May 29th cont’d..,.,

 We’ve arrived in Podgorica, Montenegro after a pretty long bus ride but it was a really pretty trip along the coast so that helped the time pass more quickly.  Crossing the border into Montenegro was pretty quick too.  We just had to wait for the bus in front of us and then when it was our turn everyone had to get off the bus, go one by one up to the customs window (this is Croatian customs by the way-as we’re leaving the country you have to check out).  Once passports were stamped at this window it was a short walk across the border (just a couple hundred yards) to the next customs window where once again passports were stamped.  This time it was the Montenegrin customs officers checking us into the country.

The coast of Montenegro is pretty but honestly, I did’t see anywhere that called me to stay there.  The beaches are small and rocky (that seems to be the norm everywhere here) and there are way too many people!  Everything is crowded….houses are crowded in on top of one another…..cars are crowded onto narrow streets…..hills are everywhere so there is no sense of space….and even on the beaches it is row upon row of lounge chairs all crowded in together.  People had encouraged us to stop in Kotor Bay and Budva as they were considered beautiful places to see/stop/stay.  Driving through them on the bus I honestly feel like we got the best deal….we got to see it (because yes…it is very pretty) but we didn’t have to suffer the crowds or pay the very high prices.  So far everywhere is a little more expensive than we were hoping for but we’re doing pretty well (most of the time) with sticking to the $100/day budget on average.  Lunches like the $60 sandwich in Dubrovnik a couple days ago don’t help the budget!

Tonight in Podgorica, Montenegro we are back on track.  Our accommodation (right in the centre of the city) is $70/night ($35 each) and we hit the grocery store right under our apartment for some gorgeous fresh bread, cheese and meat (with beer to wash it down and cookies for dessert too of course) for another $10 each.  Add to that the bus tickets at about $50 each and you can see we are just under the wire for today….well actually, I forgot there was also the taxi driver and he was $5 each so I guess we are exactly on budget today.  😆  We are hoping that as we move into Albania and then North Macedonia prices will come down even a little more which will help offset those few days where we kind of ‘blew it’.  LOL

I must mention something that happened today on the bus.  Once we left Budva (the last coastal city we went through) we realized we were the only two people left on the bus!  Yes….that’s right, we had our very own private bus and it was a nice one too.  We continued on that way for the next couple of hours in our private bus.  

The roads here are incredibly winding and hilly for the most part so no one goes very fast on them.  We might only travel 150 km but it takes us 3 hours to do it!  Olive trees and fig trees and orange trees grow everywhere!  When they’re all ripe it must be quite a job dealing with all that product!  Although it might be only the olive trees that are processed.  The figs seem to grow wild in the ditches and out of the side of mountains.  The oranges are mostly in peoples yards from what I can see.

We are here in Podgorica for two nights and are kind of excited about it as we have a full two bedroom apartment complete with washing machine and a line to hang the clothes out on tomorrow while we explore the city.  Two nights is so much better than just one as it gives you at least one full day in a place.  The only time we’ve done just one night has been when we’re in transit from A to B and just wanting to reduce the time spent on a bus by breaking the travel into two days.  The only downside to our apartment here is that once again there are stairs.  This time we are on the second floor and while that might not sound too bad….there are 46 stairs to get to the second floor!  In Europe the 2nd floor is really more like what I’d call the third floor!  LOL

We’re at about the half way mark of our trip and we still have a lot of map to cover but we’re feeling pretty confident that we will be able to fit it all in.  It’s hard to believe we’ve been doing this for a month already!  

Time to get that wash in so will say goodbye for today one more time.

Lorrie and Lynda

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