Saturday 28th August

 

28/08/04 Day 56 (on a rickety bus on a wobbly road.)

So Belgrade, in our opinion, was not really all that great, in fact, Serbia in general rates pretty low. The final straw was the train station breakfast - fat, oily disgusting, and being surrounded by smokers and begging children, only to escape onto a train that could have sustained an entire eco-system, for all we knew - seriously!!

But Montenegro?, a very different story. The train ride was long, but as we neared the end the dull Serbian plains progressed to rolling green hills - very Hampshire - the steep lush Valleys, and then, deeper into Montenegro, mountain ranges. The train line really is an awesome feat of engineering, hugging the cliff face, hundreds of metres above the valley bottom (and more sensible road) and quite possibly consisting of more tunnel than open track. The highlight was the gorge where the drop was so close and steep that cab emerging from a tunnel, felt like we'd driven straight off the edge and were flashing through the air! I tried to get some photos, but it was made a bit of a mission by the frequency of the tunnels which allowed you only the most tantalizing glimpses. Another interesting point concerning the tunnels: the small huts and 1 or 2 armed guards often positioned by the tracks, despite being thousands of meters up the cliff side and miles from the nearest habitation. Did not work out what they were for.

Things started badly in Bar as we found ourselves, for the first time, without money. But it turned out well after the ciplu-tso translator turned out to be a taxi driver and to be took us into town to an ATM. Another bonus from the wholeaffair: the necessity to make use of our HSBC backup plan. Unfortunately, having decided to "stay with the bags", I was left locked in the car while large-man followed Heather off, out of sight, to get the cash. In trying to rectify the situation as rapidly as possible I seriously endangered the integrity of my right big toe and rendered an ash tray completely beyond repair.

So we got our bus and whizzed up the coast at break-neck speeds as the moon rose over the Adriatic, our first sight since Dubj, 5 days earlier.

Things seemed to be going a bit pear-shaped when, on arrival in Budva, English-speaking bus info lady said she had no idea how two were ever going to find a room, it being far too late for tours and all the hotels being exclusive. Our initial fears were calmed almost immediately on leaving the station on discovery of a hotel for 20 E. It was with disbelief that we responded to the cry of an old woman in the next house, who provided us with a sparkling clean room, with balcony/veranda, for a mere $5 a night each!. The location, close to the bus station but an easy walk to town, turned out to be most suitable too.

Although I was ready to collapse into bed, Heather could think of nothing but her stomach, so we headed into town to find a Blackpool-style funfair beach atmosphere, with some excellent fast food outlets and a bustling loud-music playing, rubbish-strewn beach.

I will take my chance to comment on Budva now, and say that it is a most lovely place. The separation of classy restaurant & coffee old town, from fast-food and tacky & seafront was great and even the latter was not offensive due to the absolute lack of English. A very Balkan resort, and I hope it remains so. On top of that we met the info crowd the awesome mountain backdrop, not the split, ruined by the spray, and the beautiful guard old town, not, like Dubrovnik, ruined by thetourists (ie perhaps, a little bit too commercial - I would probably give the prize to Kotor for a quaint old town).

The day, for me, started badly and got worse - possibly the worst shower ever - dirty and a trickle of water, followed by the rain taken cafe breakfast just an argument about beggars, which continued with our day in Belgrade, combined to form my opinion that: I don't like Serbia. Their capital is uninteresting + smoggy, too many people smoke (way over half the population I'd say) and there are too many beggars. Everything is dirty. It was the train. And so I boarded the train in a bad mood, which worsened as we were joined by 4 other backpackers so we had no more to no spare to relax in. So the whole journey was spent in a still really in-between dozing sessions and reading sessions. I could never really get a good look out of the window because of the tunnels but I'm sure what Brian said was accurate. Ok so we knew that in Montenegro they use euros but we couldn't get any before arriving there so why don't all coach machines have foreign stations at them... Oops, wrong word but you get the idea! And why are toilets free in the ignuists? And I wish I could use dotgrot for putting an iron in the holder - there enough room for everyones bags so it's not like they need to discourage us from taking them - they're just out to make money from people. The bus from Bar to Budva was exmihating, packed as looking hungry, tired, busty, I reached the too and I too it the time, homeless teens melt on the adventure was mee thought even in the darkThank the lord for the lady who saved us! And considering we would have been happy to pay twice as much, I felt a little guilty. The film fair was great and I was attracted to the pancake stalls but drinking too much cola too fast had been a mistake and we retreated (came in the bags but it wouldn't all be like Blackpool.