MONTENEGRO
The black mountain, Montenegro, is definitely the country of pomegranates. You find those delicious fruits behind every corner and every bush.
When we crossed the border from Bosnia to Montenegro you could feel straight away that this country is a bit ahead in everything. It is cleaner, the roads become better, well kind of, and you see that tourists are coming here. And honestly, I don’t want to see some of the regions during summertime. We were there mid September and it was still crowded.
Nonetheless Montenegro is a beautiful country and probably the first where we both liked the north more than the south!
The bay of Kotor and its surroundings is magnificent. And I want to stress out again that we were there mid September, not during high season. I’d recommend visiting Montenegro mid to end of September when the water temperature is still perfect for swimming.
Sara was there about 5 years ago with her family and she said you would not believe what happened to the country Tourism wise, in this short amount of time. And we all know that Tourism has its ups and downs!
You can still find a few little villages along the bay that have not been drowned by tourism yet, like Risan. A stunning little town right by the sea.
Kotor has one of the most scenic old towns that I have ever seen. Sara was proved to be correct on that one.
If you go visit in August, it will feel like you are in Venice though, so choose your time wisely.
Our favourite place in Montenegro was the beach of Ploče! An almost hidden beach during off-season, free parking, beautiful location. It has got a bar and loungers and music, so we most likely weren’t the first ones to discover this place but it was still amazingly relaxing.
ALBANIA
Albania was one of the countries on the very top of my bucket list. I’ve been interested in this place for a long time from hearing stories and looking at amazing pictures.
In a nutshell, Albania is WOW!
The people are the friendliest and most helpful folks we have ever encountered. Our first day included a two-hour repair on our cooler box with no expectation for money whatsoever…
Tourism hasn’t yet fully hit the country, and this is just one example that proves exactly that.
The towns of Krujë and Përmet, the Albanian riviera, the spectacular Blue Eye, the mountainous inland, natural hot springs…this place has it all!
We are hoping and praying that it will still be such a natural beauty in 10 years time. And it will up to us to leave it as it is.
If you have the time, spend at least 2 weeks in this beautiful country, even that won't be enough to really dive in.
Oh yeah, if you are in Tirana and they put a wheel clamp on your car, you might have some little helper in your tool box you can work with ;) Police seem to have their eyes on tourists since their system of paying for parking is not Tourist friendly at all. In order to do that you will have to send a text message, and in order to do that you will need an Albanian SIM card. So here goes...
One thing that characterizes Albania, is the bushfires around every corner. They are not natural, they are mostly handmade, and it could well be burning down another toll station.
Albanians might be the friendliest people you will ever meet in your life, but that doesn’t mean they like being pushed around by their government. We’d like to see it as the fires of revolution :-)
