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I wake up broken, beat & scarred from yesterday’s walk. The sun is shining bright over Žabljak this morning. What a view there must be over the Tara Canyon. Bah, better not to think about it.

The plan was to take the bus to Nikšić, and from there the train to Podgorica. It’s the only other railway line in the country, beside Bar, Crna Gora [Bar, Montenegro]-Serbia. However, when the bus arrived at the time that a friendly local gave us yesterday, it was going directly to Podgorica. We hesitated, and soon the bus was completely full. But a second one from the same company arrived immediately. I asked the driver if he stopped in Nikšić, but he said no. He wasn’t speaking a word of English, so I didn’t insisted, and we climbed aboard, to go directly to Podgorica. I was pissed off to miss the train, but whatever. The driver didn’t went towards us when collecting money for the tickets, glancing at us with disdain.

As soon as the bus left the parking, I knew something was fishy. For whatever reason, I assumed the two buses followed each other, without even thinking about it. But no, I realized we were going the wrong way. Kamel told me to quickly ask the driver. He stopped and was mad at us. He screamed at me in Montenegrin or Serbian or whatever. Stupid asshole. How am I supposed to understand when you don’t even try to use a single word of English. At least this moron dropped us still in Žabljak and I could get my bag…

   I

   haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate

   the bus!!!

I felt terribly bad, putting Kamel in this situation. But at least we didn’t pay for nothing and were just five minutes walk away from the bus station. We had time to take a coffee in the bar owned by a super friendly guy, and luckily the next bus was just an hour later.

That bus was stoping in Nikšić, however the last time I was on a bus to a capital city and I dropped off early to finish by train, it didn’t end up too well… At this point, I was too affraid to repeat the Гевгелија [Gevegelija] fiasco, especially since Kamel has already booked a bus leaving from Podgorica tomorrow. So we just took the bus for the whole trip. At least the scenery was jaw-dropping for almost the entire route, while I dreamt of the day where you could plan anything ahead in the Balkans.

We got a very nice airbnb on the fifth floor, with a great view over the city. We went to a delicious and cheap restaurant, and downed the remainder of our bottle of Cockta, the Slovene Coca-Cola but better.