Eleventh Day

On the eleventh day, we woke up right in luxury accommodation. We had a roof over our heads, clean mountain air, mountains in full view, and in the background, the bleating of sheep. The only thing disturbing this mountain idyll in the shepherd's lodge was a very strong wind that kept waking us up all night, and we were a little afraid it might blow the roof away. Fortunately, the roof held, and we could go outside the mountain lodge in the morning and breathe in the misty morning air, where our dog Bertold – the third with this name – was waiting for us.

After a modest breakfast, our shepherd / mountain guide came to us with some disappointing news: It looks like a storm and heavy rain today, and he wouldn't recommend a mountain hike. As experienced mountaineers, we decided not to tempt fate and take the safe route back to the car instead of heading to the highest peak of the Black Mountain.

We said goodbye to the local shepherd and set off. Dog Bertold went with us. On the way down, we met two friendly American women accompanied by a dog named Daisy. Our dog Bertold detached himself from us and joined the ladies, what a traitor. However, Daisy joined us – the Americans didn't even notice he was male (I didn't either, but we had a biologist with us). We immediately renamed Daisy to Bertold – the fourth. Together with Bertold, we reached the lake below, which we left a bit dirtier than when we arrived. At that moment, Bertold left us and joined another group, another traitor.

We concluded our visit to Durmitor at a hotel by the lake, whose local toilet still remembers our visit – after all, we were almost 24 hours out of civilization. We reached the car and drove towards Podgorica. We decided to make the trip nicer by driving along the winding road right through the heart of Durmitor, where the promised rain caught us, and after eleven days on the trip, our car finally got washed. We arrived at the Piva Reservoir, from which we descended from the mountains and passed through several authentic tunnels. We continued our journey, enjoying watermelon with a view of a landfill and reached the Ostrog Monastery. The braver among us took the hike up to it; we were loaned black skirts to cover our alluring knees and admired the monastery. Then nothing stopped us from arriving in Podgorica.

In Podgorica, we saw nothing. There simply isn't anything there. To at least have something to show off, we found a random tower where we took a photo. The rest were just old semi-ruined buildings. We concluded our visit at a shopping center and went to find a place to sleep, which we found by a nearby river, had risotto for dinner, and went to sleep.

Fíla