One of the perks of staying at Dubrovnik Backpackers Club is that they have a many road trips that guests can sign up for. These vary depending on the day and usually hosted by the eldest son of the couple that own the hostel. They range from snorkeling, to day trips to Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro. I missed out on the snorkel trip, but since I had gone scuba diving just days earlier, I wasn't too disappointed about that fact. Today we along with the three other people in our room signed up for a daytrip to Montenegro.
After getting up early and have a bit of breakfast, which is by the way included, we all jumped in a van towards Montenegro. The first stop was a bank, since we are all using Croatian money, the Kuna, while Montenegro operates on the Euro. This is quite strange since Montenegro is not part of the EU. However there are other such countries, for example Cambodia's use of the US dollar. Regardless we had to exchange current and it was the first time I was actually not exchanging for the current countries currency. Kind of a strange feeling to walk up to a Croatian bank in the middle of Croatia to ask for Euros.
Montenegro is the world's second youngest country. She declared her independence in 2006. We were able to drive through the border check pretty easily as our driver knows most of the border guards personally. However, during the last trip a girl carrying a Hong Kong passport was refused entry for reasons unknown. This time it was all US, Australian and New Zealand passports, so there were no problems.
Via car, we are able to visit several villages and towns along the coast. We also visit multiple beaches to swim and scuba dive. The prices here seem cheaper and the beaches, unlike most of Croatia, are sandy beaches. Tourist industry seems to be booming here and various languages are spoken as we walk along the streets. Our guide tells us that much of this area is influenced by various drugs cartels that specialize in smuggling. What kind of items? Cigarettes came up as the primary export. There are heavy taxes on cigarettes and as a result there is a black market for them. He also mentions that the Russian mafia has a lot of ties to this area as well as owning a lot of the businesses and lands here.
During my swim I were resting on the outer buoys when a girl on a float mat swam by and start talking to me in an unknown language. I started to speak English telling them that I don't understand. Finally we decide to speak broken English and some Spanish, as she indicated that she had learned un poco in school. Turns out she was asking if I was Thai. I guess since I've been beach bummin' it in Croatia, I've gotten fairly dark. Her family came over as well. Turns out she has a twin sister and a little brother, all on floating mats and small boat. They are actually Russians and they all started talking to me. They were very inquisitive, but unlike most of the people I end up randomly chatting with, never brought up the subject of politics.
Our trip to Montenegro ends with a coastal drive back to Croatia as the sunsets. Another daytrip has gone by and finally this one I am rewarded with another stamp in my passport.
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