Karen’s Travel Blog

We sailed past the ancient walls of Dubrovnik south towards Montenegro. Our next port of call was Cavtat where we did the exit procedure for leaving the EU. Montenegro is not part of the EU but uses the EU currency, whereas Croatia is part of the EU but uses their own currency. Go figure that one out!

Our skipper Damir went to meet up with the locals, only to discover that the Yacht Club of Montenegro was running a race the next day from Cavtat to Herceg Novi, which was our next port of call. So for the grand sum of €30 per boat, which included dinner and drinks for 2 nights we entered the race. That night we met and drunk with the opposition. I must tell you the Montenegrins can certainly drink!

We were a bit shabby the next day and were late to the start, but with a 25 mile race we had time to catch up. However after 5 hours of a rolling 2 meter sea, wind that was 15 knots one moment then nothing the next, thunderstorms and pelting rain we pulled out of the race. A shame that the hung over Aussies couldn’t show off our sailing skills to the locals.

Drinks and dinner at the club  that night with endless speeches, of which we couldn’t understand a word, ended a couple of days of getting involved with the locals.

The next day 5 of us hired a car and ventured inland. Montenegro has a population of only 600,000 people, who mostly cluster around the coast. Inland is mountainous, with deep gorges, high alpine plateaus, glacial lakes and snow capped mountains. We decided that if you were blindfolded and parachuted in you would think you had landed in Switzerland. We stopped for a lunch of freshly caught trout at a roadside cafe which cost the grand sum of €5 each!! The cheapest meal I think  have ever had in  Europe.

We are now in Budva. The town has an old town surrounded by newly constructed multi story apartments. It’s claim to fame is as a party town with lots of bars and restaurants, and of course lots of tourists.