Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro - July 2017

It's Sunday, July 23rd -- time to hit the trail back home.  We left Halifax 12 days ago... hardly seems possible.  Before we leave Montenegro, however, there are a few last sights we want to take in.  As one reviewer of a particular Podgorica sight said on Tripadvisor, "It needs a little help." Well, for a national capital, that pretty well describes what we saw.  I shouldn't be so harsh, though.  It's just that, after the sights of Zadar, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Mostar, Dubrovnik, Kotor and Budva, Podgorica simply cannot compare.  Such as it is, we are happy to have the chance to explore what it does offer. With the mercury heading to 40C again today, after our hotel breakfast, we did the "taxi hop" approach again, and headed out at 10:30AM.  One thing I do give Podgorica a 10/10 on is value for money.  In fact, I call it the Dollar Store Capital of the World .  Why?  Everything is scandalously cheap!  Let me offer some examp...

We were a bit sad to leave the Bay of Kotor today.  But alas, we needed to head to the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica (pronounced POD-GOR-EETZ-A.) to start our journey home. Another lovely breakfast on the hotel patio overlooking the square, which was alive particularly early today - Saturday is market day outside the city gate, so the crowds arrive earlier than usual and in great numbers.  We had planned to climb those 1350 steps up the mountain wall as a last Kotor activity, but the heat was excruciating.  We opted instead for a last stroll around the old town.  At 10:30AM, we got a taxi to the bus station.  Our driver told us he was from Podgorica.  When I asked him, "What can one see or do there?"  He replied, "Nothing."  And from what we saw today in the 40C heat, he was quite right! Our bus left at 11AM and stopped on nearby Tivat, Budva, and one other city I cannot recall.  Essentially the route was along the coast then u...

The plan for today focussed on two key items: getting ourselves to the town of Budva to see its old town section. And then getting ourselves to the small town of Perast, which is well regarded as one of the most picturesque towns along the Montenegrin coast. After a leisurely breakfast, we walked to the bus station and soon found a bus heading to Budva. Budva is a town on steroids in terms of tourist growth:  Europeans come by the thousands to swell the small permanent population of 13,000 and swim anywhere they can..  Despite the hyper tourist action, Budva's walled old town is certainly a treasure, and we thoroughly enjoyed walking its cobble-stone streets, its ramparts, and exploring its citadel. We were back at the Budva bus station by noon, had a quick lunch at a restaurant there, and then got a bus back to Kotor, arriving before 2PM. We then took a boat to Perast for the afternoon.  The rest of the day was spent strolling the streets of Kotor's o...