Southeastern Europe Travel Diary Part Three

14.11. 22:38
Before I left, I set the goal in my mind to do 10.000 steps per day while I travelled because I wouldn’t be able to work out. I was worried though that on the days I’d have to work, it might become difficult for me. Well, today was the first day I had to work, and it was my most active one so far. Over 20.000 steps.
I woke up very early because I wanted to see the city during daylight. This was a really smart choice. I drove to the centre instead of walking to have more time before work. Finding a parking spot was easy enough, but figuring out how to pay for it, not so much. Luckily, in that very moment, a woman passed by, and I asked her how it works. She said that usually, you have to send a text message to the number on the parking sign with your plate, but it would only work with a Montenegrin phone number. Lucky enough for me, she told me that it was a public holiday so I wouldn’t need to worry about parking.
I made my way to the centre and saw a lot of marvellous things. I was very early, and all the streets were empty. I came to a huge park, and there wasn’t a single soul in there. I never would have thought how wonderful it could be to explore a city with no one around. After the park there was a huge river. As I crossed the bridge, I was stunned by the views.

Then I came to the most beautiful church I’ve ever seen in my life: The Orthodox Temple of Christ’s Resurrection.

On my back, I came across the Ribnica, and this was the most beautiful spot in Podgorica to me.

I spent some time there before I made my way to the Old Clock Tower and ultimately went back to my car to start work on time.

After working, I once more made my way to the city and went to see a beautiful mosque. But to be honest, I’ve pretty much seen all there is to see in Podgorica. The only thing I’m still keen on visiting is (how could it be any different) the National History Museum. Unfortunately, it was closed today due to the public holiday, but I asked to leave work early tomorrow and hopefully will be able to visit it before heading to my next destination.

15.11. 12:44
This morning, I had to pack up my things once more. Later, I went to see the so-called National History Museum, but it turned out to be something else. It was an official government building but only with a few dead animals to see and nothing with English translation.

The lady working there was very nice and offered to translate everything to me, but as I’m not really interested in biology, I declined. I asked her where I could find out more about Montenegro’s or Podgorica’s history. She asked her coworker, and they both agreed that I should try the National Gallery. Funny enough. I went to the wrong gallery, and the lady working there told me where the right place was.
Finally, I made it there and, for the third time, was disappointed. Though there were some historical artefacts, there was literally nothing written about their history. I later googled how big the population in Podgorica is, and it said about 200.000. So, to be fair, it’s not a big city. Yet, Sarajevo has about 350.000 inhabitants and countless museums.
Anyway, my time in Podgorica has come to an end, and it’s fair to say that one day is more than enough to explore the whole city. Soon, I’ll be on my way to Ulcinj, which will be my first destination at the sea, so I’m really looking forward to it.


16.11. 20:24
The drive to Ulcinj was special to me because I finally saw the sea again. I stopped at the roadside to take in the view, which was breathtaking. I felt so happy.

Then I finally arrived, and after checking in, obviously, my first way was to the beach. I spent a good quality time there.

One negative aspect, though, and I’ve seen this everywhere I went so far, is once again the trash. I honestly felt a big urge to collect the trash. I didn’t have any tools, though, and looking around, there’s so much that it would be hard for me to stop, to be honest. It made me sad and think about organising a group activity to collect trash. Maybe I’ll do that in the future. But with so much trash lying around, it’s just really hard to know where and how to start.

After my time at the beach, I went back to my accommodation, ate, and worked a little for myself. Sleeping so far hasn’t been as comfortable as it was back home, because the apartments in Balkan are mostly equipped for summer and only have super thin blankets (which in Austria are used to cover the mattresses and even they are thicker) and one or two thicker cover blankets. I had to use all of them plus my long-sleeved pyjamas, sometimes even with a second layer. The air-conditioners are also used as heaters, but they aren’t able to heat the whole room, and as soon as they’re turned off, the room gets cold within minutes. You probably wonder how the locals deal with that, but paying attention, while walking through the streets, provides the answer. Even though it’s cold outside, locals still sit outside at cafes and restaurants, which leads me to believe that it’s not really cold for them. As they’re used to live like that, I guess their bodies can withstand more temperature-wise. Another thing I’ve noticed is that it’s still permitted to smoke inside at pretty much any place. That is a big no-no in Austria and many other countries. But here it seems to be normal. As a non-smoker, I don’t find that good, but even if you do smoke, I don’t get how you can like the smell on your clothes and hair.


This morning, I once again went to the beach before work. As soon as I started working, the power in the apartment failed. I contacted the landlord, and he said he would try to figure it out. As an hour later, there was still no power, I moved my working station to a cafe around the corner. Funny enough, the power there failed too, after I spent about two hours there. Luckily, I already recharged all my devices and was able to work without power. But I found out that loss of power is a normal thing here and usually doesn’t take more than an hour to turn back on. For the rest of the day, the power was on again and off again, but I managed to get through. This made me realise that I would need a plan B in case that would happen in other countries as well.

After work, I drove to the old town in Ulcinj. My accommodation was a 15-minute drive away. When I parked, I wasn’t sure where to pay, so I asked a local there and he told me that it’s free in winter. He also asked me where I was heading to, and I told him that I had just arrived. So he recommended a way where I could see the breathtaking sunset that was about to happen. Thankfully, I always listen to locals because he was not exaggerating.

Once again, I was the only person there and had everything to myself. Once again, there was also a lot of trash. I wondered if they would clean it before the summer tourists come. I’ll probably never find out.


After enjoying the sunset, I started to discover the beautiful old town. Beautiful is an understatement; it was probably the most beautiful old town I’ve ever seen in my life. I spent a few hours, walked wherever I felt like, and sure enough, got lost pretty soon, which was easy enough in the countless narrow alleyways. But you haven’t travelled if you didn’t get lost in a city.

When it was pretty dark already, I made my way back to the centre to wander through the streets. I bought a powerbank as my backup plan for power loss. The only thing I still need is a cable that connects my laptop to the power bank. But I’ll look for that on the weekend. Tomorrow I only have to work four hours and should be fine for that short amount of time. It’ll also be the day on which I’m gonna leave for the next country, Albania.