Montenegro - Budva and Podgorica - small but nice (6th stop)

Our bus journey takes us through mountainous landscapes until we finally get our first stamps in our passports at the border with Montenegro (yes, from Bosnia and Herzegovina we only have an exit stamp now...). We actually have to cross the borders on foot and then get back on the bus for the continuation of the journey. We are actually quite happy about that because it has become intolerably hot on the bus. Every bit of fresh air feels good. After about 10 hours, we arrive (completely exhausted) in Budva. Budva is a small port city on the northern coast of Montenegro. The country has the word 'mountain' in its name for a reason - even at the sea, high mountains rise up nearby. By the way, Montenegro has been independent from Serbia since 2006.

On the way from the bus station to the hostel, we pass by some 'ruins', most of which are larger high-rise buildings near the beach that are still under construction. We also immediately notice how touristy the place is. There is a shopping street with a shopping center, several ice cream parlors, restaurants, hotels, sailboat rentals directly on the beach, and even a mini amusement park. Many Montenegrins seem to come here to enjoy the sun and the beach. We also pass by large yachts from the USA, England, and Russia, but we even catch a bit of German and Dutch on the beach. Although our hostel is located in the beautiful old town, the owner only lists the individual beaches that can be visited. Nevertheless, we set off on a little exploration tour. The old town of Budva is small but nice. The walls are beautiful and there are nothing but small narrow streets. After a nice dinner and sunset, we finished the last blog entry and then fell asleep very tired.

The next morning, something finally needs to be done: we need to do some laundry. Fortunately, there is a laundromat just around the corner. We are told that we can pick up the laundry in about 3 hours. Great! Veronika has found out that there is a nice little monastery higher up in the city. So we head there. It doesn't take us 40 minutes, and the monastery is really beautiful. We can escape the tourist hustle and bustle a bit and enjoy the tranquility of the monastery gardens.
Our laundry is not quite ready yet, so we have time to go to the city wall. Again, we have a beautiful view of the sea, the island in front of it, and the small old town. Finally, in the afternoon, we follow the advice and go to Mogren Beach. The water is super clear and super cold, but we still take a few laps and warm up in the sun. By the way, we are the only ones at the beach without a sunburn xD
After the Germany game, we want to make pancakes - something we seem to have forgotten how to do.?. But let's not go into any further explanations for that...

The next morning, we take a bus to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. By the way, Montenegro is about the same size as the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, but much less densely populated (680,000 inhabitants). Even the capital has only about 190,000 inhabitants. Nevertheless, the bus is overcrowded...
Because it's not very touristy, we downloaded a free walking tour in advance to begin exploring the city. But after an hour, we are completely done with it. In fact, the city seems to lack a clear core where everything converges. We see the two mosques, the new big church, the parliament building, two statues (of important national heroes), and Republic Square. But what will actually stick in our memory of Podgorica are the people we had the chance to meet there: from friendly conversation partners on the bus, to friendly and helpful taxi drivers, to extremely interested and enthusiastic staff in the café. They even gave us a shot of schnapps - as an aperitif, why not...
We are 100% sure that we will have to come back because we have been tempted by the many people to go hiking in the national parks. In order to absorb a little bit more nature, we drive to the so-called Niagara Falls of Montenegro in the afternoon. The locals go there to swim, unfortunately, we have forgotten our swimwear. Nevertheless, we dip our feet into the water a bit and stand under the waterfalls. You have to do a little climbing, but it's fun. It's about 35 degrees by now, which is why Lukas shows no hesitation and jumps from the rocks into the water. Babsi has a few heart attacks, but she's still alive... Lukas, too. XD

In conclusion, we can definitely say that the short time in Montenegro has not done it justice.
But now we finally have another train journey ahead of us - even an overnight journey! We will drive through the beautiful Montenegrin mountains and, among other things, over the highest railway bridge in Europe.
Belgrade is waiting for us.