Travel update written 6/13

The Friday Adventure

Jetlag really got to us this morning. We woke up around 5:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep. Though that was definitely not the first of things that we were concerned with. We had to leave Durmitor and we hadn’t booked any hotels along the coast. So while we waited for breakfast to be served at 7:30 we got our things packed so we could get out of dodge at a moments notice. At breakfast we talked to the lady at the front desk and she gave us some advice on where to stay and told us that she would call the travel agency to get the ball rolling, the only thing we had to do was to make sure we caught the 11:25 bus to Podgorica. The ride down the mountain was just as fun as the ride up. A road filled with potholes, on coming traffic on a one lane road, and a bus that is almost flying down the mountain makes for an excited ride.

When we got to Podgorica we walked over to Lucky Tours which hooked us up with our hotel in Zabljak. The lady looked frazzled, apparently she had worked all day to get us a place to stay in Kotor and Dubrovnik with things not quite going to plan. She was unable to find us a room in Kotor so she had to book us a place in Budva and Dubrovnik she could find anything less than an apartment in the center of town. Of course MaryAnn and I were cool with both, the only thing is that I hadn’t looked up Budva when I researched Montenegro so I didn’t know what to expect when we got there. Well let me tell you coming in to Budva was jaw dropping. The bus is going though mountain valley after mountain valley that is covered in chaparral and all of a sudden we make a turn and we are on top of a mountain that drops about 1000 feet right in to the ocean with a city below with orange terra cotta roofs everywhere. To quote MaryAnn, “This what I came to Europe to see.” The 10 minute ride down was amazing as we went switch back down giving everyone a great view. When we finally got to the Budva bus station we had a car waiting for us to take us to the hotel. So with in 5 minutes of being in Budva we were on the patio for our room enjoying oceans view, though be it were pretty far back it was still an ocean view. So we throw down everything and make a B-line for the water and in the course of doing so we find Stari Grad, which is apparently Budva’s old walled city that is now filled with shops and restaurants in small alleyways with the Adriatic just on the other side. So after exploring for hour or two we finally have our first ‘dinner’ out and we went to town. Afterward walking down the now lit alleyways it give you the strong sense that you are Pirates of the Caribbean ride walking. After escaping into the wilderness in Durmitor we have definitely found the Europe we were looking for starting with Budva.

So today we move up the coast. We’ll have lunch in Kotor and end the evening at our apartment in Dubrovnik! You got to love this place.