I wrote the first blog about America from the spot, because I knew that here, in Bar, everything that was there would seem unreal to me. And in Boston it seemed quite normal to me to enjoy, like many others, a cruise on Gloucester Bay, lobster on a private beach, Thai, Spanish and Portuguese cuisine, paintings by Botticelli, Raphael, Rembrandt... (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) , Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso... (Harvad Art Museum), in therapeutic massage, etc. From here, it all looks to me like a luxury that we shouldn't have afforded: it is reserved for (above) average Americans and three to five percent of selected citizens of Montenegro (not counting visits to museums, of course), who fought for such a status with various tricks , in cooperation with "patriotism".
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On the penultimate day of May, there was a big celebration at Harvard on the occasion of the graduation of another generation of students. Among the speakers was Angela Merkel. The German chancellor has never been (physically) closer to me, nor will she ever be.
Just like the whales when we cruised Gloucester Bay. We came out of the bay into the open Atlantic and the largest mammals in the world were somewhere, they say, within sight.
I regret that I did not see these noble animals, when they were so close. That whales are truly gentle giants was confirmed by Nan Hauser (63), a biologist, who was saved by a humpback whale from a tiger shark. Last October, near the Cook Islands, in the South Pacific, he shielded a surprised and frightened woman with his fin and pushed his head for ten minutes, until one of the most dangerous sharks moved away.
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Gloucester is a small town with 28 thousand inhabitants, north of Boston, about an hour's drive away. He became famous after the movie "The Perfect Storm" from 2000, based on a true story with a tragic ending.
In October 1991, the six crew of a swordfish fishing boat set sail from Gloucester for the last time of the season. However, they did not know that a storm was brewing.
Sebastian Junger's great bestseller is brought to the big screen, with George Clooney in the role of Billy Tyne, an experienced fishing boat captain who meets his destiny. Out at sea, Tyne learns of an impending storm, but thinks she can beat it. And he has no idea that he's competing not just with one storm, but with three air fronts converging into the most fearsome, destructive storm of the 20th century.
We spent three unforgettable days in that Gloucester.
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There are many reasons why George Clooney, along with Robert De Niro, is my favorite American actor. This one is the most important: to the fourteen friends who helped him when he came to Los Angeles, anonymous and poor, he gave a million dollars each, having paid the taxes beforehand. He just said he wanted them to know how much they meant to him.
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In America, the cult of food has been raised to the highest level. Organic food is especially on the price.
Let's say, if you want to be sure of the quality of the milk, you can see in the photo the cow that gives it to you and the meadow where it grazes...
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In Boston, it is difficult to tell at first glance whether you are meeting a man who, unfortunately, is not quite himself, someone on drugs, or a person talking on a cell phone with wireless headphones in his ears.
Drunks are already something else. They are the same everywhere.
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I don't like a foreign name for Montenegro at all. But, in Harvard Square, where chess is played every day, I was "Milan from Montenegro". Why? Well, because no one alive has heard of Montenegro, some have.
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Boston is a city full of greenery, which its residents are extremely proud of. There, if someone were to cross the 80-odd hundred-year-old cypress trees, they would take him directly to an institution... And it's not a penal institution.
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America equalized against Russia at 2:2. I was twice in America, twice in Russia. Since Russia, I only had a Russian collar on my favorite shirt in Boston. I have a feeling that next spring the Americans will lead 3:2.
If my father were alive, "I would have him for sure".
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In almost a month, I saw only a few smokers on the streets of Boston. And they somehow hide their cigarettes, as if they are ashamed of smoking.
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Americans, in general, live more relaxed than we do. For example, in our country, slightly "fuller" women try to hide their obesity with a loose dress. American women, on the contrary, in tight jeans, proudly roll their enormous weight from end to end of the sidewalk.
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The sage said: everything passes. He didn't want to depress us and added: too quickly. After five days in Boston, I missed the Bar. It hasn't even been five days since I returned, and I already miss the red bricks of the sidewalks of Harvard Street, walks along Massachusetts Avenue and along the banks of the Charles River, chess triumphs in Harvard Square, Emma's salad with spinach and strawberries, Matty's mussels and sea bream, Jelena's homemade bread...
It was a perfect vacation. Perfect for the simple reason that I didn't think for myself for 25 days. About nothing.
Bonus video:
