Day 8 - 25th August 2011 – Ulcinj/Bar, Montenegro

Been to Bar today by bus, another reasonably sized town on the Montenegrin coast. It's only 10 miles away and the bus took about half an hour. Sadly, it doesn't really have much going for it. There's no real central area to speak of and it has very little character, with unexciting modern buildings to look at. The only half-decent part is when you get near the beach which has some nice tropical-looking trees and things, where I had a kiwi icecream which was very refreshing. We also saw our first Montenegrin railway station here, the end of the line for trains from the Montenegrin capital Podgorica and Belgrade in Serbia. I think we'll be returning here later in the week to take a train ride to the capital and see what it has to offer, as it's only an hour away and is apparently a very nice journey.

On the way back to the bus station for the return journey to Ulcinj, we went into the biggest supermarket we had found so far, which had a nice selection of local honey, jams from various fruits and various spirits and wines from the region, all at reasonable prices. I bought a small bottle of Gorki List, a spirit from Slovenia, and a couple of small bottles of local red and rose wine. Also got a bottle of Smirnoff vodka, although not very 'regional' it was vanilla flavour and was considerably cheaper than back home at just over €9. Had a look at Rakija as well, the local spirit here but haven't decided which I would like yet. There was also a wonderful bottle of cherry brandy from Croatia which looked very nice, but was so heavy I'm really not sure I've got room in my luggage. Having returned to the apartment however, I definitely need to get something else now that my bottle of Cognac from Albania has broken! Sadly I won't be able to get another bottle as we won't be going back there, but there's probably something similar available around here, although probably not at the same price! Now we're going out to find something to eat before settling in for an early night before tomorrow's sightseeing adventure around Montenegro with the group.

Link to Day 9: http://travellingcyclist2k.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/day-9-26th-august-2011.html