Today we set out for the small country of Montenegro a couple of hours drive to the south. With only around 650,000 inhabitants it has a short Adriatic coastline that is a popular destination for cruise ships (over 400 each year visit) and all sorts of smaller craft!
We crossed the border with little difficulty, with the border policeman checking our passports on board the coach, and the once in the country we paused at a relic of a place for a super strong coffee served by the same chap who minutes before was washing cars and who had very bad attitude!
Back on the very rough road it became very obvious that Montenegro is light years behind Croatia and Slovenia! The houses and blocks of units were ancient and totally run down, the shops the same and so was everything else!
The coastline scenery was just as awesome as in Croatia and at the viewing places we stopped at everybody was snapping away wildly with cameras, but the rest of the place was just gruesome!
We stopped at the largest town on the coast - Kotor - and had a tour of the very well preserved old town, with all the little rooms being occupied by a variety of shops, cafes etc! Each square was full of restaurants who were doing their best to feed the hordes of cruise ship passengers! We had some bruschetta and a beer and then it was on to Budva for another old town walk and more of the same run down and dirty surrounds!
It was with great relief that we finally got back on the coach at around 4.30pm and headed back towards Dubrovnik! The four of us had had quite enough of Montenegro and were extremely pleased when we crossed the border and then drove back to our hotel!
So that experience was one to remember - a taste of just how this Eastern European country has fared after wars etc and a total lack of any money! They use the Euro as their currency after buying Deutschmarks from Germany (before the EU) and now the Euro to replace their ridiculously spiralling money that ended up having a 10,000,000 note!
Really you felt very sorry for them - glad I've seen it, but not a highlight of the trip!
On the way back Gasper unveiled his latest piece of shopping for us - beautiful local chocolates and 2 different types of grappa! One of the grappas was a strong brew the people drink all the time here - would have most likely powered the coach it was so strong! The other was made using walnuts and was very smooth! The tastings certainly brought some life to the mostly dozing crew, although quite a few of them declined the rough one!
Got back to the hotel quite late and when I got to our room I realised I had left my phone on the coach! Panic stations as they park the coaches a fair way from the hotel - found Gasper and luckily Micho was just cleaning the coach as Gasper rang him and he brought it back to me later in the evening! Phew! Lucky escape - won't be using the seat back pouch for my phone in future!
Later in the evening we had a lovely meal at our hotel restaurant overlooking the ocean!
So tomorrow we sadly leave the Adriatic Sea and head north to the Croatian capital Zagreb, for a 2 night stay to end our tour!