I spent a month total with the Bay of Kotor as my base, broken up by a week-long jaunt to Sarajevo because I got too close to resist. I picked a perfect spot, the small town of Bijela. It has enough tourists from its handful of hotels to not feel like an alien, but not enough to crowd you out, and isn't a primary destination by any means. There are plenty of nice spots to swim, and it's well connected to the rest of the country. Typical of the whole bay, it's surrounded by moody mountains, sometimes shrouded in clouds, other times reflecting the sunset back at you like a mirror. One of the things I particularly enjoyed about Montenegro is the somewhat hectic nature of the buses. It's a tiny country, and you can get anywhere in less than 3 hours, but it usually involves standing at the side of the road to flag down long distance coaches run by a plethora of private companies and hoping they stop. busticket4.me has an approximation of most timetables, but the buses don't necessarily have scheduled stops everywhere so some maths is involved to work out when it's going to pass where you want to catch it from. I found it helpful to memorize the bus companies that were going to where I wanted at a particular time, because there are many private or chartered tour buses too which will not stop for randoms, and you can't necessarily tell these from the long distance coaches from a distance. They also don't always have all of the destinations listed in the front window, so don't necessarily refrain from waving one down just because you can't see your town written. Especially in the Bay of Kotor, or anywhere along the coast, there's only one main road, so if your destination is on it, you can persuade a bus driver to stop there. The only exception being that some buses going down the coast skip the bulk of the Bay and take the ferry across to Lepetane, so don't try to get one of those to Risan or Perast. The way they usually work is you board and take a seat (checking with the driver he's going your way) and then someone comes to take your money and provide a handwritten ticket once the bus is moving again. A regular local Blue Line bus north goes to Herceg Novi for 1eur in about 20 minutes, which has an old town with forts and a harbour with boat trips and a main bus station with international connections. It's also easy to get to Mt Orjen for hiking from here, though I didn't do that. I took a 3.5 hour boat trip from there (for 20eur, once they'd gathered a few other people to join) to see sights along the Lustica Peninsula; Mamula island (abandoned prison, soon-to-be hotel), the torpedo tunnels, the Blue Cave, Zelanija beach and Fort Arza. I also spent an afternoon walking around the bay via Igalo and back. <a href="https://i.amy.gy/20190506-me/IMG_20190604_181948.jpg" class="w1of2" alt="Giant I <3 Herceg Novi sign next to a palm tree in front of a distant bay view of a town, with thick white clouds over the mountains" title="Herceg Novi from across the bay"> A 30 minute walk (or a 5 minute bus) in the opposite direction from Bijela took me to Kamenari, a very small town whose main feature is the ferry across the bay to Lepetane. The ferry is free for foot passengers, and €4.50 for a regular car. It runs continuously, all day and night, departing as soon as it's full, and the next one begins loading at once, taking about 15 minutes. You don't need a ticket if you're on foot, just wander on and watch out for the vehicles boarding at the same time. Lepetane is another very small town, but with lots of holiday apartments. From here there's a local Blue Line bus to Tivat for €0.70, about 15 minutes. It's not an unpleasant hour walk to Tivat too, though the road in most places is just designed for cars. Not that there's a whole lot of traffic. Following the coast around in the opposite direction from Tivat is also nice, with plenty of places to stop off and swim. At the peak of this particular peninsula is a picturesque church, and a view towards Our Lady of the Rocks at Perast. Tivat is super fancy, full of superyachts and shiny hotels and brand new fancy apartment blocks. The area of Porto Montenegro is surreal; a pedestrian zone of designer shops and hotel restaurants with €10 smoothies. On either side of Porto Montenegro is a bit more normal, but not especially nice; it's mostly beach bars with thumping music and lots of holidaymakers, though you can find some more quiet places to swim if you try hard enough. I didn't go much into the town center, but it starts to feel more normal the more inland you go. There's a place that supposedly has real pita, Bosnian-style, but when I went to check it out they didn't