Boat Tour

Today, I jumped on one of the boat tours organised by the hostel for €20. Unfortunately, it was pretty difficult to take photos throughout the day, so I'm once again lacking in that department. I'll just have to do my best to describe everything and hope my words can make up for the lack of pictures. We started by grabbing some beers and snacks to keep us going and headed down to the dock. Our first stop was a Blue Cave. It was similar to the one we'd visited in Croatia - a natural combination of clear water, sunlight and a perfectly shaped cave creating an incredibly bright blue glow inside. This one, however, required us to swim into the cave rather than taking a boat, meaning I couldn't get any photos at all, but my previous diary entry paints a similar picture of what it was like. And, in some ways, this actually made the experience better. Swimming into the cave and seeing the blue water glowing around you was unreal.
Because the cave was so dark, you couldn't really see the upper half of another person's body. Meanwhile, the sunlight filtering through the water illuminated everything below the surface. Their bottom half would almost glow while their top half completely disappeared into the darkness. It was a bizarre experience. Afterwards, we were given an authentic Montenegrin breakfast consisting of a shot of rakija and a dart. Most people, myself included, decided to just have the shot.

We then headed to a small beach that could only be accessed by boat. This was our lunchtime stop and gave us a chance to grab another beer and cool off. The heat throughout Europe continued to be absolutely brutal, so most of our time was spent either in the water or desperately trying to squeeze into whatever shade we could find. We stayed there for about an hour before heading towards our final destination.

The last stop was a rock jump and a lighthouse. The first jump was only about 3 metres, but Lewis and I did our best to make it a bit more interesting. After jumping, we explored the nearby lighthouse. It was surprisingly interesting, with what looked like a collection of historical artefacts throughout the building. It almost felt like a tiny museum. And that was the end of the boat tour.

It turns out I took zero photos on my phone, so unfortunately, I have absolutely nothing to show you from the entire day. I must have been having too much fun. I do, however, have photos from the night out afterwards, so I'll include those just to give you something to look at.

Most of them don't make much sense, and I don't remember taking several of them, but you can enjoy them anyway. The only genuinely noteworthy event from the night involved Lewis getting somehow roped into riding a merry-go-round with a bunch of Albanian children.

The kids proceeded to spin the thing faster and faster until Lewis realised the only way he could convince them to stop was to play a game called "helicopter." The rules were fairly straightforward—or at least they were in Lewis' head. He stuck his leg out, with the intention being that the kids would have to jump over it as the merry-go-round spun around. The kids quickly learnt the rules. Unfortunately, one of them learnt them slightly too late. His legs were taken out from underneath him and he was absolutely flattened. But the kid simply got back up and continued playing. Clearly, the kids here are made of tough stuff. It probably helps that they're also wandering around by themselves at 2 a.m.

Albania is a different place.Read more