Today my friends Aeriale, Paul, Lindsay, Billy and I had planned to go to Montenegro for the day because we were allowed to country hop a couple of times and Croatia was one of the countries that we could do it in. We're already visiting 8 different countries in one summer, why not make it 9 right? As we transitioned from our brief meeting in the hall last night to this morning at breakfast we gained 7 extra travel companions. Our numbers grew and my overall excitement fell. I've had too many bad experiences with large groups and I was really looking forward to just a small group of people for this trip.
We went to the bus station to figure out when it left and found out we had just missed the 1030 bus and the next one didn't leave until 330 and the woman at the bus station told us that we wouldn't be able to make the trip in one day. We were all relatively disappointed and weren't really sure what to do at that point so of course we did the stand and stare tactic which clearly never solves anything. Eventually people were starting to decide to do different things for the day as a few of us who really wanted to go were trying to strategize a way to go there and split a cab back or something. Two members of the group left and the rest of us decided to go to a place down the road that had tours of Montenegro that a couple people had seen earlier. After probably close to an hour of negotiations we had a trip to Montenegro in order for 250 kuna which is about $50 (American). There was going to be a van and a driver who would come pick us up, take us to Montenegro and to two different places there for the afternoon and bring us back. We all realized how great of a deal it was to be getting this so we jumped on it.
After a little over an hour we were crossing into Montenegro. My first reaction was, "It looks pretty much the same as Croatia." I still feel that way in large part, but it was also different in many ways. We stopped along the water to take some pictures and then headed on our way to Kotor Bay. When we arrived there we allotted ourselves roughly an hour and a half to spend there before we'd move on. We left and decided to get some food. We kind of came to the conclusion that it would be easier if we wanted to split up to go ahead and do it so four of us went to one restaurant and four went to another and two went to climb stairs up to the top of the mountain that we were next to. We ate at a restaurant where I ordered this really good roasted chicken platter. We were afraid of the small portion size, but it was just enough and it was amazing! After that we grabbed some gelato and headed back to the van to leave for Budva.
We got to Budva and walk to their Old Town which was kind of similar to Dubrovnik's Old Town with the big city walls and shops and restaurants inside of them. We wandered around the souvenir shops for a little while and found our way out to the beach, but then we realized we had a lot of time before we had to be back to the van and we decided to check out this interesting lounge we had seen on our way to Old Town. Five of us went and got drinks and sat and talked for a little while and then we realized we had to go back before too long so a couple of us went to buy some last minute souvenirs and then we stopped and got some Cokaladna Torta, which was some kind of chocolate cake to split.
The ride back was long and tiring especially after the long day we had. I had to go to the bathroom most of the way and the ferry that we took had all of their bathrooms locked. Needless to say, when we arrived back to the ship around 10 all of us had full bladders and empty stomachs.
I've come to the conclusion that I enjoy the countries that I don't know what to expect from them much more. That way you really have no expectations which means you can't really leave all that disappointed. Before I came on this trip I had never even heard of Croatia or Montenegro, which I know is really bad, but it's the truth. Obviously I had heard of Yugoslavia before, but not the countries that developed from that. Montenegro was very beautiful, much like Croatia, but it was in a different way. Dubrovnik is very mountainous, but Kotor Bay and Budva were a different kind of mountainous that was unique and impressive in its own way. Aside from the difference in mountains, the beaches looked relatively the same and were very small and the Old Town was much like that of Dubrovnik's so it wasn't incredibly exciting. But regardless, I had no idea what to expect from Montenegro and mostly the only thing I heard was, "Watch out for the land mines...if you step on one just stay there and don't step off of it while we can go and get some to fix it or else you're a goner..." That of course was very comforting news to hear on my way to this country. Overall, I felt completely safe there and I saw absolutely no little flags to alert me of a land mine. We were in the mainly touristy areas and I think that made a difference with the similarity between Dubrovnik and Budva, but I can't say that I was disappointed in Montenegro. It was very beautiful and it was cool to experience yet another country on this crazy journey.
The reason for the title of this blog is because when we got back and we were all telling different friends about what we did today, we all responded, "We hired a van to Montenegro..." and we realized how incredibly sketch and odd it sounds to say that. This trip has been a big one for the comments that you would never hear at home. Before each country, the big thing is to ask everyone what they're doing of course. When we were getting ready to go to Italy, people would ask what we were doing and we would reply, "We're going to Venice for a couple of days." Then one time someone was asking our friend what she was doing in Italy and she said, "I'm just going to Rome." When she said this, I realized how ridiculous we sound. It would never sound normal to anyone back home to say, "I'm just going to Rome" because there is no way that just and Rome should ever be combined in a sentence in that way. Rome is huge and amazing and most people would kill to go there. The thing is, comments like that are normal around here and everyone just takes it as it's said and doesn't think much differently. It's weird how that happens. It's not necessarily that we're taking these experiences for granted, it's more that they're happening and they're happening to everyone we're with so it doesn't seem as out of the ordinary for us anymore. Probably one of my new favorites to add to the list will probably be, "We hired a van to Montenegro..." because it might be one of the most ridiculous ones yet. Who hires a van to Montenegro? 10 SAS students...that's who!
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