Plans are starting to firm up for our trip to Pljevlja. We leave on Saturday to drive there and will have a meet and greet dinner that evening. Sunday will be for tourist stuff and I will be doing my sessions on Monday and Tuesday. We will return on Wednesday.
At least we won’t be away from the coast for too long and with the trip more condensed we can actually plan on enjoying it. Will post here after all is said and done.
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It is now April 18 and we have been out of contact for a few days. WiFi here is by account and we would have needed to set one up to be able to connect. Much easier to just wait.
After several meetings it was decided or should I say revealed that we would go to the campus in Pljevlja and while everyone else would leave the next day we would stay on to present to the students on Monday. Originally we were to do one session on Monday (Marketing for a grand opening) and one Tuesday (Menu design) but through a chain of events it was shortened to one day.
We arrived here on Saturday with Zlatabor, Owen, Jamie, Glenn and Kaijya. The drive is about 5 hours but as the crow flies you have probably only traveled a hundred kilometers. The road up the mountains are windy and with many many hairpin turns. Once we reached the higher levels of the mountains there was snow everywhere. So gross after leaving the coast and 20 degrees. The highlight of the drive up was a stop on the bridge overlooking the Tara Canyon, view was breath taking.
Pljevlja is the third largest city in Montenegro but from from the outside it looks like a giant slum. There appears to be no care taken to keep properties clean or in good repair. Graffiti is everywhere and every corner has a group of wild dogs. There was one poor dog who was so heavy with her pregnancy that she just layed in the middle of the road. Cars were kind enough to drive around her but I would not be surprised if she birthed there.
We were boarded in a hotel the first night that looked abandoned from the outside as well as the lobby.Fortunately the room itself was clean and nice. The students and Branko and Zlatabr stayed in a hostel because the place we were in was full. The heater we had in the room wasn’t working very well so it turned out to be a chilly nite.
The next day we stopped at a bar in a gas station ( imagine going to get gas and while there have a few beer then go drive again) for a coffee and met up with the Mayor. More on the Mayor later.
The students at the campus put on a wonderful Italian themed dinner and we had the opportunity to meet some of them and the faculty. School and facilities were very impressive and the potential to expand are enormous.
We stopped for breakfast the following morning on our way to the local TV station where we were being interviewed for the Monday morning talk show **we are stars now ** and there was the Mayor again. It seems he spends alot of time having coffee at various restaurants etc around town. We happened to mention how chilly we had been the night before and where we were staying and he seemed shocked at the story. There was a flurry of cell phone activity right after and as we were leaving he smiled and said that things would get better.
Later we learned we were moving and we assumed to the hostel but it turns out the mayor pulled strings and had requested the suite at the Hotel Gold for us, his gift to the Canadian Professors. I have never seen such opulence in a hotel suite before, especially in a town of such obvious poverty. We figure the suite is perhaps his personal one. Jacuzzi, a 10 jet shower with a rain ceiling, birds eye maple furniture etc etc. Marianne and I are in luxury for two nights at a standard we will likely never see again.