have any krompirusa left. There are various trails from Lepetane and Tivat or in between that will lead you through the Vrmac mountain range and to Kotor. This is a half-day hike, or a full day with plenty of opportunities for detours if you have the energy. I started at Lepetane, and the trail is more or less marked, though not particularly well maintained, and I lost it a few times. There are a few more or less unoccupied small villages or single houses on the way; nowhere to stop for water or supplies. A long stretch of the trail overlooks Tivat. I didn't try to get to any of the peaks because the weather was either too hot to function, or a sudden torrential downpour. Fortunately the extended thunderstorm occurred while I was on a particularly straight and wide trail, not when I'd been clambering through undergrowth. Fort Vrmac itself is underwhelming. It isn't especially old and looks more like an abandoned factory. From there there's a seemingly endless switchback down to the water, just around the bay from Kotor, and then a 30 minute walk to the old town. The view from the trail down is beautiful. Kotor itself presents a great starting point for plenty of great hiking opportunities as well, and it has a nice car-free old town to wander around, plus the whole bay for swimming and boat trips. There are an abundance of museums in the old town, none of which I visited. Given that I stayed around the corner for almost five weeks, it's kind of shocking how little time I spent in Kotor. By the time I'd hiked there from Lepetane, it was sunset and time for dinner and a bus back to Bijela. My other visit was an afternoon, on my way out of the country. I did find time to climb the Ladder of Kotor, a switchback up the side of the mountain behind old town, and to return via the Fortress. Perast is nestled in the bay between Bijela and Kotor, a tiny picturesque old stone town wedged up the side of the mountain, and ram-packed with tourists. I spent an afternoon there, which included a swim and some hours napping in the sun, so that's plenty of time to see everything I think. It's famous for the Our Lady of the Rocks church on a small island which you can take a boat out too, but it's not that exciting, and also looks nice from a distance. Spending €1 to climb the church bell tower is much more worthwhile. I spent a day hiking across the Lustica Peninsula, from Krasic, to Rose. This is the bit of land that sticks out in front of Herceg Novi, and home to some wild beaches and attractions like the Blue Cave and torpedo tunnels, and lots and lots of forts. The trail I followed didn't reach any of the peaks for epic views, but there are many small towns along the way to break up the wilderness. Next stop around the coast is Budva, a pretty big town and serious tourist destination. Even though it is packed and crazy during the summer, I didn't find it too obnoxious. Maybe I'm biased because the only vegan restaurant in Montenegro is there, conveniently located between the bus station and the beach. The area between the main beach and the main road is pretty nice, with lots of open green spaces, and footpaths. The beach is crowded with restaurants and deckchairs, but around to the north - after the pretty nice Old Town - are the Mogren beaches, reached by a neat path etched around the cliff faces. They're still busy, but have more shade, and more north and some rock clambering still are quieter areas to swim, or jump off rocks. To the south is Sveti Stefan; about a 2.5 hour walk or a 15 minute bus €2 from the main street. On the way are more small beaches which become increasingly exclusive ("Use of beach set mandatory. Beach set €120" was the peak) and extremely fancy hotels (€1500 - €6000 / night type things). You can't get onto the Sveti Stefan island - the whole thing is a resort hotel - but there's a bit of beach tucked away next to it available for the plebs. Bar is unusual because it's old town is in ruins instead of packed full of restaurants and souvenir shops. The main part of the town is centered around the port with international ferry lines; I didn't linger there. There are nice beaches a little north at Susanj. The old town is up the mountain a bit, and a narrow restaurant-filled street leads up to it. The whole thing is a museum with a €4 entry, and it's super cool. It's actually massive, with loads to see, creepy cellars to sneak in, towers and walls to climb, and views into the valley on the other side. I spent at least two hours there I think, and that was only because it kicked out at 8pm. The last big town on the coast is Ulcinj. I didn't dig the vibe, it was very touristy and obnoxious. The old