We left Sarande, Albania the morning of Michele’s birthday and walked naively towards the bus station, not knowing how miserable the next two travel days were going to be (sorry for the terrible birthday, Mich!) Considering we were in Southern Albania (right on the border of Greece), it would be a bit of a trek to get up to our next stop: Tivat, Montenegro. There were no direct buses, so we would need to take a bus up to Tirana, the capital of Albania, spend the night, and take a 2nd bus the next morning to Tivat.
We booked our bus tickets in advance online, and showed up over 45 minutes before our 9:30 am bus, as instructed on the tickets. There was a pretty long line at the station to buy tickets, but it was unclear whether it was necessary to check in if we already had the tickets on hand. Some countries in the Balkans are very strict about needing paper tickets rather than e-tickets, so I asked one of the workers if we still needed to check in, where he rudely dismissed me and instructed me to keep waiting in line. The bus station workers had what I would describe as negative hustle, so we were getting more and more nervous as the clock kept ticking closer and closer to 9:30.
About 5 minutes before our bus, we finally got to the front of the line…. And came face to face with the same rude worker (new mortal enemy) from earlier who informed us that despite booking our tickets in advance days before, the bus company had overbooked the ride and we wouldn’t have seats. As we tried to protest, the worker blamed us for showing up late, while screaming that we “should’ve been here 30 minutes in advance as the ticket instructed” to guarantee a spot on the bus. To which we responded back “WE WERE!! WE’VE BEEN HERE FOR ALMOST AN HOUR WAITING IN THIS SLOW ASS LINE! I EVEN TALKED TO YOU SPECIFICALLY 30 MINUTES AGO TO TELL YOU I ALREADY HAD A TICKET AND JUST NEEDED TO CHECK IN???”
After an infuriating confrontation with this horribly rude man, we ended up getting bumped to the next bus at 10:45 am. We stood outside the bus station in the hot sun fuming, waiting for our bus to arrive. To add insult to injury, the bus was over 30 minutes late. We boarded the bus and found our seats, but the drama ensued when one of the other passengers realised that his seat had also been oversold and somebody was already in it. Our MORTAL ENEMY boarded the bus to yell at the passenger for not being properly seated, before admitting that it was a administrative mistake that the bus was overbooked and reluctantly let the passenger ride up front next to the driver.
We were finally en route, and the bus ride was miserable. The buses in the Balkans are cheap, but you get what you pay for: extremely cramped seats, little to no AC, and loud and annoying people!!! Our driver was blaring music at 10000 decibels (that even our noice cancelling AirPods couldn’t cancel out), and we barely had any leg room to work with. We had a short little break about halfway through the drive, and finally arrived in Tirana around 4 pm. We had booked a spot walking distance from the domestic bus station, so we checked in, dropped our bags and headed out for dinner.
We found a cute Italian spot nearby our accomodation, and the food was actually really good. We had a nice birthday dinner with Michele after our bus ride from hell and went back to the hotel to watch a movie and relax.
The next morning, we packed up our bags and headed back to the bus station to catch our second bus. Unlike other buses we had taken, the cost of our baggage wasn’t included in the ticket, so we hatched a plan – Saz and Michele were gonna pay and load up the bags and I would go wait in line near the front door to board for good seats.
After all the bags were loaded, the bus driver came around to open the door but it wouldn’t open. It was locked or broken or something, and the driver absolutely lost his mind and started yelling at everyone in Albanian and broken English asking if anybody broke the door (obviously nobody fessed up to the tomato-faced terrifying Balkan man screaming his head off). They finally got the door open, but the driver was so mad that he made everyone re-line up and board from the back door so our plan was a fail.
After we boarded the bus, the angry driver was re-enraged when one of the passengers lost his ticket, and started yelling at everyone again. We were 0/2 for bus rides in Albania so far. Yet again the seats were tiny and extremely uncomfortable, and the AC was barely working. We finally got on the road, only to be introduced to our next mortal enemy: the insane old lady sitting next to us who’s phone rang quite literally every 2 minutes. She would proceed to have long and LOUD conversations on speakerphone for the next 4 hours. I wish I was exaggerating, but she legitimately shouted on speaker phone to multiple different people for literally the entire 4 hours until she finally got off at her stop.
The bus ride was “only” supposed to be 7 hours, but it ended up taking over 11. We finally arrived in Tivat around 8:30 pm, absolutely exhausted from the worst bus ride of all time. I had been in communication with our Tivat accomodation host, and she warned me that it could be difficult to get a taxi so late at night. Luckily, finally something worked out in our favour and we managed to snag a taxi right as we got off the bus. It did take over 30 minutes to go 2.5 kilometres because of traffic, though.
