Montenegro

Podgorica

August 20-21st 2008

A Thriving Metropolis!

Day 1

My solo trip in August started in Stuttgart. I took a train to Dusseldorf to catch a flight to Montenegro. While in Dusseldorf I visited with some old coworkers before my flight, since it wasn’t until after 3pm. At the airport I checked in and headed to my gate. The flight was only a few minutes behind schedule and we landed in Belgrade on time. I didn’t have my boarding pass for the connecting flight yet and I was a little worried about how to get it. Then I found a ticket counter, without having to leave security and go through again. Then I proceeded to my gate with 10 minutes to spare. The plane to Podgorica was a little propeller plane, holding maybe 60 people. The flight was short and we were in Montenegro in no time. It was about 10pm when I finally left the airport to get a taxi. I had to wait 10 minutes before the taxi would take me to my hotel, which was odd since he was just standing there smoking! The taxi ride was 15 Euros, and inexpensive considering the ride was like 25 minutes! My hotel was really nice and I was glad to finally be there. I watched TV and went to bed around midnight.

Day 2

I woke up earlier than I wanted to. I watched TV for a while, and then went down to eat breakfast. Breakfast was surprisingly good. It was a typical cold buffet in Europe with bread, boiled eggs, cold meats, cheese and jam. But they also had fruit and juice! Well, after eating I took a shower and slowly got ready for the day. I didn’t have to check out until 12 and I wanted to stretch it as long as possible. I checked out, paid and ordered a taxi. I had to wait for 15 minutes for the taxi so I chatted with the front desk guy. My taxi took me through downtown to the bus station and I bought my ticket to Sarajevo. I had time to kill so I went out to explore the city. It wasn’t really a city to explore; I can tell you that, there were no sights. After a few hours of not seeing much and carrying my bag around I had had enough of Podgorica! So I went to the train station, had some lunch and read my book until the bus came. The bus ride was nice. Montenegro’s country side reminded me a lot of Macedonia and Kosovo’s, a few trees here and there, with sprawling hills. But Montenegro’s was better because we drove around a beautiful lake for 30 minutes, and it was great. After the lake we were in Bosnia, so for more about the trip, read my next post!

Montenegro was a 2.5. I'm sure the coast of Montenegro is amazing, but since I only saw Podgorica and country side I have to give it a 2.5. The 2 is for the city and I added the .5 for the lake!!