Heading south by bus, I considered staying in Dubrovnik with its imposing fortifications around the old city. Yet, I have seen many fortified old cities and I decided to pass. There is not much else to see in the city anyway. I missed the direct bus to Budva, Montenegro so I jumped on another bus to Herceg Novi just across the border. I had a bad realization once I got to Herceg Novi; I had no coin of the realm and there were no exchange offices or ATMs. The bus to Budva was 4 euro. I had Serbian, Croatian, Moroccan, and American money—no euros. I spotted some Americans (not hard to do) and talked them into being my mini exchange office. And then I was off again. It was nice when the bus pulled onto a ferry to cross the bay and I was able to get out and relax for a few minutes and admire Montenegro’s mountainous splendor. Arriving in Budva, I followed the directions to the hostel for 20 minutes and could not find it. I once again was expecting a sign. I pulled out my laptop and found the address right next me.
The Hippo hostel turned out to be one of the better hostels I have known. It is run by a nice younger couple who know the importance of atmosphere. The first thing was the half liter of welcome beer. Then David sat and explained the city with a map and made sure I could find what I wanted. There is a nice lush patio, big kitchen, a huge selection of movies, games, clean bathrooms, and free internet. And the market across the street has beer for ridiculously low prices, such as forty cents for a half liter and 1.80 euro for a two liter bottle.
David tipped me off to a great cliff diving site where you could jump 52 feet (16m) into the sea. I was excited. I made the trek, across three beaches and over jagged rocks and found the cliff. It was hard to miss with the big brass plaque saying that a 16 year-old had died at that spot by jumping into the mouth of a shark. It is some kind of Montenegrin joke because there are no sharks in these waters. Dave said that many people had chickened out after seeing how shallow the water looked. He said the water only looked shallow because of how clear it was. I took his word for it because I was looking down at a frothy white raging sea. I wanted to jump and waited fruitlessly for about an hour to see if the sea would calm. The problem was not in jumping. It was in climbing back up. The waves would have smashed me against the rough rocks. Besides, I was alone and that is never a good time to do something like that. Better to be disappointed than stupid. Bummer number one.
I couldn’t jump of a cliff…how about a mountain? I hiked to the next town to find the paragliding company that would drive me up to the top of the mountain and let me float all the way down to the beach. That is very cool, no? No. They closed up shop the week before and no one knew anything else. Bummer number two.
The next day, I went on the hostel led sea kayaking trip to the beach and cliff diving spot on the back of the nearest island. The water was still a little rough and the kayak people were not renting. We all took big four person paddle boats instead (they even had their own slide). It went well until we rounded the island to the open sea. The waves were much bigger. Then the wind kicked up hard. We decided to bail when we were almost to the beach because we never would have gotten off the beach in those huge boats. Going back turned out to be fun though. The swells were about 6 feet (2m) and the wind was blowing hard; so hard that we could not get the boat to turn toward shore. The wind kept it sideways no matter how hard we paddled and which way we turned the rudder. I had to jump in the water and turn the boats by hand. It turned out that the water was warmer than sitting on the boat and I spent most of the trip back playing in the water as the boat dragged me along. At least bummer number three wasn’t all bad with the exciting weather to make things interesting.
Budva is a great, cheap vacation spot and it is a shame I wasn’t having much luck. Three times of trying is enough for me to get the hint. Time to move on.
