Bar, Montenegro

Early morning again. Last night I had checked into a homestay in Trebinje, Bosnia & Herzegovina. Today I was going to continue my hitchhiking, this time to Montenegro. When I open the door going out from my bedroom the homestay woman is sitting there watching TV quietly, not to disturb me.

I take a shower and she offers me a coffee which she has put on the balcony, with a view over the surrounding mountains. The coffee is not the best I have had but the balcony is very relaxing.

After the coffee I work for a short time and then sets off. First I walk to see the free outdoor “pool” which I missed yesterday, then into town walking quickly through the old town followed by a breakfast near the river and finally a coffee in a bar before heading out of town.

There is no shadow but I get a ride rather quickly in a van with two Albanians. They do not know if they are going to pass Montenegro, or even which country they are currently in, probably because they are using a GPS. In the van they have a sauna from Estonia which the driver is going to install in his home in Albania.

He has driven for 35 hours straight without any sleep when he picks me up, as the other man has no driving license. I help them to find the border, and we get stopped 3 times in the security before entering Montenegro.

Every time we get stopped the man not driving gets really nervous and keeps repeating “oh fuck” while the driver is out of the car, “fixing” the problem. The border controllers all wants money, the driver says he has a lot on him, just the amount which is legal to take in, but he does not bribe the controllers but instead threat/fight with them until they give up.

We finally drive on and the drivers friend falls back and forth into sleep, but the driver still seems very awake but without any idea about which city we are in or how far it is to their destination. They let me go 10 kilometers away from my destination, the city of Bar, which I know they will pass but there are some misunderstanding or they want to get rid of me.

Once again stopped in the border control

Passing by beautiful but over crowded beached

A ferry taking us to the other side of a lake

Euro ice cream. Montenegro use Euro as currency although they are not in the European Union.

I start walking but manage to get a ride with a man who first wants money (private taxi is common in Montenegro) but then agrees to drive me for free. He drive through Bar and drops me off in the east side of the city.

Bar, which I saw on my picture of Google Maps and decided to stay in because it is near the Albanian border, seems at my first impression not to be that nice at all. Having no idea about the layout of the city I start walking in one direction which leads to a harbor. I walk through it, finds an ATM and then sits down in a restaurant for some local food. The restaurant have WIFI so I check for accommodation in Bar but no results come up.

After my lunch I walk to the beach which the restaurant lady have told me is near, and there get a tip on where to go from one of the street sellers. I find the area and walks around asking for a room before finally finding one for 10 euro with balcony and internet.

When checking in with my passport I joke with the girl about how horrible I look at my passport picture. Her answer is “Yes, what is this?” instead of the common polite answer.

After a shower to cool down followed by a short time for relaxation I walk down for a swim in the ocean just in time for the sunset. Then I walk back to the hotel/pension for their 3½ euro dinner, which is the same price as you get an omelet for at the sea side. At the hotel I start talking to one guy working there and finally goes to bed a bit later than planned.

Lunch