Day 232 – MONTENEGRO: Ulcinj


Don’t ask me how to pronounce that town name. Beats me.

Ulcinj is a small but bustling town of 25,000 inhabitants. The local internet cafe is only 1 Euro per hour. Much cheaper than Greece, where in places you’d pay up to 3 Euro per hour.

I was up early as usual, and headed into town to find the internet cafe. I found it soon enough, but it wasn’t open until 9am. I sat the adjacent cafe for an hour, contemplating the absurdity of the espresso coffee I ordered. I mean, there can’t have been more than 20ml of coffee in it. I didn’t actually know what an espresso was. The waiter said “Espresso?” and me not knowing any better just said “Yes thanks.”

I mean, what on earth is an espresso for? What does it do? You can hardly take your time drinking it. Which is what I had intended on doing, waiting for the internet cafe to open. Enough to put in your eye, this espresso stuff is.

Street scene in central Ulcinj, Montenegro

I think I’ll stick to the hot chocolate next time. The plan from here is to head towards Croatia along the Adriatic Coast. I am looking forward to the coast of Croatia. I have heard very good things about it…


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16 thoughts on “Day 232 – MONTENEGRO: Ulcinj

  • Aunty Lyn

    You are making great progress these days Rob. It's hard to believe you have travelled across Albania already. It is interesting to hear how kind so many people are. I guess the world is holding together because of these decent people. It will be interesting to hear how you find things in the area of the Yugoslav civil war.

  • Satoshi

    Hey Rob

    I know how you felt about espresso, i remember many years back when i was in Italy they gave me a think inky wee cup of espresso after meal which was so bitter like medicine and I didn't know why they could enjoy it. Well the Italian s find it strange that people especially Western or Japanese yourists drinking Cappucino after meal. That's too rich and filling, calorie overdoze!

    OK I scare you off again but for your own safety. Until you get out of Croatia just don't wander into disused country roads and hillside to look for a shelter to sleep in, there are LANDMINES and UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE about. Losing one leg would not be helpful to pedal to England eh! The mined areas are usually signposted with the red triangle sign saying MINE or MINA and so on in the local language usually with skull and cross bone pictogram. Some areas may have simple ribbons tied to trees too. Chances are most areas may not be signposted (the locals know what areas are no-go areas. Don't walk in to the uncultivated field or wooded areas. They are Anti Personnel Mines designed to blow off your limbs and not intended to kill. Obviously not all the mines are buried underground but also there are hanging types, trip wires and also some types would blow up when you pick up an object or a rock. Some would shred you to pieces with hundreds of tiny steel ball bearings, imagine that.

    Don't be stingy on hotel costs when you are travelling through dark and off the populatd areas. I am sorry to read about the dog attack. I can't think of any deterrants.

  • carl w.

    Bubba! Nice to see your still making the world a better place… was just wondering how you where getting on and found a whole pile of stuff on your site…. nice! Satoshi is right your now entering a place which is abit suspect and creeping around at near dust in the woods is not recommended check out the UN landmine site (will try and find a link)

    Am just at work which I must say sucks "R's" have just been on the world's worst job ever… and kept thinking about bunking off cos it's so bad… anyway keep pedalling away soon be christmas here… all the best from darkest surrey.

  • Marija

    Hi,

    welcome to Balkan. About coffe – my suggestion – go for bjela kava (I hope this is the right way to write.) It is big cup – coffe and milk together, kind of "coffe late".

    Nice, nice.I loved the part where are you now.

    Oh well soon I am folowing you. 🙂 Best.

  • Marija

    About traveling the area you are going up. No problems, no worries if you stay on Adriatic coast – towards Dubrovnik – Rijeka. If going into country – Bosnia here and there marks of war are still there, but otherwise is all good. Enjoy the spring, good food, drinks…

  • boris

    If you go along adriatic coast it s no problem about mines. Somewhere near Bosna and Hercegovina maybe yes but here,in you route is not possible to find mines

  • carl w.

    Oh my god I've just ahd the electricity bill I'm going to stop boiling the kettle for a while…. £463.43, also handy to find out about the bits of war scrap…

    regards

    C.

  • akimoto

    Hey Rob, look at this side. This guy cycled the area in 2003. It's all in German, but with maps and a bunch of good interesting pictures.

    http://www.adfc-ratingen.de/reisen/YU-2003/

    Hey Satoshi, you are the greatest. I already tried to scare Rob about 2-3 months ago or more by telling about the LANDMINES, but Rob won't listen, won't take the easy way. Maybe good for the story, much more suspense. Hope everything ends well. But I have seen some more guys cycled the area since then.

    But there are actual maps in the internet for download of the dangerous areas, I think I copied the link somewhere.

    Well, Good Luck to all, going (or cycling) that way. Cheers, Akimoto

  • Ailsa

    Ah Yes espresso's are good, you can get milky coffee's before breakfast but after 11am you need to drink espresso, good for digrestion apparently -also a quick caffine hit, you're making amazing progress- you'll be in london in no time! Croatia is ment to be BEAUtiful so enjoy it, would love to go, and to be honest i reckon if you don't stray too far off the beaten track you should be ok with landmines, the ones near raods etc should be cleared by now, but what do i know?

  • Aunty Les

    Well, you certainly zoomed through the last 4 countries pretty fast. I dare say none of them was very large, compared to Tajikistan and Turkey!

  • Aunty Les

    You weren't cheated on the coffee. An espresso is a very small, very strong cup of coffee. I wonder if they do lattes or cappucinos? You get a bigger cup with those.

  • Dado,Budva

    I am glad to know you. Emasing trip. I hope u will have nice memories about Serbians… 🙂

    Nada se da cemo se videti opet.

    Srecno!

    Dado, Budva, Montenegro

  • Rolando

    Your comment about the "20 ml of coffee" was very funny. Clearly you haven't jumped on the coffee connoisseur bandwagon. Not a Starbucks regular eh? As a citizen of a coffee producing country, I encourage you to give esspressos and other coffee derived products such as frozen coffee and coffee ice cream (my favorite) a try. But do it in place with a proper barista and you won't be dissapointed.

    Rolando, Costa Rica