Where is Montenegro?

Recently my wife and I were watching the James Bond film Casino Royale. A city appeared in shot with a sub-title of Montenegro. Where exactly is Montenegro? My country memorisation project helped me answer this question.

In an earlier article, I wrote how I used a set of memory pegs to remember the countries and capitals in a geographic sequence. This arrangement helps me recall the neighbouring countries. Here is a section of  my country (and capital city) memory pegs.

121    Croatia  -  Zagreb
122    Bosnia and Herzegovina  -  Sarajevo
123    Montenegro  -  Podgorica
124    Serbia  -  Belgrade
125    Albania  -  Tirana

So how did I recall the location of Montenegro?

First of all, I recall my mental image of a Negro the size of a Mountain (MONTENEGRO) with a red gnome sitting on his shoulder (the image of 123). I remembered the capital because the Gnome was listening to an iPod (PODgorica), shouting "Go, Ricky!". Maybe he was listening to Ricky Martin?

Now that I had the peg number of 123 for Montenegro, I can recall the countries for 122 (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and 123 (Serbia).  My image for 122 (which translates to Red Nun) is a Nun wearing a red cloak sitting in a hearse (Herzegovina) which reminds me of Bosnia Herzegovina. The Nun is eating a salad which reminds me of the capital city, Sarajevo.

My key image of 124 is a red Nero and he is serving (Serbia) a large bell (Belgrade) instead of a tennis ball, over the fence onto sloping ground (a steep grade) which further reinforces the image of Belgrade.

My mental images for the associations may seem confusing but they are personal and established in my memory. Your associations will be different, but most importantly they should be memorable.

Now that I know the neighbouring countries, I can imagine the location of the country of Montenegro.