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Last stop in Montenegro
Entry 65 of 129 | show all | print this entry |
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Down to the final leg off my jaunt through Montenegro, and I'm now sitting in the small semi-resort town of Ulcinj. It's situated only about 20km in from the Albanian border, but from the looks of things and the population itself it might as well be Albania. Mosques are suddenly dotting the landscape, fewer people around are speaking Serbian to each other, and the signs are typically bilingual or just in Albanian. Apparently 90% of Ulcinj's population is Albanian - the city was annexed by Montenegro back in the early 20th century and it's stayed here ever since. Allegedly the Montenegrins planned on taking Shkodra as well, but the international community was already pretty unhappy with their first swipe of Albanian territory.
My guidebook makes Ulcinj sound pretty attractive, but having walked around across the afternoon, I can't say there's a whole lot here. As I mentioned before, the place got rocked by the 1979, and it was evidently the old town that got hit the hardest. Oddly enough, they still haven't finished repairing the place. While mildly interesting, the area seems completely forgotten and large piles of rocks and rubble line a number of streets. I didn't see a single other tourist while walking around it, although the beach across the way was packed to the gills with people. It looks like the residents are just waiting on a Renaissance, probably expecting the increasing flood of tourists and property-seekers common in other coastal resorts of Montenegro to eventually trickle down here. There are a number of new, pretty spic-and-span restaurants on the sea side of the old town - perfectly prime locations with views of the beach - but not a customer in sight. Really a bizarre situation.
I managed to cut up the bottom of my right big toe pretty badly on the way down to the beach afterwards, so I didn't spend too much time watching the merrymakers. Not sure exactly how I managed it, but obviously I tagged a nicely sharp rock at just the right angle while walking down the steps. It's funny how wounds can be though - I thought I'd just stubbed it (as I frequently do), until I looked down a minute later and saw blood all over my sandals. Yuck. Fortunately I was able to hobble over to a beachside fountain and wash out all the grit that lodged itself in there, and then tracked down some (pretty crummy) band-aids at a local market. All fixed . . . well, basically.
There quite conveniently happened to be a pretty cheap hotel located right by the bus station, so it didn't take too much slogging about in the heat to get situated. Judging from the people hanging around in some of the rooms, it seems like a popular place for transient locals. In any case, the room has AC and a private shower, so that's all I need. At €20 for a night, it's pricier than either Budva or Kotor, but still decent. More conveniently though, the owner has also lined up a seat for me on an onward furgon (minibus) to Shkodra departing at 6:30 tomorrow morning. It's about twice the price of the bus, but also twice as fast and, in any case, the selling point was the onboard AC. I've had enough of long rides in cramped buses with broken fans and temperatures equal to the outdoors. I'm not sure if I'll be able to manage the same throughout relatively underdeveloped Albania, but at least it's a good start.
Shkodra doesn't seem to have much going for it in terms of attractions, so I'm making a beeline for Tirana once I get in and pull out some lek (the local currency). I just booked a couple nights in the one existing hostel there; while I'm never an enormous fan of the dorms, I figure it's about time to get connected with some other travelers and have access to some info about getting to and fro. From what I've heard, the biggest trick to Albania is figuring out the constantly fluctuating transportation network of furgons and buses, whose starting points tend to change with the phases of the moon. Having an easy start should help me get my bearings so I don't end up wandering around the suburbs looking for the right parking lot.
Anyhow, it should be interesting to see. After tonight it's farewell to the Slavs for a bit. More thumbnails ...
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