Don't Get In Cars With Strangers

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We are getting quite good at getting up when circumstances require it. We left the hotel and all too easily found the correct bus to Shkroder despite the numerous spellings of the name. The journey was forty minutes shorter than expected and we arrived in Shkoder prepared for a struggle. As we stepped off our minibus we were instantaneously confronted by a guy asking if we were heading to Ulcinj. He gave us a reasonable price and we followed him towards his minibus (or so we thought.) He stopped at an old fashioned Mercedes and we looked at each other, shrugged and got in. A hasty discussion later and we agreed that it was safe and a very good way to get there faster than we had initially intended. The driver was an eccentric older male who spoke no English, a few words of German and had a strange fixation on my notepad and pen. The drive was fun partly because the scenery was beautiful and partly because our driver beeped and got agitated with everything in his path from people to sheep. The border crossing was easy, probably due in part to our driver who knew every border guard and shook their hands before driving away.

We got to Ulcinj easily however it wasn't too easy to get rid of our driver. We pulled up at the bus station and he insisted on writing and rewriting prices in my notebook to different destinations on the Montenegrin coast. We finally got rid of him by feeding him some cock and bull story about wanting to sleep a night in Ulcinj. We walked out of the bus station and sat down on our backpacks and pretended to be immensely engrossed in our guidebook until he drove away.

We found that there was only half an hour to wait until the next bus to Bar. We didn't have any Euros and were both very hungry. We nipped into the centre and got money and then found a Fornetti. A bag of yummy goodness later and we got on the oldest, least cared for bus ever.

We arrived in Bar much earlier than we had anticipated and even saw it in daylight before the sun set. We looked for Tourist Information which we found but it turned out to be next to useless. We had previously written a list of private rooms down and decided they were probably our best course of action. Most phones in Montenegro are operated by phone cards and so we needed to use the phone at the post office. We tried room after room and there was either no answer or they answered but couldn't or wouldn't speak a word of English or German. We started to get slightly worried because it was dark and the only hotels we knew about were five stars and way beyond our affordability. We tried asking the staff and whilst they were useless, a guy waiting in line helped us out. His friend worked in a hotel down the road which he drove us to. It was expensive at €37 but there were very few options left for us. Hotel Sidro was basic and with surly staff it was amongst our least favourite hotels.

We were both very hungry after nothing but Fornetti to last us the day. We nipped to the supermarket to grab some supplies and drool over the very cheap alcohol which we refrained from buying. Eateries were pretty much limited to pizza so you can guess what we ate. We went to a very cozy pizza pub and shared a pizza and vegetable dish. We had already spent plenty of time walking around Bar earlier in the day and therefore did not feel like an evening stroll around it. Instead we headed back to the hotel and put the TV and heating on and both had long showers. We figured we may as well get as much for our money as we could. We are now just going to read awhile before sleeping. Night night. Stob.

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Photos

Slag
Kugla Squeezes balls ...obviously on a menu

Comments

[Brian]

Savings
Hi Stob Just think what you saved on your obviously illegal taxi you paid for your expensive hotel ,so all works out in the end

[mum]

pizza
3 CHEERS FOR PIZZA!!!!!