Day 12 (July 23, 2017): The Trek Towards Home

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 examples:
(1) Most taxi rides are a Euro -- and that's with a rounding up to 1Euro to include a small tip.
(2) A piping hot chocolate croissant in an upscale coffee shop:  60 Euro cents.  And that's with table service!
(3) An cold ice tea at a newspaper kiosk is 55 Euro cents.  Compare with up to 3 Euros in Dubrovnik!
 (4) Most attractions:  FREE

We got in several sights, as the photos show.  At 12:30PM, we headed to the airport for our flight to Slovenia, where we will connect tonight with a London-Gatwick flight, then on to St. John's tomorrow.  We will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on The Rock with a dinner with family and friends on Tuesday night, which is our actual anniversary date.  A nice way to end what has been a very rich Balkan experience.

Thank you for your interest in our blog!  If you have the opportunity to make it to these parts, any of the Balkan nations would offer a wonderful experience.  From the countries we visited in 2015 (Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia and Albania) to those on this trip (Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Montenegro), there isn't a region on Earth that holds more history and natural beauty.

From the Ljubljana Airport in Slovenia, good night and happy travels.

Park Petrovica is the location of the former 'palace'.  The park has seen better days -- as with most sites in Podgorica.  But it does sport this quaint little Orthodox church, where sacred music was playing from a CD.  Fitting for a quiet Sunday morning.

The park also sports this bizarre statue.  I joined in the sculpted hug!

The palace is now a (very sparse!!) art gallery.  A guy was sitting on the steps and tried to explain it was closed on Sunday.  Seeing a look of mild disappointment on my face, he unlocked the door, turned on the lights, and let us have a look around!  Typical of the kindess we have experienced here.

Podgorica, as I have already commented, does not have a lot to see.  So when you hunt down one of the few sights in the city in 40C heat and find it wrapped in scaffolding, it is a wee bit frustrating!  I guess we shall have to return next year to take a look at the revamped city clock tower!

Built in the 17th century, the Osmanagic Mosque is located in the old part of Podgorica, Stara Varos.  It was pretty well destroyed in WWII, but was rebuilt over the last couple of decades.

Overlooking the City... the dry, oh-so-hot city!

The Dajbabska Gora Tower is a radio tower located south of Podgorica. It is 55 meters tall, and soon after its opening in 2011, the 5 million Euro tower became one of the most popular landmarks and visitor attractions of the city.  Hence, we excitedly made the trek there -- only to find it COMPLETELY deserted!!  Except for a security guard, who kindly called us a taxi.

The deserted tower we conquered.  LOL

Kind of cute for an international airport to be referred to as an "aerodrome" in 2017!  A definite throwback to the days of, say, the Hindenberg?

Yes, Podgorica definitely disappointed in terms of the sights it has to offer for a national capital city.  However, one thing it did NOT disappoint on is its inexpensiveness!  Take this, for example: an upscale coffee shop next to our hotel offered air conditioning, table service, and off-the-charts cappucinos and piping hot chocolate croissants.  Everything on this table cost 3 Euros!

Montenegro Airlines is the emerging flag carrier of the country.  It flies to a doen destinations in Europe, using Embraer 195s and Fokker 100s.  Our flight to Ljubljana today was on one its Fokkers.  These planes no longer fly on any North American carrier.  The last Fokker 100 flight I recall was in 1994, when Canadian Airlines International still had some.  A nice smooth flight, though.

Upon approach to Ljubljana's airport in Slovenia this afternoon.  We were here in 2015 and thoroughly enjoyed the area.  Lake Bled is nearby and has to be one of the most beautiful lakes we have ever seen.  Anyway, I'm writing this blog entry from Ljubljana, as we have a five-hour connection here.  Our Easyjet flight to London leaves later tonight.