Down the Montenegrin "riviera"
Trip Start
Apr 08, 2007
1
69
144
Trip End
Oct 01, 2007
Budva,
Serbia and Montenegro
Saturday, June 23, 2007
I didn't have the best of introductions to the place this morning. My bus in from Kotor didn't bother with a stop at Budva's station, so I had to jump up and ask the driver what was going on as we got towards the end of town. I noticed the same thing happened yesterday on the bus to Cetinje - just a couple brief halts along the main street through town - so fortunately I was a little clued in. Even still, I ended up having to get off the bus on the wrong side of town in terms of practicalities
01: Heading to the beach
. Luckily there were a couple young Serbian guys in the same situation right where I descended, so we got to work on finding the bus station together. Typically enough, we were a good couple kilometers from it, so we had to settle on a taxi.The taxi driver they wound up flagging down seemed questionable from the start. Five Euros for a brief trip across a tiny town seemed a little out of the ordinary, but the Serb guys didn't blink. Then the loudmouth driver asks me where I'm from after I protested about the perceived rip-off. Boy, did the crap start flying then. Some of the highlights of this shrill monkey's rant:
"America? Oh . . . good country . . . good for NOTHING! America cause all world's problems. Since 1945 America start 200 wars around the world. Only people worse are the Jewish. And the English! They cause all the problems. America is controlled by England."
Funny, the English usually joke about it being vice versa. Then, after my replying to his question on where I was going next (i.e. to Ulcinj and then Albania):
"Ohh, to your friends! Albanians! The most dangerous people in Europe. Albanians - they'll rob you of anything they can touch. 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
02: Small boat on the water
. The nicer side of Budva came out at the bus station, where a friendly 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 take very long, really. The beach seems to be where all the action is, though it's light on sand and heavy on pebbles. Not the finest strand I've seen, but it doesn't seem to bother the tourists. The old town itself is somewhat of a junior Dubrovnik, fortunately with far smaller crowds. It's picturesque enough, but it all feels a little artificial. Apparently it was nearly obliterated in a 1979 earthquake, so it's understandable that it doesn't feel so old. But the kicker is the reality that no one actually lives there - it's all souvenir shops, boutiques and loads of restaurants. Oh, and with a couple museums chucked in for free.
All the same though, it was a fairly enjoyable day. The fortress in the walled Stari Grad had a fascinating old library full of vintage, turn-of-the-century books on the Balkans. A few of the ones they had were ones I'd heard of and wanted to read for years. Too bad they were all locked up behind glass! Once I'd finished exploring the place, I decided to look for a proper view over it
03: Old town of Budva in the distance
. It basically resulted in a lot of sweat and spent energy for rather incomplete views. The one promising place that I saw from below turned out to be an inaccessible batch of private apartments meant for tourists to rent. Rather disappointing.I've got two nights here, so I'll probably look a little further down the coast for the day tomorrow. The formerly posh resort island of Sveti Stefan is only a few kilometers away and then the industrial port of Bar is not too much further beyond that. Bar itself is supposed to be a largely Communist place architecturally, but there's apparently an interesting old town lying in ruins on the outskirts. While I'm in the area, I figure I should see as much as I can. Then on Monday it's off for the Albanian frontier. We'll see if the sun stays as intense down there (or worse).
