Hotel Mediteran Budva

... smoker-friendly than the USA in general, but Montenegro was even more extreme than the other European countries we’d been to. Employees were smoking while working (including the train ticket lady), people would light up a cigarette right next to you without even thinking about consideration, and people on the train were even smoking (ignoring the no-smoking symbols). It was so weird and so terrible. I’m sure we smelt ...

... of the Adriatic when we actually got on top of the mountain! WOW. I really can't wait to go back! There were a ton of interesting looking monestaries on the way as well. Actually, I saw more monestaries yesterday then previously in my entire life. <br><br>The city we stopped in was Budva -- which is a nice enough town. It is full of tourists as it is one of Montenegro's premier tourist locations. It was quite incredible to walk through the old town and see what Budva ...

... You can't change the past so I diplomatically apologized and Darko soon forgot his anger I lieu of the fact that now we all could have lunch. Afterward, Darko brought us to a beautiful beach nearby. The majority of the sunbathers were ethnic Albanian and again no one harassed us based on our ethnicity. I tried pushing Darko into driving into Kosovo but he flatly refused. I found it interesting that the international news at this time was reporting that there were hundreds of ...

... had doubled in the last six months, especially after the complete renovation for only $8000. It had a great view of the lit-up mountainside. We enjoyed some home-cooked spaghetti, cheese and wine like true Spaniards (though Tony is only token Spanish since he moved from Arizona a decade ago to open up a restaurant in the Pyrenees). After some good conversation and look into Kotor real estate, I hopped on the bus back to Budva.

... Jaz Beach is where the Rolling Stones had their concert on July 9th. There is a huge bay with a beach that ranges from rocks to tiny pebbles. There is no development around the bay which made it nice. I actually crabwalked into the water and got a decent swim in. The weather was perfect and there is just something therapeutic about swimming in the sunshine. There were lots of little fish but they were not all that colorful and the underwater scenery was just huge rocks. For ...

... backwater, but it doesn't take long to start finding a different side to it. Edging away from the near-derelict bus station, all of a sudden, beautiful villas and colorful houses start popping up along shady streets. Delving further, you eventually come across old Orthodox churches, palaces and even a royal residence designed like a fortress. For what's little more than an unassuming mountain town, there's an awful lot here. Cetinje's brief heyday lasted from 1878 ...

... the blue sea. There was no pain anywhere I had lived! But wait, what was that wet feeling on my left wrist? I began to panic as my extreme fear of sea snakes took a hold of my conscious. A snake had wrapped itself around my wrist! I was sure of it! I began to paddle up towards the surface as quickly as I could. As soon as I broke the surface I swung my left arm as hard as I could, hoping to free it of the snake. With dismay I watched as my nice Timex ...

... of a freak rainstorm. While settling at Hippo's I caught a glimpse of both Oski and matrushka dolls as it turned out that Dave and his Slavic bride Nadia who together ran the joint represented two of my favorite sets of folks: Cal alumni and people who laugh when I speak Russian. A what are the chances moment: we were the 3rd and 4th Cal alums to come by Hippo's in the past several months since the place had opened, all of being Engineering Physics majors. To complete ...

... Meanwhile, tables had cleared out inside, and we asked to move to one of them. Of course, the answer was "yes," but nothing was done to clear a table or move us in to one. We finished the prawns, continuing to inquire about that status of our transfer request, and continuing to get frustrating approval with no action. Finally, with the prawns consumed, we decided to make the move inside on our own, picking up our dishes, glasses, etc., and making our way inside. So we were ...

... working to become independent, though the process is slow.* Most of the tourists here in Budva are from other parts of Yugoslavia, there aren't a lot of westerners here, but it is hard to figure out why. It is completely modern, beautiful, and has amazing beaches. There is a charming, (though touristy,) walled old town right on the water. I read in Lonely Planet that it was actually just built in 1979 after the original old town was ruined in an earthquake ...