Podgorica and the Tara River Canyon

25/07/2019

Hi, it’s Higgy here! 

Our third day in the Balkans really started on our overnight bus (the first of the trip!) at 2:30am, when a scary man (the Serbian border policeman) shouted at us because we didn’t know what “Open your passport” meant in Serbian. As you can imagine, that was quite the awakening! It was a strange border crossing as we didn’t have to get off the coach as we had done leaving Bulgaria and entering Serbia. The journey was around 11 hours long, and we finally got to Podgorica at 5:30am.

We then explored Podgorica by following the different streets and seeing where they took us. We visited the clock tower, the parliament building, the ruins of the fort and the millennium bridge. My favourite part was when we got to the river and got to see he sun reflect off of the water. We then continued walking around the streets of Podgorica at random, discovering little alleyways and odd quirks of the city (including enormous palm trees and lots of pet birds). After several hours of walking, and seeing the Montenegrin prime minister leave the parliament building, we ventured into a cafe and all got some drinks. Afterwards we stopped off at the supermarket to pick up food for lunch. All together our little trip to Podgorica was amazing and we enjoyed every minute of it!

  

At 12 we got onto the minibus that would take us to the white water rafting centre - despite the incredible views leaving the city, most of us immediately fell asleep to make up for our time on the overnight bus. We were woken by the driver at Piva Lake for an impromptu photoshoot, with out backdrop being some of the bluest water we’ve ever seen and the enormous cliffs of the river gorge.

 

When we got to the centre, one of the first things we did was have a shower - we had been wearing the same clothes for 30ish hours and were desperate to get changed! As of right now we are currently enjoying the weather by the river and mountains waiting for our dinner, freshly cooked on a traditional Montenegrin grill. Tomorrow we are rafting through the Tara River Canyon, but all together, today has been a long but amazing day!