Bus Ride from Hell

Today, we left Dubrovnik and Croatia and headed towards Montenegro. The obvious way to make the journey was by bus, but as soon as we arrived at the station, it was clear that we were in for a shit show. There was absolute chaos as people tried to board the bus, load their luggage and get their tickets checked. Unfortunately, this was nothing compared to what we were about to experience over the next several hours.

The bus's air conditioning didn't work, and with a bus packed full of people in the middle of the Croatian summer, it was essentially a sauna on wheels. To make matters worse, the Uber driver who dropped us at the bus station had warned us that there could be a multi-hour wait at the border. Less than ten minutes into the journey, I was already literally dripping in sweat.

Knowing we could potentially be stuck on this bus for six or seven hours was genuinely terrifying. Jack and I started looking into how much an Uber or taxi would cost, but we figured they probably wouldn't be able to cross the international borders. Our next plan was to get through the border and then check the price of a taxi from the other side. It was bad.

The air was thick, hot and disgusting, and it was becoming difficult to breathe. There were no windows we could open, and the driver couldn't exactly drive with the doors open, so we were essentially being cooked alive. It was a borderline human rights violation. Eventually, we reached the first border checkpoint, and there was a massive queue of cars, exactly as the Uber driver had warned us about. The bus driver, who also appeared to have had enough of the heat himself, decided to take matters into his own hands. He drove on the wrong side of the road for a couple of kilometres, bypassing the queue and getting us through the checkpoint much faster.

When the bus finally stopped at the border, people were practically fighting to get off as quickly as possible and get some fresh air. To make matters worse, we'd run out of water by this point. Luckily, a Scandinavian couple on the bus were kind enough to give us a frozen water bottle they'd brought with them. It was one of the greatest gifts I'd ever received.

Eventually, though, we had to get back onto the torture chamber and continue the journey. By this point, people were lying in the aisle of the bus just to get a little more space and cool down by whatever tiny amount they could. Everyone looked absolutely cooked. Finally, we made it to Kotor, where the bus driver organised for us to transfer onto a different bus for the final 40 minutes or so to Budva. This was an absolute lifesaver. The second bus had working air conditioning, and it felt like we'd just entered paradise. Somehow we arrived in Budva without anyone dying from heat exhaustion.

Along the way, we met a French-Canadian who was staying in Budva's Old Town. We dropped our bags off at our accommodation and then walked her to her hostel. After that, we wandered around the Old Town for a while, popping into shops and patting the hundreds of stray cats that seemed to line every alleyway. We grabbed some food and headed to the beach for the afternoon. We stayed there until it got dark before heading back to the hostel for the night.

Given that most of the day was spent travelling - and, more importantly, trying not to die on the bus - I didn't get many photos. There wasn’t much to photograph for the day anyways.Read more