Hotel Astoria Budva

Bar is a port town in Montenegro. It took us about 5 hours or so to get there by bus from Dubrovnik. The first thing we did was use the bathroom. Of course the station restrooms had holes in the floor for the toilets and little foot areas so you could squat down over the hole. I still don't understand how women are expected to pee that way. It’s so difficult- not to mention gross- at the same time. And, we had to pay for it ...

Well what can I stay, my day started off literally with a bang! At around 4:30 in the morning the guy in the bunk bed above me got out of bed to go to the toilet, I was half asleep and didnt really notice anything apart from that one of the beams in the bunk bed above me fell down on me. I was half asleep at the time so I didnt really take any notice of it at all. When the guy in the bunk came ...

... State University in New Jersey. I can't recall whether it was prior to vacationing in Budva or after, but close to the Beograd marketplace we visited the apartment of a Serbian basketball player and his disc jockey roommate (the walls of the apartment were covered with music CD's from around the world). It was a very impressive CD collection. He said he often spent time in Manhattan studying when not having to compete. I became increasingly sad during this time owing that in ...

... into perspective how small our tent was - neither of us could even sit up in it. the advantage to camping is the cheapness, however in Croatia campsites are run by large hotel chains charging extortionate amounts for the privilege of sleeping in their field. Dubrovnik cost us 13 pounds per person per night and this was the final straw. we said our goodbyes, and at 10pm that night we were wandering around Kotor with nowhere to stay. By the way camping solitudo Dubrovnik ...

... I became violently ill in the middle of the night. I don't think it was food poisoning, but more likely something like the Norwalk virus that often occurs on cruise ships. I have had the exact same experience 3 times before and I realize what it is just before it strikes. It is especially bad for me because I am unable to keep my medicine down so I have extremely bad nerve pain in addition to the other unspeakables. Between episodes I would try to sleep some but it was ...

... Montenegrin girl at the tourist office helped arrange some accommodation for me locally. Unlike in Kotor, this time I actually get a private room with AC and a TV. The first point is a critical score - I've been dying for a place to retreat to from the humidity at the end of the day. Now walking around in the sticky conditions all day isn't so intolerable. After cooling off in the hotel room, I went out to see what Budva has to offer. It didn't ...

... the cemetery where a number of Crusaders were laid to rest. My memory has grown foggy now, but I think they had caught the plague and so were not allowed to return to mainland, and were confined to the island where they eventually died. The graveyard was gone, though there was a clearing where it must surely have been. The church was old, but well maintained and as we inspected it, it became clear to us that the church had actually been ...

... had been completely rebuilt following an earthquake in 1979. The small laneways were filled with small boutique shops, restaurants and cafes, however the place felt like a ghost town, and in the 30 minutes we wandered around we must have seen no more than five or six other people. It sure was a far cry from Kotor! The place was very picturesque, but so much so that it seemed almost contrived, whereas Kotor's felt genuine and had real atmosphere. Perhaps it was the grey skies ...

Went for a 10 days holiday to Montenegro and Croatia with my friend Johnny Boy and Wilson, a guy I barely even knew. We drove 1700 km from Berlin to Budva, where we rented a flat with a huge terrasse on the top of the city. We stayed there 4 or 5 days and then moved to Makarska in Croatia for 3 or 4 days before going back ...

... down, I saw a black man walking through with a bit of an entourage and much fanfare. He was sporting crazy big hair, and a loud jacket with studs that said, "United States of America" across the back, with some sort of graphic. He carried US and Croatian flags, and in front of him were two tourists snapping photos, like the paparazzi. I was too slow to get a photo from above, and before long, the crew had moved on. Oh, on our way to the O.C., we saw a huge Carnival ship in the ...