I must admit, the two places starting with the M confused me. The furthest north is Montenegro, black mountain. (The name Montenegro means mountain black, or as we would say in English, black mountain. The noun is first followed by the adjective which is second in many languages including French, moulin rouge being red mill.
Montenegro, black mountain, is north of Albania, which sounds like white. South of Albania is Macedonia, whose citizens, Macedonians, are also in Albania and Greece. Macedonia has been in dispute with Greece about the right to call itself Macedonia. In 2018 the two countries seem to have resolved this problem.
Any more memory aids regarding which country is where. Yes, ma'am. Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, initials M A M make the acronym MAM. (An acronym means a new word from initial letters. Nym stands for name.)
European Languages.This map seems to leave out Switzerland and does not tell you the languages spoken in Corsica and Sardinia. Nevertheless, quite handy.
Republic of Macedonia
Flag of the Republic of Macedonia since 1995
The old flag, which the Greeks objected to on the grounds of cultural appropriation, had a more elegant sun, small in the centre, with delicate rays. However, the new design is distinctive and striking.
So many flags are three bands of colour, horizontal or vertical, or a a white cross on a contradsting background. You would not confuse this flag with anybody else's! It's Macedonia! It turns out that neighbouring Greece is the main trading partner and benefactor of Macedonia. So, finally, they have reached a compromise and I think the new flag is terrrific. You can see it for miles. That's what a flag is for.
I see a pattern in small and large events. Macedonia and Greece, are like a son who left home and wanted to be independent and father is worried that the son wants to take over Dad's property.
Another analogy is the companies where the son sets up a rival business such as a hotel group, and wants to continue using the family name. They go to court and eventually an agreement is reached for two separate brands, with similar names, which confuse some of the public. When you look into, you find you now have two distinctive countries, Greece and Macedonia, with a shared history, both of which are worth visiting.
Also, no trouble remembering that Macedonia, with an unamrked c, is a soft c. Add an accent on top and you have turned the c into a ch, without needing to spend time writing a whole extra letter, rather like Pitman's shorthand where you can indicate a letter or sound with just a dot or a teeny tick.
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More information from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_naming_dispute
Montenegro Map
Montenegro - Cities and Sites and Sights:
From Fly into Podgorica airport; see Podgorica the capital. Take a bus towards Mount Ostrog, a monastery against a cliff face. Get off bus ... and take taxi. The last part is stone steps.
Montenegro tourist sites:
Photo of Sveti Stefan by Einer Flog Zu Veit in Wikivoyage.
Sveti Stefan is the renowned, romantic five-star hotel on an island. I saw pictures of it years ago. If you cannot enter without booking a bedroom, or it is closed for renovation, admire it from afar. If you look at all the photos in Wikipedia under Sveti Stefan, you'll see that you get a better photo from a distance, like the one I have chosen to show.
Stefan is Stephen. Svet is world (in Serbian and Bosnian) and Svetnik is saint.
In Croatian Svet is holy and Svetnik is councillor. As you see, the three languages are mutually intelligible, like British and American English, with slight variations in meaning.
Montenegro flag
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