town is half-done, with some in ruins and some restaurants. The sea didn't seem particularly clean. I ventured all the way to Long Beach at the south too but the whole strip was covered in beach restaurants and deckchairs as far as the eye could see. I swam at a smaller beach to the north, after a scramble down an under-construction path, which was fine for a while but then there was definitely boat fuel in the water. Moving inland, Niksic is the second largest city in Montenegro. It's a nice easy to navigate semicircle shape, and has churches and a big palace, and a pleasant town square, but I'm not sure what else. It was on the way to Ostrog Monastery, which is squashed into the side of a high cliff in a valley, with many winding mountain roads and amazing views required to get there. It's free to enter, and there were quite a lot of people by about 10, but not so many as to crowd us out completely. Inside, you can see mosaics and paintings made directly onto the rock face itself as part of the inner walls of some rooms and corridors in the monastery. It's actually a working Monastery, so most of it is not open to the public. The capital of Montenegro is Podgorica, but there doesn't seem to be a lot going on there. It was okay to stop for lunch and check out some parks. There's a big hill that I would probably have climbed if it was less insanely hot. Maybe it's just a good place to get away from tourists. Skadar Lake is in the south of Montenegro, crossing the border to Albania. It is beautiful, an enormous national park conservation area, with many small villages along its coast. The main place to stop is Vipazar, which is a tiny cute town entirely populated by people trying to sell you a boat ride. The standard rate seems to be (in June at least) €25/hour for two people. Totally worth it to see the amazing diversity of flora and fauna around the lake. Having a car (or hitchhiking - but we didn't see much other traffic) is the only way to get along the road that heads towards Albania along the lake. The views along it are spectacular. Stayed the night in Donji Murici and woke up for sunrise by the lake side, to continue the drive in daylight the next day. The road almost reaches the border, with a viewpoint across the mountain range that points into Albania, then sharply turns back towards the coast. Overall I think I seriously lucked out with Bijela as my base, though if (when) I come again I'll look for options in Kamenari and Lepetane too I think. Somewhere not so close to a busy road, and maybe close enough to the sea to hear the waves. Don't forget to read about everything I ate, and all photos are here.
After like 3 weeks in the Bay of Kotor, Sarajevo feels like a big city. Never thought I'd say that.
Co-op life is having my worker rights outrage-o-meter cranked up to Extremely Sensitive at all times, forgetting that ODSC policies are not universal or even close to normal anywhere in the world, and wanting to burn it all down every time I hear even the faintest hint of a company trying to take advantage of an employee. And the employee doesn't really think they're being take advantage of and is trying to tiptoe around the situation so the abuse dosen't get worse.
The only countries worth being in are ones where you get straight lemon juice when you order lemonade, in my opinion.
Driving up the coast with stops in Ulcinj and Bar. Ulcinj is very full and touristy and the old town is half destroyed, half new restaurants and bars. It didn't have a particularly good vibe. The Long Beach to the south has 100% coverage of sunbeds. Smaller beaches to the north seem nicer; we swam at one, but there was boat fuel in the water which did not smell good. Bar is a big port town with connections to Italy. Didn't hang around the center. Stopped by the beach at Susanj, and then went to Stari Bar, the destroyed old town, which is further up the mountain. Parking is free unless a random dude hands you a receipt for €2.50 and you just pay him because it doesn't seem worth arguing about. It's a kind of structured begging, I guess (parking scams like this are common all over Montenegro, actually). The little street full of restaurants on the way to the old town is nice, and reminds me of a bit of Sarajevo. The old town is a giant museum, costing €4 to enter and is totally worth it. I could have spent longer than the 2 or so hours I did, only leaving because the close at sunset. It's full of creepy cellars to explore and castle walls to climb. It kept taking me by surprise with how much of it there was, but of course it's a whole town. The views over to the valley on the other side are neat too; there's a waterfall.
