August: Bosnia, Montenegro, and Croatia

We visited three towns on our European Finale: Neum, Bosnia; Budva, Montenegro; and Dubrovnik, Croatia. All three of them are within about 3 hours’ driving distance of each other, so we thought it would be cool to hit three countries in one trip.

Neum is a tiny beach town on a little sliver of Bosnia; drive 30 minutes either way and you’re in Croatia. The Google Images of it are great; crystal-clear blue water with some hotels and resorts on a few small harbors, very charming. This was all accurate, and we also found the people we met to be lovely- our Airbnb host, the waitstaff at restaurants, etc. were all very friendly. And everything was suuuuper cheap!

Things we were not expecting and didn’t love so much: the mostly Soviet-style cement block buildings, the many piles of garbage, and the swarms of people from neighboring countries (Eastern Europe and Russia) who come to have their beach vacations in mid-August.

We only spent two nights in Neum, so for our 1 full day, we decided to just hang out on the beach. We found a spot with lounge chairs that was not yet too crowded, paid the attendant 2 EUR for each chair, and settled in. A couple rows in front of us, we noticed a group of about 20 Russians who all seemed to be related: aunts, uncles, grandparents, kids, etc. As soon as we got our books out, the patriarch of the group began a rather loud discussion with the beach attendant concerning (we assume) the price of renting the lounge chairs. This went on for several minutes, with many more family members throwing in their two cents as well. Just when we were about to get up and relocate, they seemed to resolve the issue and settle themselves down. Not five minutes later, Mr. Patriarch gets out his cell phone to play some (LOUD) beach music for the group. Irritated, I start gathering our things again to move spots. But Andy said, “Wait...do you recognize that song?” Sure enough, this old Russian guy is bobbing his head to Merle Haggard’s “Fightin’ Side of Me”. Over the next couple of hours, we enjoyed Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings...all the good stuff! You don’t expect to hear classic country music sitting on a beach in Bosnia, but I guess people surprise you sometimes.

We had pre-purchased regional bus tickets for the next morning to get us to Montenegro, so our Airbnb hosts graciously offered to take us to the bus stop with our luggage. We were a bit skeptical when they dropped us off in front of a grocery store with no buses to be found, but figured they knew better than we did. More people with luggage started to gather around us within a few minutes, so it seemed alright. We got to the bus stop around 8:50 for our 9 am scheduled bus. About 9:10, a bus pulls up with a sign reading “Belgrade,” (as in Serbia) which is in the opposite direction of where we are trying to go. We call the bus company and verify that indeed, this is not our bus, and ours will be there shortly.

9:15 - no bus.

9:25 - no bus. I call the bus company again, and they assure me that it is almost there.

9:35 - A bus drives by. It’s going about 50 mph, and it doesn’t slow down.

9:36 - I call the bus company again and explain what we just saw. She says she’ll call me back.

9:37 - Bus company calls me back, says the driver didn’t see anybody so didn’t stop.

Hm. Well, it would have been helpful to know that’s how this works. Maybe we would have worn neon vests? Or jumped up and down and waved?

Luckily, another bus headed in the right direction was scheduled to come by at 10:15. We managed to get on this bus headed for Montenegro and happily left Bosnia behind. In hindsight, we both agree that we should have just skipped Bosnia...but it certainly made for some memories!

Neum

The only other picture I took in Bosnia. The view from our Airbnb

The bus stopped for passport controls 4 different times - leaving Bosnia, entering Croatia, leaving Croatia, and entering Montenegro. At each stop, an officer would board the bus, collect all the passports, take them off the bus, and come back after stamping them all. Each time, I was so worried my passport wouldn’t come back. Passengers sometimes got off the bus to smoke a cigarette and use the restroom; one guy got left at the Montenegro/Croatia border. Woopsies! With all the stops and the slow speed of a bus, the drive actually took about 5 hours, instead of the 3 that I had seen on Google Maps. As you can imagine, we were relieved to finally get off the bus at an actual bus station in Budva.

Budva is a much bigger town than Neum, with less of the Soviet feel and a much more coastal-town vibe. However, our first walk down the beach showed us that it’s also a bit of a party destination - foam parties, DJs, clubs on the beach, you get the picture. None of that is really our scene (we’re about 10 years past that), so after dinner the first night, we spent some time planning our day to make the most of Budva.

The next morning, we took a water taxi to a private beach called “the King’s Beach”. With chair service and a gorgeous view, we enjoyed this day so much! I read my book, Andy swam laps in the ocean, and people brought us watermelon spears. All the makings of a fabulous beach day.

Water taxi ride

Our private beach 

Loving life

For dinner that night, Andy had discovered that Nobu (somewhat famous and delicious sushi restaurant) had a pop-up location for the summer in Budva! We enjoyed an awesome meal with an awesome view.

My view at Nobu :) 

The next day, we took another super pleasant (although thankfully shorter) bus ride to our final stop, Dubrovnik. We could tell as soon as we got there that we had saved the best for last!

Dubrovnik had all of our favorite things for a warm-weather vacation: beautiful blue water, a few fun active-activities, and awesome food. Tourism is a bit more developed here than it is in Bosnia (go figure), so it wasn’t as cheap, but it was still very reasonable. Some of our favorite things:

Walk around the city walls - It can take as little as 30 minutes or as long as 2 hours, depending on how much you stop to take pictures. Great views!

Kayak tour - I thought this was a lot better than just renting kayaks on your own. Our guide had lots of interesting tidbits of information, provided a small lunch, and took us to a cool little beach/cove.

Nautika - such a great meal! http://nautikarestaurant.com/restaurant-nautika/ This was our final splurge to celebrate the end of our European chapter, and it was the perfect spot.

When we left Dubrovnik, it was to get back to Geneva for 48 hours before the move- we finished packing our suitcases, took Sam to the vet for his final checkups, and walked around the lake one more time before leaving.

Last visit to the Jet

These two days felt SO long! We were a little sad, knowing that this phase is over - we had been traveling pretty much non-stop since I resigned from my job, and we know it will likely be several years before we make it back to Europe. But we were also so excited and anxious to move to College Station, see our families and friends, start new careers...Anyway, I think I've got one more blog post in me to wrap this whole thing up!