Day 40/41/42 - Kotor (Montenegro)

I left Dubrovnik around 10am and realized soon after leaving on top of the first hill, that I accidentally forgot to return the hostel key. 😅🙈 I really didn't want to cycle back and all the way up again, but also wasn't sure whether they would even notice and if they would charge me for it. 😅 The volunteers at the hostel didn't seem to really care too much, but I decided to call them and send the key back via mail. So I went into a post office and I had a funny conversation with the lady working there. She didn't understand that I was cycling and not having an address within Croatia, not even a hostel/hotel one. So she eventually gave up and just wrote down the address of the post office as a sender. 😅 I then called the hostel and the person speaking didn't even expect me to send it back, guess they are used to keys going missing. 😅 When I decided to send it via mail, I had to go back down a hill that I just climbed since it was the last and only post office I passed within Croatia before entering Montenegro. Standing at the red lights when I was about to cycle up the hill again, a taxi driver next to me gave me a soda drink out of the passenger window, which was really nice. 😁

The ride to Kotor in Montenegro was challenging since I wanted to visit a really nice beach (Pasjača beach) off the main road. So I went on a less busy and rather shitty road with lots of ups and downs to get there, but it was absolutely worth it. :)) Even the walk down to the beach through a tunnel was really nice and the beach itself just beautiful. I went for a swim and spend and had lunch there, before I hit the road again about an hour later. It was already 3pm and I wasn't even half way there. At the border to Montenegro I had to wait for about 20 minutes at the first check point to get out of Croatia. While waiting in the line, I chatted to a group of Greek bikers on motorcycles. They approached me and gave me some bandaids since I was bleeding on my leg, the pedals scatched it when the bike was about to fall while waiting in line. It looked worse than it actually was. 😅 I passed the check point without problems and thought I'm in Montenegro already, but actually wasn't for another kilometer. Then I approached the next check point, again had to wait for 20min for no reason but finally got in. I only had about 20km left to Kotor and it was a beautiful and flat ride along the bay! It was so far one of the most beautiful rides! To cross the bay, I had to take a little ferry that operated every 10min and only cost 1€ for the bicycle - I was in love with Montenegro already. 😄
It slowly got dark and I decided to stay at a little camp site just 8km away from Kotor, which was recommended to me by Leo. The old cute lady didn't speak any English, the camp site was really basic (the shower was basically just a steel frame with a curtain and privacy depended on the direction of the wind 😅), but it was right by the sea and really nice. I knew there was rain to come in the night, but I thought it wouldn't be too much fine to cycle to Kotor in the morning to stay in a hostel there until the weather is better again.. turns out I was wrong, more on that in a minute. 😅

Just when I finished setting up my tent, a group of guys in three old cars arrived at the campground. The cars had stickers all over and a number on the door, I've seen many of the around in previous days already and wasn't sure what was going on. They seemed to drive around randomly everywhere. I haven't been able to ask them what was going on since they always just drive past me and were kind of in a hurry. So I saw a change in getting answers and approached on of the guys in the car on the campground. He told me it's an annual Polish charity rally happening for the 16th time with changing destinations, this year Durrës in Albania. To be part of it, you have to raise a certain amount of money by sponsors. One can only participate with old "communist" cars. All donations are going for children in need (education, orphanage) in Poland. It's not about winning but making it to one of the two winning fields. The rally is called Złombol and I love the idea behind it. 😊 The guys invited me over for a BBQ they planned on having, but first had to convince the old lady of the campground that it's just a "Mali BBQ", not too big. 😅 Eventually me and the eight guys were sitting by the fire, eating stew together, drinking some self-made wine they bought from the lady for 3€/1.5 liter, and chatted. 😊 It was a really fun evening, they gave me stickers of the Złombol rally for my bicycle, taught me Polish swear words (Kurwa) and we laughed a lot together. 😊 They wouldn't believe me it was about to heavily rain during the night and the next day, so they didn't even bother setting up their tents but just slept on the mattresses outside. 😅 One of them, Jakob, was convinced that 90% chance of rain referred to rain in 90% of the area but we're in the 10% of dry area. We sat together until really late and when the rain actually started suddenly and heavily, he had to wake up his friends and helped them setting up the tents really quickly. 😂

I woke up around 6am due the thunderstorm despite having hearplugs in. It had heavily rained the entire night through and my tent was basically sitting in mud. Also the heavy wind and the fact that I couldn't attach the tent properly to the ground (too rocky) lead to the decision of quickly packing up my stuff as long as it's kidney of dry inside the tent. I could feel water coming in from below already and the tent was about to collapse from the wind. I was soaking wet when I was done packing and relocating my stuff including the tent into the bathroom area of the campground. I then decided to ask the lady whether I could leave my stuff at the campground for a day or two and catch up bus into Kotor to stay at a hostel for a night or two. She didn't mind and told me to wait infront of the shop nearby for the bus, who was supposed to come hourly. Since it didn't come, I bought some breakfast instead and went back to the campground to have breakfast with the Polish guys. It had stopped raining for a few minutes. They have rescued themselves into the cars and abandoned their soaking wet tents. 😅 We had breakfast together and I took the next bus into Kotor, where I arrived being freezing cold and wet at 11am, asking whether I could check in already. 😄 The hot shower was the best one I had on this trip. After some rest, I strolled around Kotor in the afternoon. A beautiful old city with a city wall in the mountain!!

The next morning (rain has stopped), I took the local bus again to get back to the campground and to pick up my stuff. I set up the tent for drying in the backyard and took the bike for 40km ride around the bay area. So nice riding without luggage!! 😁 On the way I talked to a British couple about Albania, they weren't fans unfortunately and gave me all their Albanian money because "we are certainly not going back". 😅 It was good getting their opinion on things, but I still feel like making up my own mind about it. ;)
In the evening, Lara arrived at the same hostel in Kotor and we went out for dinner in the city with another cyclist from France. It was a nice evening and the vegetarian Pita with fries was amazing. 😁Read more