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An afternoon in Budva. The bus from Bijela is about €4.50-5 depending on the bus you end up on and should take a couple of hours but took about five because we sat in traffic near Tivat airport for forever. I went straight to Paradise Foods, the only vegan place in Montenegro, and ate a substantial and extremely cheap lunch. Then through the main strip to the beach, which was crowded with tourists and sun umbrellas, but not too obnoxious. I thought it might be nice to take a pedal boat around the bay. There are boat trips of varying lengths, and a water taxi to the island in the bay too. I walked through the old town, which is pleasant. I particularly like the stone archways which open directly onto the beach. I followed the cliffedge path to see the Dancing Lady statue, then continued past to Mogren beaches. The furthest beach has good shade in the afternoon, and isn't as loud and full as the first one. Some rock clambering after that to a point with local kids jumping into the sea from high rocks. Some as high as a two storey house; I watched them psyching themselves up for a while and really thought they wouldn't survive. (They did; didn't do it again though.) I swam and napped and made my way back to Paradise Foods before it closed to pick up supplies, then bussed home. There's plenty to do in Budva I think, and the surrounding area. I'll probably spend more time here.
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A day in Budva. Featuring two trips to Paradise Foods (and working from there a bit), a 2.5 hour walk around the coast to Sveti Stefan, sightings of mandatory-use €120 beach sets (2 chairs and an umbrella, maybe towels) and the resulting empty beaches, very swanky hotels, and swimming near the Sveti Stefan resort hotel island.
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Hanging around in Herceg Novi, and a walk through Igalo and around the bay. Vegan food at Barbarella.
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Working and hanging around Bijela. Hike from Lepetane to Kotor via For Vrmac, across the Vrmac mountains. It wasn't too strenuous, although we lost the trail a few times and had to double back or do some rock scrambling. The views were breathtaking in most directions. Thunder was rumbling after a few hours, but fortunately we found ourselves on a relatively flat straight trail for the duration of the rainstorm. The clouds parted and Kotor was revealed for a final trek down a never ending switchback just across the bay from the city. We limped to Ombra restaurant for vegan pizza, and took the bus home (€2.50, 40 mins).
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A day chilling (working) in Bijela by the sea. A visit to Kotor on my last day in Montenegro. I climbed the Ladder of Kotor, a switchback up the side of the mountain behind old town. On the way up there's a seemingly abandoned house, but if you stick around to take in the view for too long an old man shows up to sell you lemonade for extortionate prices. From there the trail goes up and up and into the mountains, if you have time for that. What I did was bear right, where there's a secret entrance into the top of the Fortress. Entering from the old town costs a steep €8, but there's a person-sized hole in the wall you can enter for free if you've made the climb up the Ladder. The Fortress is steps on steps; all abandoned, lots to see, and amazing views of course. I returned down all the steps and into the old town, where nobody is checking tickets on the way out.
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I'd read no end about the amazing hiking on the Lustica Peninsula, the bit of land that sticks out and around in front of Herceg Novi. I also found some blog posts from the end of last year, official announcements about the improved hiking trails there; apparently now well-marked and accessible for hikers and cyclists. Well, they may have been premature because some of the trails were definitely not well marked or maintained, and some undergrowth scrabbling was required. They were mostly marked with red dots though. I wanted to finish the hike in time to take the water taxi back from Rose at the tip, to Herceg Novi. Taking a charter boat would have been €20 or more, but the water taxi is €3; only it ran at limited times, and the last one was (as far as I knew when I started out) at 1900 (actually turned out to be 1830). I budgeted 9 hours for the hike including distractions, plus some time in Rose at the end. There's a bus from Tivat to Krasic, a good place to start hiking from, at 0730 but buses from Lepetane to Tivat don't start until about 0830, but I managed to flag down a long distance coach to Tivat in Biejla at about 6am and it all worked out. Starting early was a good idea anyway, and I was lucky with overcast weather for most of the day; it would have been far too hot otherwise, there's very