Europe Trip Part 2 - Montenegro and Croatia

Getting There -

Traveling by bus in Eastern Europe is.....interesting. We took a bus from Berat to Tirana. We spent the night in Tirana and took a mini-bus (aka "Fergon" in Albanian) from Tirana to somewhere else in Albania....I can't remember now where we stopped. Scodra? No, that's not it. Whatever, most of you wouldn't know where it is anyway. Then we took a taxi through the border and another bus to get to Budva in Montenegro. I think that's all accurate information, although it all seems to be blurring together right now. So, yeah....the buses are pretty darn crappy and most of the bus drivers smell rather unpleasant. I think it's a requirement to beep your horn at least every 30 seconds and our bus-drivers abided by this protocol easily, as well as yelling out windows and occasionally driving less-than cautious. This was not too much of a shocker for me, as being in Jordan broke me in. Safe driving is not stressed there AT ALL.


Budva, Montenegro -

I liked Budva. It's a beach town, not a big tourist area (at least not compared to Dubrovnik and Italy), and had a casual, chill vibe to it. We stopped in Budva on the way to Croatia and on the way back to Albania. We stayed in a hostel there (we had a private room) that was run by some cool Americans. Budva has a quaint old-city that was very beautiful and a nice boardwalk with lots of shops. The beach was pretty, although somewhat rocky. I was a bit lame about the rocks, as they really seem to hurt my feet. I was also kinda lame about getting into the not-quite-warm water (sorry James). Some things that stuck out in Budva: Riding on a carny-ride that made me quite nausiated afterward, chilling on the beach, trying to ask a waitress if the hamburger was made out of pig (her English wasn't good and she said "Yes, it is big." and then proceeded to tell me how many grams it was), and our bus having to turn around when we tried to leave because the only road out of Budva going South was under construction.


Dubrovnik, Croatia -

Dubrovnik is very pretty. The old town is quite grandiose and stately and the gelato is very yummy. We stayed at a "sobe," which is just a room for rent in a person's house. This is quite common there and the lady we stayed with, Luka, had three rooms that she would rent out to tourists. We would eat cookies and drink tea (or, in James' case, capuccino) before heading out to explore the old city. We were able to go to the beach on one of the days, but the other days were cloudy and rainy, so we mostly went sight-seeing. We also ate at a Mexican restaurant there, which I thought was pretty funny. It was a very good attempt at Mexican food, but of course, not exactly right. Things that stuck out in Dubrovnik: The beautiful scenery, how sweet Luka was to me, mint-chocolate-chip gelato, big supermarkets (James was really excited by this, as Albania does not have these) and the really cool architecture of the old city.

And then our next stop was Tirana, Alabania, where President Bush made us worry about my departure plans, part 3 of the Europe trip story....