenegro has always been a popular spot for summering Serbs (as well as affluent Russians it would appear.) Much like how it seems just about everyone in Sarajevo has a summer home in Makarska, it seems that everyone in Belgrade has a summer home somewhere on the Montenegrin coast, in places like Budva. The tourist infrastructure was built up rapidly here and radically more planned than it was in other places.
Take for instance Dubrovnik. That town can only hold so many people and has already reached this limit, but more still come. Because there were never any methods created for dealing with all these people, it's something of a free for all right now. While they're trying some quick fix methods, it doesn't seem that anyone was prepared for the mass influx of tourists, despite the fact the government advertised like hell to get people there. All I can see if that everyone who visited the city previous to 2005 should count themselves lucky.
Now take Montenegro. While the roads are just as twisty as Croatia and the terrain by the coast even more rugged, we had no trouble making our way along on a bus. There seems to have been more thinking behind their design (there are quick ferries to bypass some very slow parts) and a long time ago, people saw that it would all hit the fan if access wasn't made easier. I mean, there's even a train out to Bar on the coast, which I hear isn't a great town (I'll know for certain in the next day or two) where there is no train to Dubrovnik. Then there are the cities which have the touristy areas planned out and separated from the old areas. They have bus lines and the even have room for growth.
Undoubtedly, this type of thinking was making its way up the coast and would have been in Croatia a while ago, had Yugoslavia held together. So it's only fitting that the last vestige of the former YU in former Serbia-Montenegro broke off last year with MNE getting the coast that had ironically been developed inland by the powers that were in Belgrade that they now have separated from.
So, to all those who thought and possibly still think that there are all these opportunities in this "new" country, wake up. All that passed while people had their focus on the "old Croatia".
23 06 2007 2 comments
Tags: montenegro, the europe
So That's Supposed to be Montenegro?
I watched the new Casino Royale over the weekend and enjoyed it. It's nothing that deep, but it's well done and a good watch. Definitely the best Bond flick in years. Of course, it helps that they're just rehashing the original book again, but it seems this is the case the days with your Batman Begins, and Superman Returns, not to mention all the TV shows that are made in to films. Despite the fact the are very few original ideas in Hollywood these days, at least a good number of these film rehashes are good to watch.
Besides the rather ridiculous product placement throughout the film, the one thing that really cracked me up was their portrayal of Montenegro (or Crna Gora to those who know any Slavic language.) You see James and Vesper coming in on this very nice train to Montenegro. It's the kind of thing you'd maybe see in France or Germany. It is not the kind of thing you'd see in this Balkan nation. Croatia and Slovenia have just gotten a few new and fast trains. I doubt they have made their way this far south yet, since there aren't even that many rail lines in Montenegro. And where are they going? Podgorica, the capital? None of this is really explained of course because they were really shooting in the Czech Republic. This naturally explains that overhead shot of the train with all of the lush woodlands.
In truth, Montenegro is a beautiful country, but it is a rough kind of beautiful. The landscape is incredibly rugged and tough. Supposedly, this provides the backbone for the people as well, who take a good deal of pride in living there. I'm rather surprised that they didn't film it there as I'm sure it would have been a good deal cheaper and more authentic than the Czech Republic. Of course, maybe they felt it would give a bad association and at the time of principal photography, they were still part of Serbia. Anyways, just a funny thing.
29 11 2006 0 comments
Tags: bond, film, film, montenegro, montenegro
So That's Supposed to be Montenegro?
I watched the new Casino Royale over the weekend and enjoyed it. It's nothing that deep, but it's well done and a good watch. Definitely the best Bond flick in years. Of course, it helps that they're just rehashing the original book again, but it seems this is the case the days with your Batman Begins, and Superman Returns, not to mention all the TV shows that are made in to films. Despite the fact the are very few original ideas in Hollywood these days, at least a good number of these film rehashes are good to watch.
Besides the rather ridiculous product placement throughout the film, the one thing that really cracked me up was their portrayal of Montenegro (or Crna Gora to those who know any Slavic language.) You see James and Vesper coming in on this very nice train to Montenegro. It's the kind of thing you'd maybe see in France or Germany. It is not the kind of thing you'd see in this Balkan nation. Croatia and Slovenia have just gotten a few new and fast trains. I doubt they have made their way this far south yet, since there aren't even that many rail lines in Montenegro. And where are they going? Podgorica, the capital? None of this is really explained of course because they were really shooting in the Czech Republic. This naturally explains that overhead shot of the train with all of the lush woodlands.
In truth, Montenegro is a beautiful country, but it is a rough kind of beautiful. The landscape is incredibly rugged and tough. Supposedly, this provides the backbone for the people as well, who take a good deal of pride in living there. I'm rather surprised that they didn't film it there as I'm sure it would have been a good deal cheaper and more authentic than the Czech Republic. Of course, maybe they felt it would give a bad association and at the time of principal photography, they were still part of Serbia. Anyways, just a funny thing.