little shade on Lustica. The beginning of the trail from Krasic is at the start of the village. The bus wizzed right past and I happened to see the map on the wall I recognised from my extensive googling, and when I eventually got the bus to stop we had to walk all the way back. Once the trail departs from the road, it becomes obvious but rugged, which is perfect. Better and better views as one ascends the mountainside. Then an encounter with a giant piece of machinery widening the trail; it later became apparent that this was for one of the houses being built in another village, probably, rather than anything to do with the hiking trails. We detoured from Gosic through Radovic and down to Plaza Horizonti, a large beach that there is actually a direct bus to from Tivat as well. It was early but already filling up with people. Following a small trail around the bay a bit leads to some rocks without people on, which are good to climb down and swim from. So we did. Back up to Radovici then picked up the trail again to head in the general direction of Rose. A lot of the 'trail' turns out to be on the road actually. One of the off-road detours was completely overgrown and quite difficult to pass. Considered a few detours to beaches on the seaward side of the peninusula, or climbing up to the main ridge, but mostly ran out of steam. We did look at one of the forts on the way to Rose (there are a few) and it was mostly underground and overgrown. But from there we could climb down to the torpedo tunnels and walk along inside it, around the back, and out the other side. That was pretty cool. We tried to follow the coast all the way around to Rose from here rather than climbing back up to the road. Eventually the rock faces got a bit sheer for my tiny legs, but rather than give up I swam the rest of the way to Rose. While I was in the sea a massive rainstorm rolled right in. I could see it coming at me. Herceg Novi disappeared entirely and the sea was churning as I emerged from port in Rose. I walked through town in the pouring rain in my bikini because what else was there to do? A man beckoned us inside from not-yet-open restaurant; his name is Yusuf and his Turkish restaurant is opening in July. He was just getting everything ready. He gave me a towel, and turkish coffee. The rain stopped, and we wandered around Rose, but there's not much to see. The water taxi schedule was by the jetty, and the last departure was 30 minutes earlier than I thought. Good job we hadn't taken any of those detours.
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Road trip! Got in on a car rental and drove to Ostrog Monastery, stopping for coffee in Niksic on the way. The Monastery is cool, accessed up some windy mountain roads and free to enter. It's built into the side of the cliff, and many of the inside walls are cliff face. Some are adorned with paintings and mosaics directly onto the rocks. The views are spectacular of course. Lunch in Podgorica, the captial. It didn't seem like a very exciting town. There's probably stuff to do if you're looking for it, but there's no obvious old town or forts or anything. There's a big hill I might have climbed if it wasn't so hot. Didn't stay long.
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I took the bus to Perast, around the bay from where I'm staying, towards Kotor. The main road runs behind the town, and there's no non-local traffic allowed in the town itself, so cars and coaches stop at one of the carparks on either side. This is also where you can pick up a coach to get out again, though the bus stops are not really marked and to go back in the Herceg Novi direction involves waving from the wrong side of the road because the other side has only sheer cliff face. Anyway, I did manage to negotiate the buses and spent an afternoon here. An afternoon is plenty, I think, without including time for a meal or something. I climbed steps right to the top of town, where there's an abandoned fort and amazing views of the bay. I went up the church tower for €1, which also gives a good perspective on the area. There are museums which I didn't visit. I took a boat ride to Our Lady of the Rocks, the blue-domed island church, for €5 return. There's a small museum with only artefacts and no signs inside the church, which costs €2 to enter. Nice to get out of the sun, and spend the 20-30 minutes the boat captain allows you. The other small island houses a monastary. I had thought it was closed to visitors, but when we sailed past there were definitely people swimming there who did not look like monks. Passing all the way through town to the Kotor-end yields less crowded concrete beaches, even with some shade, and really nice swimming.
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Got caught in Sarajevo's gravitational pull and took a bus there. Old town is packed, there are more tourists than ever, and summer is very here. Sunsets, food, old friends and new..
