Quick Bit

Made it to Bar, Montenegro. The trainride down was over 9 hours long; i hear it is 45 minutes by plane. On the plane i met a couple folks who spoke some English (at least they knew more English than i know Serbian) and i got to converse for the first time in a week and a half (aside from online, that is). A choice quote from Oliver, the musician: "While we were bombed, i played basketball. When they bomb the bridges, we put festival and i sing music on the other bridges. When the rockets went across the sky, we get on the buildings and cheer and clap for our soldiers."

On the topic of the rocket's red glare, i also got to see fireworks Friday night in Belgrade. No, i mean real fireworks, not NATO fireworks. I don't think they were celebrating the U.S. (or Canadian) independence day, i think they were related to some festival going on.

The best independence day fireworks i ever saw occured a few years ago, while i was driving out west. I was 10-20 miles east of Denver, CO, heading towards the city. Though mile-high, the city lies nestled on a plateau before the Rockies really begin. It was around 10pm and four separate communities were having simultaneous firework shows. Each show was separated by maybe 10 miles, so to me it looked like the whole horizon was having one very big show. All firework shows should be that encompassing.