The Dubrovnik – Podgorica, Montenegro bus journey was five hours without air conditioning, but still a beautiful drive. Podgorica turned out to be a cool city, even though we immediately regretted not spending the night in Budva instead. Oh yeah, and I was accused of espionage…
Read more of my classic trip report through the Balkans
Introduction: Road Trip Through The Balkans
Review: US Airways A330-300 Business Class Philadelphia To Munich
Balkans Day 1: Sick In Belgrade
Balkans Day 2: Belgrade – Sarajevo
Balkans Day 3: Sarajevo – Dubrovnik
Balkans Day 4: Beauitful Dubrovnik
We left around 10:00AM from Dubrovnik, catching a bus for $12. I’m sure we could have been more discerning in our bus selection, because this one did not have air conditioning. Although a warm day, the breeze with the windows open made the journey bearable.
And it was quite a beautiful journey, especially as we crossed into Montenegro.
Beautiful Kotor
We stopped in Kotor for about 20 minutes and walked around. The impressive city walls on the mountainside have stood for centuries.
Resuming our journey, our next stop was Budva. We had no idea Budva existed, but immediately saw how beautiful it looked as we rounded the mountain. I look forward to returning.
Finally, we arrived in Podgorica in the hot afternoon sun.
The bus station had a cafeteria and we enjoyed some delicious stuffed peppers and paprika-covered boiled potatoes for lunch. Delicious!
Sovet-Era Hotel
We chose to stay at Hotel Crna Gora, then the best hotel in the city. It turned out to be an old Soviet-era hotel, with dark hallways, horribly uncomfortable beds, ancient clock radio, huge old-fashion keys for each room, and yet a certain charm.
The bathroom (especially the tub) had seen better days…
The hotel was demolished shortly after our visit and is now a Hilton. Already, Hilton was advertising its new and upcoming hotel when we there.
After a short nap, we ventured out for a walk in the city. I started with a haircut, then we had a look around for a couple hours. I wouldn’t call Podgorica the most picturesque city, but we found some nice tree-lined streets and I’d love to see how it has changed over the years.
Montenegro Espionage
I got into some trouble for taking the picture below. It’s of the U.S. Embassy and the guards noticed that I was snapping a picture and rushed outside to “apprehend” me…
They couldn’t understand why I would take a picture of the building and accused me of espionage….but when I flashed my American passport, which we were thankfully carrying, they backed off and just took my passport, made a call inside, made a photocopy of it, then returned it to me…
I’m not sure what would have happened if I refused to cooperate or ran, but I wasn’t in the mood to tour a Podgorica prison cell…
They did not ask me to delete the photo.
We decided it was time for a drink…
And just for kicks, I decided to take a picture of the German embassy as well…
Tomorrow: the journey to Tirana.
Here’s exactly what the guard said that night:
“He’s a snake in the grass, I tell ya guys
He may look dumb, but that’s just a disguise
He’s a mastermind in the ways of espionage.”
A wonderful adventure! Thanks for sharing the photos. Bus rides can be quite educational. Always carry water for sipping only. When behind schedule, rest breaks are the first to go.
Reminds me of the time I took a photo of the driveway to the headquarters of a famous intelligence agency of a country that belongs to NATO, not even the building and whose location is well known. Out of nowhere, I was surrounded by about 3 security cars, forced to delete the photos, and threatened with arrest. My hands were shaking. I got out of there ASAP and never want to go back. I see in Google maps that you can see exactly what I saw, except in better detail.
In contrast, I took pictures of James Bond’s building, MI-6 headquarters in London. No trouble at all. This building’s location is not secret and was featured in a James Bond film.
My wife and I did a similar journey in 2006 starting in Istanbul and ending in Venice seeing many of these same places by train except the areas around Albania which required a bus trip. My father-in-law was working at the American embassy in Tirana at the time which is what inspired the side trip to that side of the Balkans. I have wanted to return many times, but there are so many places in the world to see. My favorite part of the trip was being chauffeur-driven in a stolen Mercedes out of Skoder, Albania by a drunk Albanian who spoke no English at night to Budva, Montenegro, where I was bitten by stray dogs the next day which necessitated obtaining the rabies vaccine upon my return home. We would return tomorrow if we could.
You lying…drunk driver stolen Mercedes to Budva. Don’t do that people will think that’s true.
That is likely the most true statement on here… Why would you say its a lie. At that time, majority of nice cars there were stolen
Lol driving a stolen car through the border while drunk ?!, and the border security didnt notice a drunk driver driving a stolen car hahaha
My wife and I were the only ‘light’ skinned people in Skoder, and several of the Albanians were offering services to us. We just needed out of the country, but most of the Albanians couldn’t communicate to us in English. One young guy could talk to us, and said that he could drive us out to Budva that night and gave us a price. I agreed, and then he handed us off to some older member of his family who was very proud of his car – who as we approached shouted “Mercedes!” Most of the Mercedes in Albania in the early 2000’s had been stolen in Western Europe. This Mercedes did not look like a “one owner” vehicle. My wife was happy to leave Albania after our long stay, so we got in even though the driver had very bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol and would alternate between driving very slow during the long straight ways and then seemingly awaken during the curves on the coastal mountains and speed up. The border security at each crossing hollered both times for the “chauffeur” who took our passports to be stamped and then hurried back to the car. We never left the backseat of the Mercedes. It was all too surreal. Sometimes, you cannot make these stories up.
man you need to understand you are close to Embassy in a foreign country, you cannot be closed because they don’t know what you’re doing there .special in podgorica because some Serbian guy bombs Embassy you took the picture. you need to learn the rule in any country in the world next time be careful
“Soviet-era hotel”?
Tito would not be pleased with that label… 😉
Yes indeed.
Heads up: stuffed peppers are paprike, whereas the potatoes are krompir. Yum!