Podgorica
Podgorica
Tirana to Podgorica
After coming back from Ohrid, I stayed in Tirana for one night and moved to Montenegro. Montenegro is located north of Albania and became independent from Serbia in 2006 — one of the newest countries in Europe. My destination was the capital city, Podgorica. I found an interesting comment on YouTube saying Podgorica is the most boring capital city in Europe, so I had to check if it was true.
I booked a standard bus ticket, but there were only 4 people going to Podgorica that day, so we used a car that felt more like a taxi.
The drive was very comfortable since the highway was newly built, and we reached the country border after 2 hours. We just handed our passports to the immigration staff and waited in the car for a few minutes. The Montenegro side was exactly the same.
By the way, Montenegro means "Black Mountain" in Italian. As the name suggests, the mountains looked different from before — darker than the ones I'd seen so far.
Podgorica City
Honestly, the city is very ordinary and not commercialized for tourism yet, so I can understand the comments on YouTube. This wouldn't be a destination if my time were limited, so I was glad I came here this time. The city is not busy and is surrounded by lots of greenery.
Here is Independence Square, which might be the biggest landmark in Podgorica.
The river was so clean and beautiful, and I was amazed that you can drink tap water here. I didn't buy any bottled water for three days.
Podgorica to Sarajevo
I stayed in Podgorica for two days and then moved to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina by bus. I bought a ticket online in advance, but I had to pay extra for ticket printing, a bus station fee (what is it for...?), and a bag fee — 5€ in total. I hadn't researched any of this beforehand, but luckily I had small bills. By the way, Montenegro is not a member of the EU but uses the Euro.
The trip to Bosnia was supposed to take 7 hours, and the road was much steeper than the one from Albania to Montenegro. We reached the border after driving on a foggy road for a few hours.
The border crossing process here was almost the same, but since there were more people this time, we got off the bus once and handed over our passports for inspection. I'm always grateful to the Japanese government and history whenever I cross borders.
Podgorica was more of a chill place than an activity-filled destination. I felt refreshed and well-prepared for the next trip.
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