Our Tivat accom was absolutely adorable – a cute little studio apartment with a full kitchen, laundry machine, and comfy beds. We were absolutely starving as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and our host recommended a neighbourhood grill house just around the corner called Konoba Nadoveza Pecenjara.
We got there at 9:45pm and it was still absolutely packed! The waiter was clearly frazzled. He said we could order to take away but it would take over an hour. It worked out for us as it gave us time to shower and change at home, just in time to pick up our dinner. The food was absolutely incredible – a huge pile of potatoes, bread, and grilled meat. A proper Balkan dinner!
That next day was unfortunately Michele’s last day with us – she was flying out of Tivat back to Japan to start the new school year. She went out to explore the town early in the morning, and we met up with her at the beach a few hours later. The water was actually so nice and warm, but we didn’t have our swimsuits so we couldn’t hop in.
At around 1 pm, we headed back to our accomodation for Michele to shower and pack to head to the airport. The airport was only a 20 minute walk from our place, we walked her to the airport and said our goodbyes.
Despite the many hiccups and road bumps along the way, we seriously had the best time exploring the Balkans with Michele. We got to visit so many off the beaten track places, and Michele’s endless energy and positive attitude kept us going in some difficult situations. Miss you already, Miff!
The next day, we took a very much needed work day. It’s difficult keeping up with housekeeping when we’re travelling with other people, so we took the day to get caught up on writing some posts, editing photos, and doing daily housekeeping tasks. We only took one break to head back to that same grill house around the corner to pick up some food.
The following morning, we planned our next steps. We had originally planned on heading to Croatia for the next 3 nights, but were absolutely appalled at the prices! Everything was so expensive and out of our budget! We ultimately decided to extend our time in Tivat for another few nights and only spend 1 night in Dubrovnik to save some money. We got all of our planning done that morning, and set off to explore the beautiful city of Tivat.
We spent a few hours walking around the town, exploring the sites, and stopped for lunch. Tivat was so charming and cute: the marina was lined with little fishing boats, beautiful flowers, and the stunning mountain range silhouetted the city. The ocean was a beautiful blue, and everything else was super green. After our walking tour, we headed to the beach to cool off. It was a stunning day and the water temperature was just PERFECT (first time in Europe the water hasn’t been absolutely FREEZING!)
Although we were staying in Tivat for an extra few nights, we had to change accomodations because new guests would be arriving at our current place. We booked a new place just down the road, so we packed up our bags and trekked ~20 minutes down the road to our new accomodation. Our new place was much smaller, but still really cozy and much closer to the grocery store and the beach. We even had an adorable Golden Retriever come greet us!
We headed to the store to stock up on our meals for the rest of our time, and just as we got home the skies opened up and it started to POUR! Our bodies were feeling pretty exhausted from the whirlwind few months we had had in Europe, so we took it as a sign to enjoy a cozy afternoon in to relax and recharge. It ended up storming all night, so we laid in our cozy little loft watching movies.
Our last day in Tivat was the final of the Women’s World Cup, so we found a sports bar in town called The Blue Room to watch the game. It took over an hour to walk there, but we arrived before the game started so we decided to kill time by exploring the area. It was a super bougie part of town, with a ton of super yachts parked in the marina.
We walked by one cafe/restaurant and spotted the waiter bringing a table some huge delicious looking croissants so we decided to duck in and grab a couple. I went in to ask for the wifi password and an rich old Russian man with a hot young thing were waiting for the waiter at the counter.
The Russian man turned to me with a steely expression and said something in Russian, so I just smiled and nodded awkwardly, and he said “Good morning” in a thick Russian accent. His steely expression did not fade.
“Good morning!” I responded timidly.
“Have a wonderful day.” – Russian Man
“Oh, thank you. You too!” – Me
“You. Are. Very. Beautiful” – Russian man said, with no smile or any friendliness whatsoever. The coldest compliment I’ve ever received. I was like “Oh haha, thank you!” He just turned around and walked away. New Russian sugar daddy perhaps?
We returned to The Blue Room in time for the finale: Spain vs. England. We were pretty neutral on who to root for, but pretty much every other person in attendance was British, so being the contrarian that she is Saz decided to root for Spain. We ordered cocktails from the bar and sat and watched the game (for what seemed like forever -Saz)
The game ended with Spain winning 1-0, and being the only one in the bar rooting for Spain, Saz got approached by a British man who jokingly said “congratulations, fair play”.
We spent our last afternoon in Tivat at the beach, soaking in the sun and scenery. After an incredible few days in Montenegro, we packed up our bags and got ready for our next destination: Dubrovnik, Croatia!
