We were at the border crossing between Albania and Montenegro. The Albanians told the bus driver that they would have to make him take out all the suitcases for them to inspect before we could go through.

They were after a bribe. They got it.

When someone on the bus expressed surprise, Jake shrugged and simply said, “It’s the Albanians…”

We saw this pretty couple on our walk through the capital city of Montenegro. It was a dull place, with it’s only redeeming features being this sculpture…

… and this old bridge.
When Montenegro was part of communist Yugoslavia, they ripped down all of the interesting old buildings, just as they did in Albania.

It’s a city with many communist-era buildings like this. It’s not really worth the effort to go.

However, on our way out of town, we stopped for 30 minutes at Lake Skadar. It was very pretty.

As we continued driving, we saw our first glimpses of the Adriatic Sea.
Italy is just beyond the horizon.

One lucky bugger was paragliding. Remember when I signed up to do that in Borneo and it didn’t happen?

Finally, we arrived at the very fashionable town of Budva. As soon as we checked in, Blogless Sandy and I hot-footed it down to Budva Old Town.
It was fabulous.

The old city walls still surround the town. It has been here for around 2,500 years and the sense of history is palpable.

The streets are labyrinthine, curving in around each other. It covers quite a small area, but it certainly fits a lot in.

We entered by a side gate.

This place. Is filled with restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops and bars.
It reminded me of Venice, in that it’s impossible to take a bad photo here.

The whole place is designed for photography.

We walked around, taking everything in.

Then we realised we’d walked the length of the town. Here was a side gate, leading out to the sea.

I dipped my hand into the Adriatic Sea.

Our next quest was to find the citadel and walk on top of the city walls. When we were on the beach, we could see people up there.

Look at how this tree is growing from a crack in the cobblestones.

Up on top of the walls.

The afternoon was simply perfect, even though my expression might not make you think so!

All of the roofs have the same terracotta tiles, which ties everything in together.
Beyond the terracotta, the modern world.

We decided to treat ourselves and have dinner in this beautiful space, instead of walking back into town to look for something a bit cheaper.
Aft all, when are we likely to be back here again?

(Well, we’re here in Budva for another night; but you know what I mean.)

We had dinner here, and it was very nice. I didn’t realise until I was going through my photos, but I took this shot almost as soon as we arrived in the old city, because I liked the writing on the guy’s top.
We ended up eating dinner at the empty table in the foreground of the photo.

As we left Old Town to walk up the hill to our hotel, I looked back.

There was another paraglider, high in the air.

How lovely!

Dad joke of the day: