Montenegro

Since Montenegro is one of those places that are hard to reach with flights with reasonable prices from Sweden, I was thinking of doing a road trip instead from Macedonia via Kosovo and Albania. My friend Lisa who had been living in Macedonia told me to go to the coast of Montenegro where she had been and not to the boring capital called Podgorica. When I googled the map of Montenegro I saw a small village called Ulcinj near the border of Albania on the coast. The next step was to search for images of Ulcinj and boom I was sold, Ulcinj was definitely the place to go to in Montenegro. The water was crystal clear blue and the old castle by the sea looked amazing as the contrast. It had everything I look for in a destination. To make it even more appealing I found the perfect hotel called Continental which almost literally was placed on the beach with the fantastic sea view from the balcony of the room.

The road trip with my friend Michael to get to Ulcinj wasn't the easiest one, with rabies dogs attacking our car, and a freezing night in Albania since the window of the so called hotel was broken, and we had no electricity to get some heat. We also travelled the death roads of the mountains in Albania with tombstones on the side of the road to let us know how many people had died from it. "It better be worth it", I thought to myself when we arrived outside Hotel Continental in Ulcinj. The amazing view was there but the hotel itself didn't quite live up to my high expectations, from the outside that was. When I went into our room I almost died of happiness, it was the best hotel I had ever been to, the room was fantastic and when I got out to the balcony and saw the view it was even greater than I had hoped for. My first thought was that I wanted to move in for life, and never leave!

The room and especially the balcony was so great that I almost didn't want to leave the hotel to explore the city. I just wanted to sit there in the sun, listen to the waves crashing in and love life, it's not a feeling I often get in February in Sweden. At night it just got even better when the old city by the castle lights up.

I loved the fact that the view from the balcony was open sea in the middle, a nature view of cliffs and trees on the left side, that reminded me of Greece, and the old town and the castle on the right side. Everything I love at the same time and I could die happy here, literally because we visited the graveyard next to the old town and even that looked amazing with the sea view behind it.

Fortunately I had Michael with me so that I wouldn't just sit on the balcony the whole visit. We saw the amazing old town of historical and narrow streets, while the small city center of Ulcinj felt a lot like a tourist destination for the summer. But as I said, we were there in February so we were almost the only tourists except for a football team who seemed to be on a training camp and were staying at the same hotel as us. I love the feeling of being in tourist spots without the tourists so it was a perfect fit for me.

We climbed the mountains and got to see the city from above.

We almost didn't make it because a dog appeared and started to bark at us, and since the rabies incidents in Kosovo and Albania we didn't take any chances and quietly walked backwards out of there to find a new route. Nothing more exciting happened, and I mean that in a good way. Sometimes when you travel you can forget to relax and just be in the moment and let the hours pass while you're busy doing nothing. It's important sometimes to just chill and watch the sunrise while you eat pancakes with a fantastic view. Then just stroll around all day in a nice tempo and then relax on the balcony in the evening while the sun is setting, and Ulcinj is the perfect place for that.

Ulcinj is a hidden gem that I first found on the Internet, then in real life and now I hope to pass it on to you as a thank you for joining me on my trip around the world, go visit Ulcinj and stay on Hotel Continental to do yourself a favour!

* Best things about Montenegro – to wake up to the calming sound of the waves, and going to sleep to the same sound, the view from the balcony at Hotel Continental is to die for, and after I have died please bury me at the graveyard next to the picturesque old town

* Most mediocre thing about Montenegro – you can't tell if the dogs are friendly or if they want to eat you

* Worst things about Montenegro – pizza seems to be the only vegetarian food and they drive like crazy, even if they are polite about almost hitting you with the car for an instant death, I don't like that they still smoke inside at many places too

Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):
1. Croatia
2. Montenegro
3. Andorra
4. Cyprus
5. Greece
6. Italy
7. Monaco
8. Malta
9. Iceland
10. Denmark
11. Lithuania
12. Macedonia            
13. Ireland
14. Belgium
15. Estonia
16. Kosovo
17. Finland
18. Latvia
19. France
20. Bulgaria
21. Luxembourg
22. Liechtenstein
23. China
24. Bosnia And Herzegovina
25. Albania