Budva - Day 1

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We got through the border with no problem and immediately saw the economical differences between Albania and Montenegro, Montenegro reminding me more of the Algarve in Portugal, there were far more "real" buildings than there were in Albania and a damn sight more shiny cars. We were dumped on the side of the road and after counting up our left over euros from italy (7.70) we hopped into a taxi to take us to our hostel as we had no idea where we were....

... apparently the taxi driver didn't either as he left us, up the right road, and said hostel there, pointing nowhere in particular. We were pointed in the right direction by a lady in a supermarket and walked into our Hippo hostel through the courtyard covered in grapevines to find reception.

Nadia, a russian girl, running the hostel with her American Husband got us settled in and soon after we took our few euros to the shop to find some bread to have soemthing to eat. We sat in the courtyard with Duke (a 30 year old american traveler whose stories are second to none) and he filled us in on life in Montenegro before we wandered off in search of the supermarket and cash point.

We wandered along the shore taking in the beautiful clear seas and men insistent on wearing too tight speedos with bellies protruding over the top (why their girlfriends/wives/friends/strangers that spoke their language, didn't suggest a more covering outfit is truly beyond me.)

We sat on the beach for a while before heading back to the hostel where I was introduced to Ring of Fire/Circle of death/ king of beers, and the genius positioning of the hostel (the beer shop (30p) being closer to us than the hostel fridge). We had a great evening creating an international version of the game and learning the names of the fellow players by their parents of the opposite sex's name, I still only know a few of the guys names as Helen or Sandy.

The night ended with I have never (finding out all sorts about our fellow hostelers) before we were told we were too noisy (and had broken far too many bottles) and that we should head out for the night. We went to a ship bar and danced there for a while before some of us decided we were tired enough and headed back up to the hostel to sleep.

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