TO ALL MY HOMIES DOIN' TIME

FINE, AND YOU?

While I was riding the streetcar to go see the masseur, I found a sign that said the fine for 'riding black' (ie without a ticket) is 26.60 BAM. No idea what the .60 is for. With the amount of graft and such, I'd expect the fine to be more, especially for 'rich foreigners'. With the frequency of the ticket checkers (like the group that jumped on when I was writing this) it is just not worth it. And believe me, as a foreigner, your tickets are inspected much more closely than the locals.



MASSAGE FOR YOU!

I finally got my 35 BAM full body massage. I tipped the guy 5 BAM because massaging me is like trying to work wood - with your bare hands. If my back had popped as often as this poor guys fingers, I'd have been a happy camper. Believe it or not, he tried to refuse the tip but I pressed and he happily relented. Of course, this does make me wonder what kind of dick would take it back when they said "Oh - I can't take this!" "No problem, yoink!" Nope. Anyway, I would say that despite his best work, I only feel about 5% looser. This tells me that I'm needing a chiropracter instead of or preceeding a massage to have any real effect. I don't know if chiropractic medicine has made its way out here. If it has, could the average Joe afford it? Well, maybe the folks who work for the governmet could. I still find it strange that the government pays about double what private practice does and gives a lot better working hours.



LOGAN GETS HEALTHIER

I am so full of health right now I could shit a dietician. I found a place that did grilled vegetables. Considering everything else is 'meat over flame' I said 'what the heck'. To use Holmes' (Pete's) description of the meal, "It was very nice." Cost, 7 BAM. I also tried a yogert drink (cost 1.5 BAM). The best thing I can say about that was 'it was wet'. It was damned bitter. I managed to choke it down in hopes that the horrible taste meant it was good for me. Rather than poisoned. If you're in Sarajevo and want to go there, I think the name of the restaurant might be 'Ascinica Cevabdzinica Sur Bosna'. Short names are for suckers, I guess.



CELEBRATE YOUR HEALTH

In order to celebrate my health, I bought a bar of Toblerone dark chocolate. Don't look at me like that, I kind of had to. I saw it in the grocery store and realized I had begun talking to it. I suppose I was trying to make friends with it before I took it home. People were starting to give me those side-long looks so it came home with me.



PRISON BITCHES

According to my local expert on all things...local... Mirza - they have some interesting rules on prisoners and jails here. First, if you commit a 'small crime' (not like rape and murder, I'm guessing) you can get out of jail for a weekend every month or two. Also, for these 'small crimes' they have an over crowding problem. They call you when they get space in their jail so you can come do your few months or whatever. Until then, you sit at home.

Now, for people who are in jail - especially for big crimes - they don't get any visitors but immediate family. They do have an interesting way to receive messages from the outside world. They have a couple channels that play music videos non-stop. Scrolling across the bottom of the screen are SMS messages. These are sent by their friends for about ten times the cost of a normal SMS message to the station who then scrolls them across. Also, you can pay to have a video you like played. Believe me, the thought of playing REM's 'Shiny Happy People' and having a message saying "How's prison folks? Love, Logan" did come into my brain. I wasn't sure if I could get that video and song though and it's just not worth it otherwise.