Pompeii and Circumstance

We were in Italy for a week and the first "touristy" place we went to was Pompeii. We've always been fascinated by the idea of a "preserved" first century city. If you ever get a chance to go, take comfortable shoes, a hat, sunscreen and snacks to get you through. We walked through most of the city and saw so many ruins that they all started to run together. Since we weren't willing to shell out big bucks for a guide, we missed some things though.

Steve is standing on an intricate mosaic floor (don't worry, you're allowed to walk there). The black and white pattern was made with sugar cube sized pieces of marble. Along with the mosaics, many wall frescos were also preserved.

We saw some of the preserved bodies (actual bones still in tact) and the casts of bodies (plaster casts of the "holes" found in the ash. Even though all life was wiped out of Pompeii in 79 AD, the city has some very new residents. We found this bird's nest among the ruins as we passed by.

We went with a group of friends who live in Italy or Albania, and shared pictures, so the picture of us together was taken by our friends. We are "reading" ancient political ads. I wonder what promises were made?

An International Hardware Chain?

This hardware shop, "Let's Do It" is near us here in Podgorica. Not to far from our home in Virginia, there is a hardware store called "Randy's Do It Best." The little smilie in a cap that dots the I is the same. We suspect that the chain name is "Do It" and then individuals can add stuff. For example they could call it "You Can Do It" or "We Help You Do It" or something.

We've looked around in this store, and you can find just about anything in the hardware line you need. They even have WD40! So if we buy that and some duct tape, theoretically we can fix anything!

Prvi Maj-Mayday

Prvi Maj (First of May) is a big holiday here. Almost everyone gets off from work. So a large group of friends we have here decided to go on a picnic. As soon as we got to a lovely flat meadow, however, it started to drizzle. One family had brought a 10x5.5 meter piece of plastic, and we draped it over two vans and crowded underneath. While hoping the rain would stop, we sang a few songs and had a lot of chats with friends. As we sat and sang, a flock of sheep and a lone cow (with a bell around her neck) wandered into the field, and then went away.

We finally decided that the rain wasn't going to

stop anytime soon, so we drove back to town and moved our "picnic" inside. Until the rain let up, they even did some of the grilling inside! Getting all the food prepared for our meal required cutting up veggies (at right), in addition to grilling. Some people brought potato salad, rolls and other goodies (like chocolate chip cookies from another expat). We brought a tort (an amazing cake with lots of frosting, and in this case two different types of fruit), because Steve's birthday is coming up, and the tradition is for the one having the birthday to provide the cake.

Eventuall the rain did stop, and some people crowded outside to enjoy the sunshine and the beauty of the river. All in all, we enjoyed our Mayday, after all, it's not where you are, but who you're with that makes good memories.

Fun in the Sun

Now that the weather is warmer, we have been seeing a lot more "life" going on around us. Parks and open areas are full of children playing. Restaurants have tables outside for patrons to enjoy the day as well as a coffee. Here is a picture of us on a slightly cooler day, enjoying dinning in the outdoors.

We also see more animals out now. Birds, dogs and cats are more prevalent than before. Once in awhile we see some ponies grazing (we presume they belong to the Roma "gypsies"). And there are also small lizards out basking in the sun, such as the one at right.

Blooming Beauty

Even though some previous posts have been about flowers, please humor us as we include more :). I'm not sure what these purple ones are, but they are very beautiful.

Since Laura can't really pick flowers here, she contents herself with taking pictures of them. One particular favorite is the lone red poppy among the grass and wild flowers.

The little plant growing out from the rock wall is also pretty cool. The pink flowers on it look rather like flox, but there were only two or three of them. Sorry my shadow sort of blocks it.

A Universal Easter Tradition

It seems that the world over, those who celebrate Easter will dye eggs. Unlike in America, however, where we use many colors, or even stripes or speckles the preference here seems to be for a red to reddish brown color.

They may decorate them with stickers or egg sleeves. While we saw some sleeves with Disney characters and bunnies on them, most of the sleeves we saw had icons of Saint Nicholas and Mary with Baby Jesus.

I believe the sticker (in Cyrillic script) translates to "Christ" but I'm not certain. It is very hard for me to read the cursive Cyrillic.

Easter

Even though most of the people in this area don't celebrate Easter until next Sunday (Orthodox calendar again), we are celebrating today as well. For starters we got our Easter baskets today (Laura put together some treats, including Kinder Eggs and Mozart candy).

We decided to visit the Catholic church to see if they did anything special for Easter. The building itself is made of concrete, a very communist looking Cathedral. On the entry stairs there were Roma begging again (sadly, there were several of them, and I didn't have enough change to divide it fairly, so I didn't give any). Inside it smelled strongly of incense. The seats were full and people were standing. We were surprised to discover that the service was in Albanian. We wonder if they have a Serbian service as well.

When we got home, we saw the Pope giving his Easter address on our Italian channel.

We have seen egg dying kits in the stores but decided to pass this year.