DATELINE: Ulcinj, Montenegro    

Author: Andy      

Yesterday we enjoyed what could perhaps be described as a fairly narcissistic day of tourism in Pristina. We went to the national museum, whose featured exhibition was about the US role in supporting Kosovar independence. There was a lot of interesting information about the role of the Albanian diaspora in the states, and they had letters and memorabilia from the Clinton administration and several congressmen of the era. For lunch, we walked over to the NATO base and tried to talk our way onto it, since we'd read on the internet that they had a good Thai place. The troops guarding the main gate were really nice Greeks, and they were really rooting for us. Ultimately we verified the existence of the restaurant, but found out we would have had to make arrangements for a visit 72 hours in advance. Crestfallen, we settled for nearby Indian food. We decided to take a night bus to Montenegro, since we'd basically run out of things to do in Pristina and had a fair amount of ground to cover. Even though this ride was longer than the last one (10 hours 20 minutes) it doesn't seem to have hit us as hard. The Kosovo-Montenegro border was smooth, although as I recall the no man's land between Kosovo exit and Montenegro entry checkpoints was conspicuously large. Also on the Montenegro entry side there was a big queue of dump trucks full of what appeared to be gravel. So now we're in the coastal town of Ulcinj, waiting for a bus up to Budva.