Bye Croatia! Hi Montenegro! That’s pretty much how it went as we sailed over border number 7. Neither of us knew what to expect when we got to Montenegro. We got into Podgorica bus station at 6:30 in the evening and immediately booked our bus ticket to Tirana the next day. This relaxed Matt because he knew there were daily flights from Tirana to Athens and could reach his connecting flight that way. I knew we’d be fine but let him stress about it because that’s the kind of friend I am…
The best hot chocolate I've ever had in my life!
When we booked the ticket we couldn’t get out. I waited to copy a local and watched her scan her ticket so I did the same. We got out to find we couldn’t get out the bus station that way and it was vehicles only, so we headed back through the turnstyles. Well, Matt headed through, I got my leg caught in the turnstyle and was stuck in the air for a split second. Sometimes I wonder why I’m still single…
God knows what the locals thought of us! We found the hotel easily enough, then went to explore the town. The woman behind reception said it would take ten minutes to explore the whole town. We looked at her and assumed she meant that it would take ten minutes to get there, but boy were we wrong…
It was pretty much a ghost town. Nothing happening really. There were a few shops selling old 60’s TV’s and radios, but other than that we gave up after 5 minutes and headed back to the hotel to get some food in the restaurant.
It was the right decision! I had a veal steak in breadcrumbs and Matt had a Montenegrin dish which I assume was their version of the cevapi. We ended up swapping plates because we both liked the other’s dish more. Then it was time for dessert.
Hot chocolate for starters AND dessert? You’re having a bubble me old china! No I be not me old china, as the Montenegrin hot chocolate was so lusciously thick it was like a cup of hot chocolatey yoghurt. Oh the legendness!
Well I knew what I was having for breakfast in the morning! And all I did after that was write some more of my book and then watched some MMA fights on TV before going to sleep.
That morning at the bus stop we found a Turkish guy who spoke no English. I had no alcohol to be able to make friends without talking so I pulled out the juggling balls and started doing some tricks. He seemed impressed, and jokingly gave me 10 cents. Being the poor fucker I am I put it straight in my pocket. I guess my latest job title is ‘professional beggar’…
Triple M and the Turk with no name (feel free to sing: And I've been through The Balkans with a Turk with no name...)
So we were in and out of Montenegro like we were doing the hokey cokey from the border! The plus side was that now we were going to go to Albania. I was looking forward to Albania most of all on this trip. I lived in Italy 10 years ago and I worked with a lot of Albanians. The vast majority of them were such genuinely nice people and couldn’t do enough for you, so this was a country I was licking my lips in the thought of visiting. Normally when you build up a place you are disappointed, but I’m hoping this won’t be the case over there.
Oh, and on a side note; Montenegro is not in the EU, but uses the Euro. Work that one out…