My Heart Throb

Richard Quest....I just love him. I hate CNN but I almost always have it on the tube anyway, just for noise mostly. But let me hear Richard Quest's voice and I run to the television to see what he has to say. He is so funny and upbeat. I swear, he could be announcing that nukes were raining down on earth and annhilation was moments away and still make is sound fun and exciting. Not everyone agrees with me on this, however. Some meanie posted this:

Richard Quest is Annoying
The experience of listening to Richard Quest, a CNN Europe anchor, is something akin to what it might be like to scrub my face with a cheese grater. I’m sure he’s a very intelligent guy, but he seems to have only one volume–yell. It seems he has been yelling for so long that he has blown his voice completely out, so he sounds like Harvey Fierstein doing an impression of a British soccer hooligan.

I did have to laugh, though, about this guy's assessment that he is sure Richard is very intelligent. Well, Richard was having a bad day a couple of weeks ago. He was doing an hour long show called "Quest for Intelligence" or something like that. He visited the guy whom the movie "Rainman" was based on and he attended the Mensa convention in Las Vegas (now that is a strange bunch). At the end of the show he took the IQ test administered by a Mensa guy and he was clearly having a struggle. At the end of the show he got his test results in the mail. He only has an IQ of 96!!! He was so mad. And embarrassed, too. Well, I still love you, Richard!

Land of Contrasts

In contrast to my last post that shows the PimpJuice Hummer, here is what a large percentage of people here in Kosovo have to drive. And yes, the first one is a modified garden tiller. These "vehicles" can actually go pretty fast and I've seen them with a number of people on them, too. And they're street legal! They probably have to spend more money on the license plates than what the vehicle is worth but they seem to be pretty happy to have a mode of transportation. Looking at the photo of the tractor I believe that there is a BMW behind it.
I'm always amazed when I see really nice BMW's, Hummers, and Jaguars driving around here because the streets are in horrible condition and traffic is congested to the max. We hardly ever go out that we don't see a car crash or a near miss. Stopping on red lights seems to be optional. If I had to buy a car here I definitely would not get one I was terribly proud of because I don't think it would last long.

American Culture

And then there is this: You know American culture has managed to seep into the farthest corners of the world when you see something like this. I've been told that this stuff is supposed to be a drink similar to Red Bull. Could these knuckleheads not come up with a better name? It makes me crazy. Maybe I've become an offical "Old Fogey".

Bill and Hillary

Kosovar Albanians love Bill Clinton and as you can see, he has a huge picture in downtown Prishtina which coincidentally is on Bil Klinton Avenue. And right down the street is the Hilary Boutique. That is not a coincidence, I'm sure, because I have yet to meet an Albanian named Hilary.

Amnesia

Here's another place with an interesting name. I wish I had been with the owner of this place when he decided on the name because I'm just really curious about why he chose this. It's just odd. But I have more...a lot more. Stay tuned....

Doing a Double Take

I'm always finding unusual signs here in Kosovo and one day we drove by this pizzeria and I was so sure I hadn't read it right I made Tom drive around the block. But no, my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. I have seen the name "Nazim" here so I'm assuming that this place is named for Nazim somebody and his nickname is Nazi. I did notice that there were no international people in there eating pizza, however.

Getting Over My Fear of Turkish Toilets

I think I have shared with some of you my absolute fear and loathing of Turkish toilets, which happily are becoming a little more scarce here.
The first one I ever saw I was so horrified I wouldn't use it and allowed myself to suffer something awful until a proper western style toilet was located. I was dying one time when we were in Pula, Croatia and we were at this really great 2000 year old Roman coliseum. I should have known better but we had just driven hours without finding anyplace with a WC. So I trekked up to where this old lady had her hand out...she wanted 25 cents for the use of one of the toilets there. One was open but it was so vile I backed out and waited to see if the next one was any better. It wasn't. I HELD it!
Then one time when we first went to Greece our driver was taking us to the Bulgarian border inside Macedonia. I was making noises about having to go and he assured me that there was a restaurant not too far up the road that had a good toilet. I assured him that I was perfectly willing to pull over and go behind a bush but he promised me the restaurant toilet was all good. We got there and guess what? It was a Turkish toilet!! And to make matters worse, this time I couldn't hold it. Being new at this I quickly tried to figure out how to manuever this whole thing....do you stand up, do you squat and if you do, which way do you face? And what do you do with your pants legs to keep them out of the muck on the floor? To make matters worse the stupid door wouldn't shut so there I was squatting down (facing the wrong way I found out later) trying to balance myself and holding the door shut with one leg and getting a bunch of backsplash I might add. And several Euros fell out of my pocket onto this mess and believe me....they stayed there. Gads, the entire ordeal just gives me the shivers retelling it.
When we went to Greece this summer Shirley from Texas was telling me that her sister lived in Turkey for 23 years. I asked her if she ever got used to the toilet situation and she said, "well, more or less". I asked her if she knew how to manuever everything, etc. She said the first thing you have to do is throw one leg up behind your shoulder. Well, I got to laughing so hard I think she and the rest of the group at our table thought I was some kind of mental patient. Then she realized what I thought was so funny.....she meant you throw one of your pants legs over your shoulder, not your leg. I still laugh over that visual. Although doing that wouldn't be far different from my experience trying to hold the door closed with one leg and balancing on the other.
When we were traveling home from Montenegro our Serbian friends told us about a place to stop where the "cleanest Turkish toilet" in the world exists. And you know what? It is. And here's a picture of it. I actually used it without a great deal of fuss and didn't feel like I needed to throw away my shoes and jump in the river to clean off. Plus she instructed me on the correct direction to face, thereby avoiding much of the backsplash. Whew....bet you didn't think I would ever launch into a "how-to" manual on the proper use of Turkish toilets, did you? Now I just need to figure out that French bidet thing. Will keep you posted the next time I come in contact with one.