Cognac History Lesson

This is our good friend Mijo.  Mijo is a server at the Divine Cafe on the river and one of our favorite people we've met here.  It's not hard to find him...he works from open to close seven days a week and is always on the lookout for people he knows.  He always picks the kiddos up to greet them and gives them cookies and gum.  Needless to say, they love him.  And when we're leaving, they love to say, "Adijo, Mijo!"

Mijo is Albanian and moved here from Macedonia.  As a gift, he gave us a small bottle of his favorite Albanian cognac, Skënderbeu.  He told us to look up Skënderbeu because he is Albania's greatest war hero and has legendary status (similar to Aaron Rodgers).  In the 1400's, Skënderbeu led Albania in its resistance against the Turks, who attacked repeatedly in an effort to expand the Ottoman Empire.  He also defended Albania against Venice, who saw him as a threat to their power, but eventually they became allies.  After his death, Venice was unsuccessful in defending Albania from the Turks, but Skënderbeu's efforts are credited with keeping the Ottoman Empire out of western Europe.

All of this took place not far from where we were in Montenegro.  When we were there, people talked about the cultural differences between the coast, which was part of Venice, and the rest of Montenegro, which was part of the Ottoman Empire...apparently they are not at all alike.  It's interesting to visualize where all of this was happening and to connect what was going on then to what is going on now.

What is most interesting to me, though, is the fact that I learned more about Albania from a bottle of cognac than from my high school history class....