Montenegro

New country for me... New country for all of us I suppose.

We arrived at Bar at about 2:30 in the afternoon. A very long trip indeed. The Albanians are probably actually Kosovans. They slept absolutely everywhere.
In every corner and corridor of the ship they just set up camp.

Getting off we had the same problem with the inability to queue. An incredibly tight squeeze down the stairs with everyone trying to get down at once.

The classic was when there were two stairways to take, one three metres further on and it was a struggle for the ship's personel to explain that one side was going to have to go an extra 3 metres and to have everyone going down the same stairway would be madness.

It turned out we'd already gone through immigration in Italy. I suppose that stops the problem of someone getting on and eventually being not wanted by either side and being stuck on the ship forever a la Orson Welles in Ferry to Macao.

We caught a taxi to Podgorica, the capital of Monte Negro. Next bus out was at half past ten in the evening so we had about five hours in which to see the city.

The view from the bridge in the middle of town. Looks ok but actually it probably is flattering. The town wasn't really this lush or impressive.


Admittedly it was a Sunday but it really did look dead. But then again it's only been a capital city for a few months. But still, it looks pretty poor.

Here's the proof that I was here. Me outside the Podgorica post office.






A fancy toilet for such a quite capital. In fact this public toilet is probably the most modern looking building in town. I think though that the tacky WC on the glass detracts from it a bit. I would have taken a photo of it during the day but I had no idea that these glass pyramids were public toilets.

I had intended to spend a night there but was not that displeased to have to leave after only a few hours.

The bus to Sarajevo was a bit of a torture trip. The bus was smaller than the ones you normally see make international trips and the seating was incredibly cramped.

I don't know how, but I did manage to drop off to sleep only to be woken up at the border crossing. One of the Koreans had a bit of trouble leaving Monte Negro and even more trouble getting into Bosnia. They took him to an office where he had to do some kind of test of Korean, to prove that he was actually Korean and not Chinese with a false passport.

The road from the border was horrendous. If another bus was coming the other way someone would have to back up till they found a spot to pass.

We finally made it but what a long trip!