Day 4 - First day in Budva

August 20

The out-of-towners were sent off to Budva for the night by ourselves! Joe G, Liz, Will and I set off on the bus in the morning for Budva which thankfully we'd been through on the way to Kotor so we knew what the bus station looked like. We found our hotel easily because Will had been watching out the bus windows as we approached the station. The Hotel Grbalj was nice though it took a bit to make ourselves understood without our hosts to translate for us.

After getting our rooms, we walked into the old town - stari grad. The old town is a walled medieval city that was a maze of narrow streets that we wandered around. There was a pizza place on nearly every corner so we finally decided to stop at one and have lunch. We all got salads - they have amazing veggies in Montenegro (Tim will say it's because they don't use pesticides). I particularly enjoyed the tomatoes. Liz ordered "fried pumpkin" because it sounded interesting - turns out that it was fried zucchini with a bad translation but so yummy.

After lunch we wandered more because Liz and I (more Liz) were looking for a silver filigree shop that Lexi had recommended though we remembered it being outside the stari grad. We came across the Citadel and paid the 2 euro to go in - totally worth it for the view from the top.

After which we paused at a café for drinks. When we tried to order a second round of yummy fruity cocktails, the waiter decided that clearly we wanted to get drunk and gave us the cocktail menu on which every drink was comprised solely of alcohol - not so much.

Next we were on the move again. Off to the boardwalk which, in the heat of the late afternoon, was nearly deserted. We were still looking for the jewelry store. No luck on the boardwalk and we decide to walk back toward dinner in stari grad via other parts of town including a residential area. By this point, Will and Joe G were getting a little grumpy about the wandering for jewelry, or "baubles" as Joe G likes to call them.

We got back to Hemingway's which Lexi had recommended to settle in for what I like to call an "Italian dinner" which has no less than 3 courses and lasts no less than 3 hours. Clearly, it is not a common practice to stick to one restaurant for several hours, esp. when you start at 6:30, as evidenced by the look on our waiter's face as we just kept ordering food and drinks.

After our highly enjoyable dinner, we decided to walk back through the boardwalk area to our hotel. The scene after dark was slightly different.

Now the area was crowded with people out and about buying things, many gelato vendors, beer (pivo in the local language) right along side selling bottled water, and even nightclubs complete with scantily clad gogo dancers.