jauntingmrzonks

[jauntingmrzonks]

Montenegro Travel Diary One

Landing into Podgorica you’ll find that public transport isn’t really something that Montenegro has bothered investing too much in. Our accommodation was in the seaside town of Budva, south of Podgorica. The only way to get there is by taxi to a bus stop situated 15-20 minutes (depending on how fast the driver is speeding and swerving through traffic) away, then a bus to whatever main town you want to get to.

The taxi prices were however helpfully outlined within the airport and seemingly standardised, so there’s no need for negotiation or the concern over whether you’re getting ripped off taking one driver over another.

At the time of writing, the cost of a taxi from the airport to the bus stop is EUR 12 (We managed to eavesdrop on a couple of Dutch travellers who were also after a taxi so were able to split that cost :)). The bus to Budva, is EUR 5, to go further on to Kotor, another tourist hot spot bay town is EUR 6.

The first thing that's striking about Montenegro is the vast mountainscape, it is what gives the country its name, translated literally to Black Mountain, Or Crna Gora in the local tongue.

Some of the mountains are actually ominous looking black mountains like you could expect dragons to dwell within in some sort of fairy tale. Whilst others are covered in lush greenery, but still with a darkness about them. It’s impressive (or tragic, depending on your point of view) how civilisation knows no bounds and has managed to build itself into the sides of these mountains, though it doesn’t yet feel like a country struggling under the weight of development. There are only around 650,000 people living in Montenegro which means that at night there are still areas that are completely black along the coastline, without the dearth of light pollution you can except in other more development places. However...

The second striking thing about Montenegro, is the rampant construction. It’s almost as though you cannot look in any direction without seeing a crane, or a building in some stage of completion. Unfortunately this also pervaded in the mornings thus nullifying any hope of relaxing sleep ins throughout the holiday. We arrived on a Sunday and still construction workers were going about their business, only to begin again from 7am the next morning throughout the stay.

It certainly feels like a country building itself up, getting in on the tourism trade, ready for its eventual accession into the European Union for which it is currently in the process of. They do use the Euro already.

We checked into Hotel Pozzo which has only been open for one month and fifteen days (as of the 19th of May 19).

Zoran, the hotel manager was really hospitable and even asked us what time we’d be wanting breakfast, rather than dictating to us the times we had to be there at (up to 11am is reasonable, right?).

We scored an apparent upgrade to the top floor, but it also seemed like there were no other guests in the hotel which has about 20 rooms. The view of the sea is  great, but was apparently better, as the view is partially obstructed by a new tall half completed building next door that wasn’t there six months ago.

You can check out a larger commentary on the hotel here (but I’m yet to write it...).

The Old Town of Budva is about 20 minute walk along the coast from the hotel and is your typical European old town - cobbled streets, stone walls, churches, looks like a castle, well, was a castle / fortress, etc. It’s not too glutted with overt souvenior stands or even tourists, though this was the low season. The high season starts from around June.

One of the tourists in Budva’s Old Town...

An unexpected element of visiting in May is the temperamental weather, where you’ll experience warmth and sunshine and then intense rain for around an hour or two before moving to humidity and back to sunshine. Although sitting at a restaurants in the Old Town with the skies heavily bucketing down is a kind of cool experience, make sure you’ve already got your wine to hand so that the poor waiter doesn’t need to jump puddles to get it to you, which is kind of what happened at Restora Rivijera where we had our first meal in Montenegro.

Black seafood pasta and Vranac Pro Corde wine.