Day 43: Belgrade, Serbia / Kotor, Montenegro - Emergency Train Ride to Montenegro

Serbian countryside.

My initial plan was to spend 2-3 days in Belgrade before heading to Croatia. However, it occurred to me that my Eurail pass also includes Montenegro, and that Montenegro shares a border with southern Croatia, where I wanted to visit anyways. It made much more sense to go south to Montenegro, and then north through Croatia, as opposed to west to Croatia, south to southern Croatia, and then backtracking north again to continue. Plus I would be able to see another country. 

Armed with my new plan, I went to the train station to buy an overnight ticket to Montenegro. However, Montenegro has somehow become a tourist haven and all overnight tickets were booked for the next four nights. Most day trains were also booked. I made an impromptu decision to take the very next day train to Montenegro, and forego a few extra nights in Belgrade. Too bad, it was a really neat place.

The train ride was long, but did afford some nice views. Montenegro, aka the Black Mountain, is aptly named because it's practically one gigantic mountain. The train in Montenegro must have passed through at least 100 tunnels, and I'm not exaggerating. And the landscape did not disappoint.

Wheeeee!

I was also entertained on the train by a few Montenegran young lads who informed me they did not have tickets and were trying to bribe the conductor into letting them ride to the seaside. It worked. We talked about, of all things, heavy metal music. It was amusing watching three Montenegran boys air guitar to Metallica and Guns N Roses.

The train arrived three hours late, forcing me to take an almost midnight bus from the capitol to Kotor, a small seaside city that was my ultimate destination. I arrived in the middle of a raging techno party in the square where my hostel is located. Walking around scantily clad ravers with a backpack after 17 hours of travel was interesting, and rather conspicuous. The hostel was, in fact, closed. But, this being a small country, some guy new a guy who knew the hostel guy, and a few cell phone calls later I was able to disturb another sleeping hostel room and crawl into bed.