Hodzic Ulcinj

... and wool blankets. So we all got to sleep during the ride. (Well, Andre and the two guys got to sleep.) The train was really loud for some reason (between the tunnels we went through and the loud rail itself) so I didn’t get to much sleep. Also, we got woken up by police once at the Montenegro border for customs and then twice more at the Serbian border for passport checks and visa stamps and customs. It was a long night.

... pine forest. It's got more of Asian/Muslim feeling to it than any town in Montenegro. <br><br>To see my photos from Montenegro please click here:<br>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =cHWEG5CfyFU<br><br>To read more about Montenegro please see this link:<br>http://wikitravel.org/en/Monte negro

Today was a traveling day as it would take the entire day to traverse the 150 kilometers by public transport. As previously arranged with my new French friends, I caught an early bus to Bar, to find that there are no buses to Ulcinj until 2 hours after our arranged time. So I split the cab fare with 2 other Albanians who were able to negotiate a decent price. After we dropped them off, I asked to be dropped off at the Velika Plaza 2 km further (appropriately named "Big Beach" as it ...

... times from last year. Not much has changed. The taxi driver said that it had not rained in 70 days so the city wasn't as green as last year. The non-stop bus to Ulcinj was full so I had to break the trip up and just do individual segments that would get me there. I had read about what a nice beach town Ulcinj was and I entertained thoughts of going to Albania since Ulcinj is on the border. My first full bus went to the busy beach town of Herceg Novi ...

... driver exhibiting a nationalist chauvinism you come across often in the Balkans ranted loudly at the time. Albanian car? ALBANIAN CAR?!!! A year ago Albanian car was HORSE, not ****IN' RANGE ROVER!" In Albania, this still rings true for many though and I saw lots of horses gamely pulling carts laden down with tethered calves or untethered herds of children. Breakfast in Shkodra is a very sociable affair as long as you are male. The whole morning in the ...

... the city was annexed by Montenegro back in the early 20th century and it's stayed here ever since. Allegedly the Montenegrins planned on taking Shkodra as well, but the international community was already pretty unhappy with their first swipe of Albanian territory. My guidebook makes Ulcinj sound pretty attractive, but having walked around across the afternoon, I can't say there's a whole lot here. As I mentioned before, the place got rocked by the ...

... it now takes a little imagination to picture how it once was. It's an intriguing place to wander around, but if I had to do it again, I wouldn't choose to in summer. I can't think of the last time I've sweat so profusely, and the dusty environment of predominantly white stone and insect-ridden greenery didn't make it any more fun. Other than a group of (somewhat odd) Belgian tourists that were louder than many American tour groups, I had the place ...

... up broken stairs. That includes stoping, and doing embarrasing timer photos with people watching. There was a guy on the top of the mountain with an eski, genius. Selling drinks for double what they are worth. Then i realised no one else was around. It was jumping time. It was only me so i had to set the 10 second timer and try and jump at the right time. There were stuff ups! and there was a real good one i did at a bridge. A couple came up and just watched and ...

... Otherwise it's a cosy jumble of shuttered buildings and small but rotund churches with little signage or advertising to spoil the effect. The Citadel is hardly worth the $2 Euro investment, housing a small library and a collection of model ships (including The Mayflower, The Bounty and the USS Constitution amongst others) but the view over the ...

... in Mostar, home of a famous bridge which is now finally being rebuilt... As soon as we entered into Croatia all seemed to change...it was cleaner and the houses seemed to be more affluent...as soon as we hit the Adriatic I couldn't wait to just hit the waters...totally utterly blue everywhere is the only way I can describe it. Dubrovnik is set in the hills...and is an old medevil town with a massive walled old city on the rocks on the sea. We stayed with a guy whom the ...