Monte Negro?

Trip Start Feb 16, 2009

Trip End Apr 16, 2009

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Where I stayed

Saki Apartman

(Budva hotels)

Flag of Montenegro Budva, Montenegro
Sunday, March 15, 2009

Somehow we make it of course, and soon we're down in the Montenegrin coastal city of Ulcinj at 5am. From here I'll go on to the town of Pudva, the center of the Macdedonian 'Riviera'. But first I enlist one of the local dogs to take me on a tour of downtown Ulcinj in the early morning hours to see what I'm missing- not much. At 7:00 my bus takes off up the coastline, through Bar toward Pudva. Me, I'm drifting in and out of consciousness after a night on the bus from hell. It almost feels like I'm back in Europe now, back from the hinterlands. Pudva itself is a construction site, building up faster even than Pristina, much of it Russian money they say, not surprising seeing the penchant for casinos. I'm not sure why I'm here, except that there was a hostel bookable online and I need a day's sleep after a night's travel. There is a 'stari grad', an old town here, with wall and all, just like the textbook model, built to withstand attack. Now they're just tourist attractions. Who says our lives haven't gotten better through the course of history? Many do, imagining some romantic past without the Romans, full of fairies and runes and Venus figurines that meant we all loved each other in a perfect state of natural bliss, uh huh

dark symmetry

.

I get a killer room for less than U$20, but I'm still cold. Seems in the more moderate climes they don't bother with heaters, and these concrete block apartments hold in the cold, nice in the summer but bad in the winter. I've never used an air conditioner for heat before, but... it works. Unfortunately there are no kitchen facilities and the town is a long walk. Hostels are pot luck. Even the computer room is down in the owner's living room and the TV doesn't work. What the Hell, it's only one night and they give me coffee and baklava on arrival, so I can't complain. They aren't getting rich off me either. He gives me books to read, including a travel book by Henry Rollins in which he's hanging with Black Sabbath during their reunion, mostly exclaiming, "Wow! This is so cool!" So now that I know that I'm a better writer than Henry Rollins, I feel somewhat better, though still cold. Will I have to go back to the mountains to find a room with heat so I won't freeze to death on the beach? It's tolerable, but I just can't get much work done trying to type under the covers, and that means you I'm talking about.

It looks like I will.