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Driving on to Skadar Lake, a giant freshwater lake that's 2/3 in Montenegro and 1/3 in Albania. The main town to stop at is Vipazar, which is populated entirely with people trying to sell you a boat ride. So we went on a boat ride of course, because going out onto the lake was kind of the whole point of going. It was beautiful, with a huge diversity of flora and fauna, from gnarly trees growing right out of the water in cool groves, to vast expanses of green waterlillies carpeting the lake's surface. I jumped right in at the first opportunity to swim. The road along the lake heading south is not well served by public transport, and dotted with many small towns and villages. The views are consistently incredible, especially as the sun starts to set. Started to figure it's a shame to be driving the majority of the length of the lake in the dark, and just be rushing all the way back to Bijela; simultaneously a series of signposts started appearing along the road for a B&B somewhere. I proposed the wild idea that we just stop at the next village and look for somewhere to stay the night, and continue on in the morning. The next village, Donji Murici, turned out to be where these signs were leading us, so we followed them all the way down the side of the hill to the very edge of the lake. Rented a room, which was a small log cabin with a shared bathroom, minutes from the lake beach. The little restaurant only served fish, but we survived on tomato and cucumber salad and bread just fine, and the same for breakfast the next day. So we spent a peaceful evening by the lake. The next morning it was hot early so I swam of course. Waking up by the lake without the faintest sound of traffic was wonderful too. The drive continued through the rest of the small towns, stopping occasionally for the view, and a detour down to the lakeside in Ckla where we saw snakes in the water and decided against swimming. The road almost meets Albania, then doubles back sharply. There's a viewpoint there, with a great lookout over Albanian mountains.
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An afternoon in Tivat. I walked around the coast from Lepetane, stopped at a beach bar for limunada and wifi, went for a swim in the sea, wandered through the surreal main promenade of Porto Montenegro, and looked at the opulent hotels and superyachts. The bus back from Tivat to Lepetane is €0.70.
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Starting the day with fermented pine juice (? - it tasted vinegary but was also great) in a mountain hut, then a hike around Visocica, followed by late lunch in Konjic and stops to see medieval tombstones with rare and historically important Cyrillic inscriptions, and the river from above. There are no photos which can capture the epic glory of the landscape of Bosnian mountains, but I took a lot anyway. RunKeeper GPS trace.
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Sarajevo what's uuuuuppppppppp
The Sarajevo flea market is enormous and amazing, you can buy anything you dream of there for always less than you expect to pay. I wish it existed everywhere. Probably best it doesn't though because today I bought three dzezvas. I do not need three dzezvas. I am going to pick one dzezva to hang on the outside of my backpack, for when I end up in places with no way to prepare coffee.
I once bought into the "if you don't post to your own website you don't have anything valuable to offer on technology" theory but eventually realised there are other things in tech and, shock horror, even the Web, than posting on your own website. I still see it being thrown around as an excuse to dismiss out of hand work that people don't understand immediately and find directly relevant to their specific needs though. Posting this on my own website, so it must be true.
Food in Montenegro is a combination of Mediterranean and Balkan I think. Bakeries abound, often with many accidentally vegan pastries and ingrediants on the labels if you can read the language. But there are no real buregdzinica, so I was disappointed to find krompirusa did not live up to anything close to Bosnian standards. Pizza is widely available, and salads are generally good, although more on the tomato-cucumber side and less cabbage-oriented. My favourite, a common side dish in Croatia as well, is Dalmatian potatoes, which is just boiled potatoes and chard, and magically delicious. As far as I could tell there is only one fully vegan place in the whole of Montenegro. This is Paradise Foods in Budva. As well as making delicious, abundant and unbelievably cheap hot and cold meals, snacks and desserts, they also make seitan and tofu and other things in-house