There’s a fictional trope I can’t find evidence of on the webs that goes something like this:

He had long ago trained himself to sleep on command

CAN IT BE REAL

Because I could use such training. I’m needing sleep at unpredictable times and/or unusual locations. Though such training probably couldn’t help me stay asleep while a tiny kitten attacks my feet.

At least I can sleep on my back more than before.

A takes a lot of photos. So for a while I amused myself by taking metaphotos.

(Oops, saved this as a draft. This was over a week ago.)

Split, Croatia, winner thus far for most epic cruising locations. The rocky socket close to Mykonos’s five windmills is a worthy rival, but no one was there when I visited.

I met a man via iOS who tried to create a psychogeographical (not his word) archive of cruising in Split! He made flyers and talked to people, but no one wanted to contribute, haha. Reminds me of the reaxions I got when I solicited interviews for an FTW I did called Cruising (MSM).

He started a blog, here is some machine-translated Croatian from it:

Gay Beaches and štajge the only urban sites with LGBT (actually just gay) tradition in the region (specifically in areas of Split, and the whole of Dalmatia). However, the cultural maps of these places are not marked, except for the rare mention in the media these urban sites are invisible. Their existence on the edges (geographically and culturally - and abandoned dilapidated periphery zone) urban areas the situation is a metaphor for the LGBT community.

It was great to talk to someone with this approach. We unnerved the cruisers by standing around the abandoned bar, probably speaking more words aloud in ten minutes than had been in the preceding week.

If you ever see that torsal carpet oot and aboot, know it belongs to the aforementioned Albanian-hater. (He is not Montenegro’s one out gay man.) After I told A about the interaction, he provided some explanation of the types of resistance employed in Kosovo. CG35 would have none of it, ’fcourse.

Kind of a misunderstanding, though, because the 7% he’s talking about is in Montenegro. So I clarified.

Me: I’m talking about the terrorism you mentioned that led to the independence of Kosovo. I think the government trying to erase a culture like that is a good explanation for that sort of resistance.

CG35: Good explanation to destroy 1000 monasteries and churches? Or i dont understand what u want to say…

Me: I mean that when you told me about the bombings and killings they were doing, and I asked why, you said it was because they are bad people or whatever. But having a government outlaw a your culture tends to inspire strong resistance.

No response.

Problems that aren’t really problems: seaside beauty fatigue. This is Kotor, Montenegro, yesterday, from the 1300 steps up to the fortress above the town. Today on the bus from Budva to Split, Croatia, we passed town after town with pleasing æsthetics.

First celery spotting since December: last night in Budva, Montenegro. It was lonely and limp. Once I saw it I realised perhaps it isn’t well-suited to the rapid travel I’ve been whisked through: five countries in a week? Border-crossing has become routine instead of terror-inducing as in North America. I’m eating a lot of just-bought fruit and vegetables, but a bundle of celery would be too much!

I figured I should be taking some photos where I am visible, right? The front-facing camera’s resolution is much lower so I use the regular one, which results in a lot more photos as I must experiment with angles and such. It’s slow and never entirely satisfying, but ubj ryfr jvyy zbz or noyr gb pbzzrag ba zl jrvtug?

Yesterday, in the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica, I met an ethnic Serbian who underscored for me the deep enmities that feature prominently in this area. When I told him I’d come through Albania, it set off a rant that never really ended until we parted.

Procedural aside: do all y’all think it’s bad news to repeat the problematic statements of others? I’ve observed people telling stories of racism or whatever and it sometimes seems like they’re reïnforcing that racism by repeating it. So I’m a bit uncertain about this sharing, but I’ll go ahead…

He talked about how Albanians “steal everything”, including Kosovo. He claimed that they started being all terrorist and shit for no reason, bombing churches and killing people. I suggested that people don’t tend to start terrorist campaigns for no reason, and wasn’t there some hideous oppression going on?

But I know so little about the histories of this area. I had no response when he reminded me that Kosovo’s independence was American-supported (the day before in Pejë/Peč I walked all over Wesley Clark and Bill Clinton), and we know that purely “humanitarian” interventions are a fiction. I would have issues with behaviour on all sides, I guess.

He called Albanians “filthy pigs” and lived among their garbage: the litter society! He would have none of the counternarrative I nurture. I was supposed to be impressed that Montenegrins have stolen the most flags of other nations during wars.

Queerdo Mishima committed ritual suicide in 1979, not sure what this is aboot?

Later I met a Russian-cum-Berliner who is in Podgorica for the month shepherding his VoIP company’s servers. He suggested that Montenegrins are “lazy”. He told me of having lived beside a family for a few months, so he got to know their habits. He said that most women work because the men have had to be available to fight through the “500 years of war”. He watched the wife/mother leave for work early each morning and return in the evening, preparing all the food and doing the housework, while the men and kids stayed home all day drinking coffee and smoking. Sounds like the women aren’t lazy, amirite?

Also lazy: it’s possible to ski for ten months of the year, and then drive a mere two hours and swim in the sea. But this hasn’t been sufficiently exploited through tourist infrastructure. And their hundreds of fresh water springs haven’t been sufficiently commodified!

He met with an anti-homophobia organisation and it sounds bleak. There is only one out man in the country of about 300k!

At the end of the night, I met a Montenegrin couple in a dark but lively park straddling the smaller of the city’s two rivers. They have been together for 5.5 years, neither is out to more than a few other queers. The English-speaker said “We are a liberal country” but extreme homophobia still reigns. There were plans to have Pride but it was cancelled because no one wanted to be seen in public with the one out man! I told him about how Winnipeg’s first Pride featured people wearing paper bags over their heads.

I declined to accompany A for his self-guided tour of Podgorica and it was definitely the right decision. I am realising I mostly don’t care about old churches and mosques. I like stories, opinions, high places, and dramatic vistas.

And the menz.

The one on the left reminded me of a friend’s work. The face of the mount, particularly.

The litter society extends to Gjirokastër!