Change of Plans

Monday, Sept. 5, 2016--Cetinje to Podgorica

Each day, I have been trying to find someone working at the bus station to check my plans for taking a bus to Podgorica tomorrow morning at 6:05.  No one seems to work there, so I went by the tourist office today.  They called, and it doesn't look like that bus runs anymore.  The first bus coming through toward Podgorica would not be guaranteed to get me to the bus station by the time my bus to Peje leaves tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.  Therefore, I had to quickly start making alternative plans.

On the way home to use the computer to change those plans, however, I heard band music.  I could see it was at the front of the President's home.  I walked that way to hear two pieces as official guests were being met and escorted into the home.  The musicians were accompanied by an armed guard with all of them in very nice uniforms with red jackets and blue pants.  

I went online and found a single room for 30 Euros near the bus station in Podgorica at Hotel Evropa.  Then I checked bus schedules online to find that there are buses leaving every 20-30 minutes that will get me there by 13:00 or so after bathing, shaving, and packing.  I explained to the lady who owns the guest house (through an interpreter over the phone) that I was leaving and why so that she could prepare the room for a new guest rather than just cleaning for me to stay one more night.  I told the interpreter that I didn't want any money back.  But as I left around noon, the lady insisted on giving me back the money for one night which covered over half of the cost of the hotel in Podgorica.

The hotel is not a great one.  It is acceptable--a bit worn, but with a/c, lots of TV channels, and very clean, crisp sheets.  The lady at check-in suggested places for me to walk to see the town with the hours I had remaining during the afternoon.
I ended up walking over 3 1/2 hours.  There isn't a lot to see, and a lot of what there is to see is not so great.  But everything is spread out.  I went through the Old Town (which had little to see); Novo Podgorica which is the new part of town with office towers, fancy shops, and a huge new Orthodox church; and the center of town which has the government buildings, the old shopping areas, a new Hilton Hotel and some very nice parks.  Parks are one of the better features of the city, because they have such beautiful, lush trees growing here.  On the way back, I stopped at the Mall of Montenegro which is small and failing but has a very good supermarket where I shopped for some breakfast items to take on the bus with me tomorrow.  I also walked through the next-door market hall with lots of independent sellers in stalls.  By the time I left that area, the rain had arrived.  Fortunately, it was light at the time, and I was able to walk the 10 minutes back to the hotel without a problem. We had storms off and on for much of the night.