I arrived in Podgorica and unlike my previous two destinations I was dropped off where I expected and my map got me to my hostel easily enough. After getting checked in I used the bathroom and was delighted to see no signs saying to put my toilet paper in the bin rather than flushing it. It’s a very little thing, but the luxury of being able to flush your toilet paper is something you definitely miss when you can’t do it. One of life’s little joys. Also unlike my previous two stops I arrived fairly early in the day, so after getting settled in I went down to reception and was shown the highlights of the city on a map and I then went out to explore. The highlight of my days explorations was Ljubovic Hill. Situated in the middle of the city this beautiful hill has plenty of hiking trails and gives you some great views of the city, while also allowing you to escape into nature. The weather in Podgorica was definitely cooler than it had been in Tirana, but it was still clear of snow and sunny as I hiked around up on the hill and I soon pocketed my gloves and beanie, took off my scarf and unbuttoned my coat.
On my first night in Podgorica after having explored the town and eaten a wonderful dinner I hung out in the common room of the hostel with the hostel worker and he told me about all of the things that I should check out while in Montenegro as we watched a Marvel movie and played a card game that he taught me. There are other sites to see in Podgorica, such as the beautiful Morača river running through the center of town, the very impressive Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, and the Millennium Bridge, but most of the sites can be seen in one day which I could attest to as I had already seen all of those things, so at the behest of my helpful hostel worker who was also a guide, I ended up spending a couple of my days out of town on day trips. One day I took the bus out to little town of Virpazar lying on the shores of Skadar Lake, the largest lake in the Balkans. The town is very tiny and I was in and out of it in about five minutes, having picked up a friend along the way.
I named her Dog.
I then continued along the road to the next town detouring off the path several times, once to visit a little fort up on the top of the hill and the other times just to climb around on the rocks, enjoy the views and take pictures. All the time my little buddy was there with me. She would run ahead or off into the bushes and I would lose sight of her, but there was never any doubt that she would return to my side and if I was sitting on a rock, try to climb up into my lap. I never made it to the next town due to my off-roading, but I didn’t mind, because this particular excursion was definitely nature centric. When I arrived back in the town my new friend trotted off back to whatever hole she had come from and assuaged my worries that she would follow me out to the bus stop and make me feel terrible as I boarded the bus leaving her behind.
My other day trip took me out to the old town of Kotor, situated along the Bay of Kotor. I boarded the bus in Podgorica to head out to Kotor, but before I reached my destination I felt compelled to disembark the bus in Budva a coastal town along the Adriatic Sea. It was an absolutely beautiful day and as our bus descended upon Budva I was drawn to the beauty of the beaches and the water. I got off the bus and walked through town out towards the beach. I’m not sure what the temperature was that day, but it was definitely the warmest temperature I had felt since September back in the U.S. I hung out at the beach for a little while soaking up the sun and then headed back to the bus stop to continue my journey to Kotor.
I arrived in Kotor and walked through town until I reached the entrance to begin the ascent up the fortifications of Kotor. It was a pretty good hike that provided great views of the small town below and the beautiful landscape in which it is situated. Once I had reached the top I began to head down and took a little detour back into the hills to a little village with a shop selling ham, cheese and rakia. Unfortunately the ham was sold in larger quantities than I was looking to purchase, but I did have a nice large chunk of really delicious cheese with some bread and a couple shots of rakia, with the owner of the little shop joining me on my second shot. He had quoted me three euro on the cheese, two euro for each shot of rakia, and hadn’t told me any price for the bread. I gave him a ten euro note and he gave me three euro and one Argentinean peso as change. So, apparently the bread cost negative one Argentinean peso.
One of my nights in town I went out to eat at a nice bar in town that had been recommended to me by one of the hostel workers. I sat at the bar and ordered a drink when I got there and then after perusing the menu I ordered a chicken ciabatta sandwich. The sandwich came with fries, a side salad, and three different dipping sauces. The meal was really good, and while eating I decided that when the bartender came back over to check on me I would order another drink. By the end of my meal though he had not checked on me yet so then I decided to make it a kind of game. If the bartender asked me if I wanted another drink before I decided the good music was losing out to the smoke in the bar I would order a second drink. If not I would save the money. I had finished eating after being at the bar about an hour and remained there for another hour afterwards without getting asked once if I wanted a second drink. They even came over and cleared my plate away without asking if I wanted something else to drink. It was super weird. It would have been such an easy up sell but they just neglected it. Bizarre.
Breakfast at the hostel alternated every other day. Half of my mornings there we had burek (a flaky dough with filling) with cheese and spinach and the rest of the time we had three sweet pastries with different fruit filling and a couple little cheesy pastries. Accompanying that we always had yogurt drink and lemonade and of course I always had some tea as well. On my first night in the hostel the guy working there offered me several pieces of what he called prosciutto. It was very different from what I commonly think of as prosciutto however. If I were going to give it a name I would call it jerky. Really delicious jerky.
The most delectable meals that I had in Podgorica were at a restaurant by the clock tower. I ate there my first and last night in town and would have eaten there the other two nights as well if I weren’t on a budget. Not that it was expensive, it was really quite a great deal, but there were even cheaper options available. My first time there I ordered the popeci, which was similar to the pork roll (uvijac) that I had in Skopje, except the cheese wrapped in meat was then breaded and fried. Scrum-didily-umptous. The popeci came with fries and I also ordered a tomato and cheese salad, which wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be although I shouldn’t have been surprised because the description was very accurate. It was a bunch of tomato slices topped with shredded cheese. No complaints. It was delicious. I was also brought a big loaf of bread and olive oil and I alternated dipping my bread in the olive oil and in the red wine vinegar that was on the table. On my second visit I ordered the soup of the day, which was a simple but yummy vegetable soup. I also got a shopska salad (take my salad from yesterday dice up the tomatoes more, add cucumber and serve it in a bowl rather than on a plate). Then of course I got another loaf of bread and some chicken smothered in a four-cheese sauce and served with fries. Food is wonderful.
My hostel was really mellow my first night but filled up more and more with each night I stayed. At first it was just one other guy and I in our six bed dorm. The next night there were three of us. The third night we were five. The morning of my final night I thought it might end up just being me as all of the other guest departed that morning but I was very wrong. My room was completely full that final night. There were seven people in the ten bed dorm, and two private rooms were occupied. This led to a stroke of good fortune for me when while talking to one of the hostel workers the next morning about taking the bus to Dubrovnik that afternoon, one of the Polish girls who had been in my room the night before mention that her and her two friends were heading back to Dubrovnik that day and asked if I would like to ride with them in their rental car. I weighed my options. A crowded bus or a car with three cute Polish girls. I made my decision pretty quickly. We departed shortly after breakfast but before actually leaving Podgorica we stopped at the nearby shopping center for almost two hours. The girls went off clothes shopping and I searched around for a new pocket notebook as mine was falling apart, but failed to find one I like. Fortunately, I came across one of the Polish girls who had grown bored of shopping and we went and got a drink and chatted until it was time to meet back at the car. Then we were back on the road.
Love you dan…
Love you too Mayhew…