Day 67 Montenegro here we come!

Sunday 27/05/2018 Guest House Don-Lux Vuka Kneževića Pljevlja Room 4

We are heading to a Pljevlja Montenegro today.... don’t ask me to pronounce it!
All we can pray that this goes smoother than the lady border crossings.......

We are met by Victor Tody’s husband they own the apartment, he even gives us a bottle of wine which is so lovely of him.... I had let a Tody know about no sink plug and we had to let Victor know that the toilet seat kept falling off ..l. I don’t think he will fix this issue, he said he knew there was no plug....a Belgradian no reason to fix something that kind of works...l they both look as if they are professionals.... she had to go to work today a workshop she said....
Off to our car which looked as unloved as the other cars in the lot, only been sitting for 4 days an absolutely filthy! So now we join the locals in looks we might fit in better this way.....

Down the Hwy we head through Belgrade part many wreaked graffiti covered buildings, over grown weed yards, parks and sides of the road.... there didn’t seem to be an end to Belgrade even though it had sings saying one village to the next was finished it just continued for kilometres.

The roads from Belgrade to the border are terrible bumpy pit holes and not easy to drive on!

The scenery in all honestly isn’t that inviting. We did come across a couple of dams that looked like they were used for social sport and had a few floating restaurants, or restaurants looking over them. We found a really nice one just after we had stopped for a cuppa and it was too early for lunch.... so a quick pic then on we go making our way to the Alpine region of Serbia 🇷🇸. What a difference it makes the country side is cleaner neater and a different green.... the villages very alpine set up big resorts, alpine homes 🏠 and a clean neat servo to pull up at and order lunch.... which wasn’t too bad either... we should have been staying here or having a look around, at least but after the last time when we did the border crossing when we had to go to another one we didn’t want to take the chance to have to turn around again.... as it was it was taking us longer than planned to get here! So we order eat and go...? The border it turns out wasn’t that much further down the road and it’s also a double whammy again.... 2 for one, you go through the Serbian one first it didn’t go too bad really he checked them, scanned them, then stamped them, we think 🤔 that’s it.....past the border sign, the sign says welcome to Montenegro 🇲🇪 yes and then we spot another booth.... it was up the road a little way from the welcome sign.... yes another check, didn’t see him stamp it hope it was, they asked a John for his car green paperwork, we had read about this so had heads up what they wanted.... gave it over a few anxious moments then yep all good and handed back... ... thinking again all done, but ohh no here we have a women a very surly 😡 looking woman..... she also wants the green paperwork only John didn’t quite get what she said,she was very impatient so repeated again,he gets it this time... tension rises when you do border crossings be it in an airport or on land it’s a tense time.... she finally gives us the all clear a huge sigh of relief and off we go.... the road from the Alpine Village until we reach here is all down hill and a very windy, long way down we come.

Part way down we spot a huge coal mine, a massive power station... well I thought it was a coal mine first as I saw all the over burden and reclaim that had been down, John was busy keeping us in the road.... we managed to pull up and have a look, the conveyor belt that went up the mountain was no longer in use... so on first glance we thought the mine might be defunct... but then looking again you could see the smallish dragline and smaller trucks than what John was used to! So until he did some research on it he thought it was an ore mine, but no it’s one of 2 coal mines in Montenegro 🇲🇪, the other and this supply for the lower houses.... only pulls 2 million ton a year.... The Callide one used to do 6-8 million a year big difference.... John could see the equipment and said it was very old.... anyway had our look then onto a Pljevlja..

Looks pretty sizey, but once here has a real village atmosphere. There was a young guy about 17 on the office desk when we arrive, he was in a fluster... wanting to make sure everything went smoothly... His ATM wouldn’t work so he got even more worked up... he spoke English not real well, but well enough for us to talk... so having no ATM we had to find a hole in the wall one, he was a little concerned we might do a runner so kept our passports as collateral..... all good we weren’t concerned.. so up the street past the Islamic Mosque 🕌 we go... everyone staring as we met them on the street... we get our money 💴 back to pay him and all’s good... our room twin beds and no fridge I was concerned as we had so much cold stuff to keep cool... anyway the young guy had it all sorted a little fridge was found and plugged in away she went... very good.... we had a rest headed across the street for dinner.... honestly the best food we have had the whole trip, simple tasty food. Yum... plus the waiter spoke English bonus... meal went well. After dinner we headed up the street to check out the local area... once we turned into the main area, there were people everywhere, families, young ones, old ones, all socialising together... I think that’s something we have noticed with Europe and Asia, (not Germany’s) everything is open out there everyone gathering together to socialise and be as one... in Australia 🇦🇺 we lock ourselves away so no one can touch us, just in case they are a pain on our personal space or privacy... that’s normal for us... we aren’t rude we do socialise just in a very different way.... this is open non personal and in a way refreshing to witness. They seem to be more relaxed where we are uptight and on the go... I am nit saying it’s better just something I feel we can learn from... to be honest it looked nearly like it was a party but it wasn’t it was just Sunday evening get together... interesting. Anyway we did our looking and they well and truly looked at us, so we headed home to bed.

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