Podgorica

I was up early to make sure I made it to the bus station on time for the next section of my trip, which involved me missing my breakfast at Hotel Lula (no great loss there). Sarajevo East bus station is not the most accessible transport hub, and involved me taking a trolley bus on a 30 minute journey to the suburbs. I don’t think I’ve been on a trolley bus since the mid-sixties when they were still running in Glasgow. My granny used to call them ‘the silent death’ because, unlike the clanking trams, you couldn’t hear them coming.

Although I had booked my bus ticket online, I was told on arrival at the bus station that I had also to buy a platform ticket from the booking office (for the ‘privilege’ of using the bus station), and pay to store my case on the bus. Although very small amounts (about a Euro each), this seems common practice in this part of the world. Two fellow passengers objected to the luggage charge, and were adamant their rather large backpacks would fit under their seats on the bus which, with much pushing and shoving, they eventually did.

We were now off on a marathon 6.5 hour bus journey from Sarajevo to Podgorica, capital city of Montenegro 🇲🇪 . It actually turned out to be a very pleasant trip with only 6 passengers on a 20 seater coach, and a couple of comfort breaks en route. The scenery throughout was outstanding - beautiful tree covered mountains, deep canyons and alpine valleys. The two border checks leaving Bosnia and Hercegovina and entering Montenegro were fairly swift, and the scenery became even more majestic as we skirted the Durmitor National Park with its glittering glacial lakes and limestone peaks. Views of the impossibly green River Piva were breathtaking, as our coach sped round bends and through mountain tunnels.

After this big build up, Podgorica itself came as a bit of a let down. It was very small scale for a capital city, and didn’t have the buzz of restaurants / bars / cafés etc I had become used to. It had no major attractions to speak of, and the Old Town bore no resemblance to those of Dubrovnik or Sarajevo. Although it was Friday night there were few folk about and the grey soviet style blocks did little to soften the atmosphere. It was like a wet weekend in Paisley! In fairness there are a few lovely park areas and a new Millennium Bridge, and the city itself is quite small with only 200,000 residents. Ah well, early to bed methinks, which is just as well as the electricity has gone off and whole hotel has been plunged into darkness!Okumaya devam et