and supply many health food (zdrava hrana) stores around the country. I was fortunate enough to be staying behind one such store, Ibis in Bijela, so I got to eat Paradise Foods seitan and tofu, not to mention delicious small cakes, every week from there. I went to Budva twice, and Paradise is conveniently located between the bus station and the beach, so I could stop for an extended lunch on my way in, and then get there before they closed at 9pm to pick up more supplies to take home on the way back. One morning I worked from there for a few hours, eating continuously; they have wifi and a couple of power outlets, though not a huge amount of indoor seating. In Bijela itself is a place called Bura, a mostly-fish restaurant that has a good selection of salads and potato sides, plus a tofu salad which is large balls of battered deep fried tofu on the side of a large seasonal salad. The tofu inside wasn't seasoned at all, so it was kind of mediocre, but it was nice that they tried. And the location by the sea, plus power and wifi, makes it a good place to hang around nonetheless. I found a couple of places with vegan cheese for pizza. One is Ombra in Kotor, who have a whole vegan menu (pizza, pasta and a sandwich) but the pizza was really good. Another is Olive at Sveti Stefan; initially the waiter said they didn't have vegan cheese, and it's not listed anywhere, but I'd read a review on happycow from the week before to say they did. He discovered that they did in fact, and I got my vegan cheese on pizza in the end. They also have pastas and salads that can be veganised. It's not the cheapest, but that's to be expected in the location. In Herceg Novi are two cafes side by side, next to the water if you follow the boulevard around towards Igalo from the old town. One is Peter's Pies and Coffee, which is vegetarian although without a lot of vegan options. Some energy balls, one main dish that is probably vegan, and plant milks for drinks and smoothies. Along further is Barbarella, which is an omni place but with a whole vegan menu. I tried quite a few dishes as they are fairly small (but the prices match), including varenyky dumplings (potatoes or cherries), pasta, and couscous. In Podgorica I stopped by Republic of Good Food. They have a vegan section on the menu, which includes a chickpea dish, and avocado pasta. They have a lot of juices and smoothies too, and everything that is vegetarian is labelled. I'm sure more of their vegetarian dishes are already vegan or could be veganised, but I didn't ask. I couldn't find vegan cheese anywhere in the whole country. Asking for 'biljni sir' at the cheese counter in Idea or Voli will get you a plant-based pizza topper cheese (Alpenland Topsy, from Greece I think) but it contains casein so it's not actually vegan. Even the fancy 'green bazaar' store Bonella in Tivat didn't have vegan cheese. The nearest place I think if you're desperate would be Bio & Bio in Dubrovnik, but I like to adapt my diet to what is available and it feels like needing to use my passport to get vegan cheese is kind of cheating. Things I did in Montenegro that weren't eating.
Finalised BODS internationalisation / translation workflow stuff. Explored around Lepetane, across the bay by free ferry. Hiked to Kotor from Lepetane, partly in the rain, takes 6 hours or so.
Explored a bit more of Herceg Novi, walked around the bay through Igalo. Did some work on flattentool. Spent an afternoon in Tivat. So fancy, such yachts. Spent an afternoon in Perast. Very quaint, many tourist.
Spent an afternoon in Budva. Touristy and tacky but not objectionable. The only vegan cafe in Montenegro. Got caught in Sarajevo's gravitational pull, and went for the rest of the week. (worked on flattentool) All the usual Sarajevo stuff. Ate cabbage, went to Karuzo, went to Prana, met some cats. Went hiking near Bjelasnica. Made excellent gains at the flea market.
Still in Sarajevo, hung out with occrp peoples. Ate krompirusa, etc. Bussed back to Bijela. A day of adventures to Niksic, Ostrog Monastary, Podgorica, Skadar Lake. Spontaneous stopover in a random village on the lake shore. Road trip back up the coast, via Ulcinj (meh) and Bar (ooh). Watched lots of Twin Peaks.
Hiked along the Lustica Peninusla, from Krasici to Rose, and took a boat back to Herceg Novi. Spent a day in Budva. Went to Sveti Stefan to see the outrageous rich people beaches. Ate more at Paradise Foods of course. Spent an afternoon in Kotor; climbed the ladder and down through the fortress. Worked on bugfixing BODS translation and 0.2 schema release stuff. Took an unnecessary amount of night buses to Zadar (via Dubrovnik and Split), then a ferry to Iz. Settled in to Korinjak for a yoga retreat with Aida from Prana (Sarajevo).