30 June 2009
The day broke bright and early, just how I dislike them. But the game was on to catch the 8.15 bus out of Sarajevo to Podgorica. I decided to head that way as I didn’t want to pass through Serbia on my way to Kosovo. God only knows what they would have thought of me then considering how non-user friendly the border patrol was the first time round. It was a long bus ride and I slept and read off and on. I managed to snap some nice photos along the way that I’ll get up as soon as I can.
Rolling into Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro for those that don’t know, I put my back in left luggage and proceeded to explore. Knowing just about nothing of the city made it all the more fun. I had heard talk that it isn’t all that grand of a town and there’s nothing to see there. But I beg to differ. I found several friendly people there who were happy to share a laugh and give some advice and the city wasn’t all that bad itself.
It’s certainly not a tourist haven like Dubrovnik but I got a really good vibe from it and even the police officer that I spoke with briefly was friendly in the ‘we don’t speak the same language’ way. He just wanted to make sure that I didn’t snap photos of the Montenegran Government building, or him as he was the boss and it wouldn’t seem professional for us to have a photo together. Fair enough I said and moseyed on my way.
The city certainly is not a tourist trap but like I said it was cool and I’m glad I stopped in nonetheless. I’ve got a stack of photos that I nabbed including the ruins of a Turkish fortress and how the inhabitants of the city have decided to use it to their advantage. I’ll get those up later as well.
The city was so forward thinking they even supplied me with some free Wi-Fi while I was there and my waiter at Carina was more than happy to chat in between serving others and give me a quick lowdown on the town. He mentioned that I needed to go to Cetinje which I said I would certainly do.
But first I had to get to the bus station and catch my long overnight bus to Priština, the capital of Kosovo with promises that I would return and check out the rest of Montenegro soon…