I’ve got a short one for you today, mainly because I promise a blog post on December 27th, and that’s today. I’m mooching off the Mall of Berlin’s WiFi to make this happen (and they’re being stingy with it, I had to sign up for the newsletter and they’re still only giving me two hours. I feel like, if you’re going to make me buy in to the marketing, the least you can do is allow me WiFi for life. I only have so many email addresses I could use).

We made it to Kotor. Better yet, we made it to Kotor without anything going wrong.

In Durres, we took a taxi from Giulia Albérgo Hotel to the bus station. We were anxious, because the bus was supposed to leave at 11 am, and we were pulling into the parking lot about two minutes before. The taxi driver didn’t really speak English, and was using hand signals when he dropped us off behind a bus. We immediately started looking around for the bus, but couldn’t find anything leaving for Montenegro, let alone Kotor. I stayed with the luggage while Nicole went off to see what she could find out. People kept coming up to me and speaking Albania, gesturing up and down the road in front of me, and I had no idea what they were trying to convey, but I was hoping that it meant the bus was going to stop right in front of me.

Nicole came back, having finally found someone who spoke English.

“He said to follow the guy with the bananas,” she told me with a shrug and bewildered shake of her head, “and that it’s going to pull up right here when it comes.”

There was some more shuffling around as locals gestured and spoke at us in Albanian, and we shuffled closer to the sidewalk. The bus did, indeed, pull in right where we’d been told it would, and a guy carrying several bunches of bananas appeared out of nowhere and started trying to sell them to any one in the vicinity, on and off the bus. We declined, laughing, and boarded the bus, then settled in for the drive.

Arriving in Kotor, it was only around 6 pm but it was already dark outside. We easily found a taxi, and the driver, who told us everyone calls him “Lucky,” was a total character. He played tour guide, giving us facts and figures about Montenegro as he drove, and cracking jokes about how small the country is (What does a pilot say when he flies over Montenegro? “Look, there’s Monten—never mind.”) He took us to the address we had, but was a little confused about the exact location of the property, so he called the host and found out where to take us, and made sure we were good to go before he left.

Apparently there was some sort of issue with the apartment we originally booked, so the host told the taxi driver to take us to a different one she had available. This place is brand spanking new, you guys. She hadn’t even listed the property on AirBnB yet. It smelled like fresh paint when we arrived. It’s so new, they hadn’t had time to go through and do a final check of everything, so there are a couple places where there’s still construction notes or price tags. And it’s stunning. It’s modern and cozy and chic. It had cool industrial lights and all the seating is done in cozy fabrics. The kitchen has all the bells and whistles, including a Nespresso machine. We have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and my room even has a walk-in closet (Nicole picked rooms, she has the Queen-sized bed as the trade-off).

The clincher, though? Definitely the view.

We asked how much more per month this apartment was, compared to the one we’d booked, and it was still within our budget. So we’re staying. It meant we could unpack and settle in before leaving for Berlin, and in means waking up to this view every morning, and it means a market 200 meters down the street, and it means having our own bathrooms. We’re over the moon. It’s such a drastic change from Otranto, and I’m really hopeful that it’s going to be somewhere that will bolster us, rather than drag us down.

That remains to be seen, though, because no sooner did we arrive in Kotor and unpack than we had to repack for our trip to Berlin.

I may have gone over this already, so if I’m repeating myself (and boring you in the process) you have my sincerest apologies, but we decided on Berlin for Christmas for a few reasons: A) I have family in Berlin, and I thought it would help ease the holiday homesickness if we had people to spend Christmas with; B) the Christmas markets, which should be self-explanatory, but if it isn’t, you’ll have to read my next post, when I’ll deep-dive into why Christmas Markets are AWESOME; and C) there are Starbucks in Germany, and I needed a fix (just kidding, that wasn’t an actual reason. It was really just the first two things. I do love my Starbucks, though).

Of course, that meant a quick turn around in Montenegro, and on December 17th we were on our way again.

Since we didn’t want to miss our flight, we asked our AirBnB host, Marina, how we should get to the airport, what bus we should take, how we could find it, that sort of thing.

Marina was quick to tell us that the best, easiest, and most reliable way to get to the airport was to call a taxi, and arranged one for us, which made things very easy. It was an hour and a half drive, but we were pleasantly surprised at the price (70 euros. I would have expected it to be a hundred and fifty) and delighted by how relaxing it was. Quiet, comfortable, excellent views the whole way. And we made it to the airport with plenty of time.

The Podgorica Airport is not the smallest airport I’ve ever been to. But that’s only because I’ve been to an airport in Ireland that was damn near the size of a shoebox (okay, that’s an exaggeration. It was the size of a Starbucks. No, that time I wasn’t exaggerating). The Podgorica Airport has “8” gates. “8” is a stretch because they use two gates for a single plane, because the gates are really just doors out to the tarmac. So they could serve 4 planes at once, if things got really crazy.

It was interesting, being in such a small airport, particularly considering that this was the capital city. This is the primary airport for the entire country. Talk about itty bitty.

Alright, my computer is dying and my internet time is running out, so tune in next time for Christmas! The Berlin Edition. I’m going to shoot for New Year’s Eve for that post. Thanks again for sticking with me, and don’t forget: the Next Town Over, my new podcast, is launching on January 3rd!

December 20, 2022: Home Sweet Kotor... I Mean, Berlin