Hotel Tara Budva

... 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.

... its walls, which is much less impressive than Kotor’s, before going to the beach and swam under the fading sun. The seafood dinner that followed was expensive (30 euro) and not quite satisfactory. May be I should seriously consider not trying any seafood dishes in this region anymore: the ways they are cooked (grilled or fried), are no match to steam fish or sushi.

... stores we often visited were Daffy's and Macy's in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. I vividly remember the Republika Srpska diplomatic contact to the Hague court in the Netherlands visiting. Me, Darko, he whose name was Dan in English, along with my daughter little Jill went to Macy's at the Willow brook Mall in Wayne NJ allowing Dan to buy some gifts for his girlfriend back in Bosnia. Afterwards, we all enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Six Brothers Diner on Route 46 not to far from ...

... had a nice walled old town, but rathe than being set on the coast, this place is by the side of a big lake / fjord. The highlight was climbing a load of steps to a fortification on the top. Even the torrential downpour didnt ruin things as halfway down the mountain we took shelter in a church and played cards with the two ozzies that we met the day before. Back to Budva and a quiet night in watching the football.

... tent. You couldn't design a more effective sun trap than our home for the past 5 weeks. To limit the pool of sweat we inevitably wake up in we camp under the sanctuary of tree branches, which unfortunately leads to a running battle with the ants. Sometimes we foil their persistent attempts to sleep in our sleeping bags, but often we leave a breadcrumb/ apple core/ rice/ devoured chicken leg in the vicinity and half the set of a bugs life shares our home. Being able to unpack ...

... and visiting the Farmer's Market while I waited for some sunshine. Once I decided that the skies would clear it was still an hour before the bus (every 30 minutes!) arrived. I went back to Jaz Beach where the water was very rough. After 4 pm the skies had cleared and I ventured in for a swim that was quite challenging. I stayed late at the beach before heading back to the promenade and some mushroom pizza that was pretty good. 8/11 I will spare you the horrendous details ...

... I know a German guy who went there. They took everything he owned." Yeah, this guy was a real piece of work. I basically ignored him the whole ride and the Serbian guys in the back seat just shook their heads and laughed at the ass he made of himself. How simple the world's problems are when you have a good scapegoat and no real solutions. Apart from that though, it's been a decent day. The nicer side of Budva came out at the bus station, where a ...

... out to the island just off the coast by Dubrovnik, the city and surrounding geography are strikingly similar to Budva in Montenegro, I had the joy of charging up a very long path towards a fort that was built by French soldiers during the Napoleonic War. Just so, as we wandered around St. Nicholas Island off the coast of Montenegro, I was very happy when we came across the old church Daniel had told me about. Apparently, the church was built to ...

... We figured at least some of these people were waiting for the same bus we were, so we had no choice but to wait with them, for as long as it took. Eventually a minibus showed up, and forty minutes later we found ourselves back in Budva. The skies were still quite grey, and given that it was early February it was hardly surprising that hotels, cafes and restaurants along the beach were empty. However we didn't come to see the resort strip, but rather Budva's Stari Grad ...

... was quite a scene [Lynne: these people were jumping off huge rocks, very high above the water. It was quite a site]. All in all, I rank the wall as one of my favorite walls in all of traveldom. I place it firmly in third place, just behind a pair of other walls: Israel's Western/Wailing and China's Great, respectively. And ahead of Fenway's Green Monster, which checks in at number four. We had a peculiar and intriguing sighting about halfway through our walk around the wall ...