We've been to Dubrovnik today. That's Dubrovnik with a K not Dubrovnic, as spelling it like that would make it sound very funny in the local tongue. It took 3 hours to get there by bus and another 3 hours to get back, despite our crazy driver's best intentions. Just to make everything very clear, Dubrovnik is in Croatia (Native language: Hrvatska), we're staying in Montenegro, now two different countries.

The old city of Dubrovnik really made it all worthwhile. I've seen few places so far that give off the kind of vibes and that do such a good job of transmitting the image of a medieval fortified city as Dubrovnik does. It gave me the impression that even the thousands of tourists somehow fit into the picture as I could see them representing sailors and merchants of times long gone.

Speaking of tourists, you can really tell Dubrovnik is a lot more touristy than places I've seen in Montenegro. I guess having an international airport helps. I've heard all the languages you'd normally come accross going to a classical tourist destination. Yes, for the first time in days I've also heard people speak Romanian outside of our group.

After our flash visit (4 hours) of the old city we went for a swim on a nearby beach. Same deep blue waters, similar pebble-covered beaches (with just a touch of sand), but a much bigger concentration of people. In fact, there were so many people on such a small beach that it rivaled and perhaps exceeded the density you can find in Mamaia in front of the Perla hotel in mid season.

Bottom line, it was the first time I used my passport to go for a swim.

Today the weather wasn't too extraordinary, it was mostly cloudy. That didn't stop us from taking a bath in Kotor Bay although it was raining. It was actually better to stay submerged in the warm water rather than try to battle the cooling rain on the peers.

The bus dropped us off in Tivat at 6:00 am, far earlier than the driver had anticipated. Our friends picked us up about 30 minutes later and drove us to Kotor where we checked in.

We spent all day at Ploce Beach (not far from Jaz where the Rolling Stones concert took place a few weeks ago). Not much to say, a volcanic beach rolling into the blue waters of the Adriatic. The water here gets deep very fast but that's a good thing considering how painfull it is to step on the rocks on the bottom.

We allocated day 2 to a little climb to the top of the fortress here in Kotor. Only 260 m of altitude but a real challenge under the scorching mid day sun. The old fortified city of Kotor and its fortress are a pretty impressive sight and I think I will let the pictures speak more about it when I post them.

We had lunch in the old city and then we went for a swim in Kotor Bay. The sight you have from the sea, looking up to the 1700 m tall mountain overlooking the bay is quite impressive.

After dinner, shower and 4 hours of sleep we woke up and went to what seems to be the largest club in the Balkans (I still need to verify this). 3 different levels with different types of music: Turbo-folk (you can guess what this is), rock and techno. Good fun!

In 5 minutes I'm leaving for the coast of the Adriatic Sea. I'll be back Saturday the 25th. My phone will probably not work there so if you need anything the only thing anyone will check will be my personal email.

Bye now!

LATER EDIT: After 10 hours on the train we got to Vrsac where we were taken very good care of by our friends' family. The city is very nice, with a lot of churches. Amazing to think that we are only 70 km from Timisoara and 50 km from Oravita and it looks so much more like the west of Europe rather than like the cities we see in Romania. A very interesting feature of Vrsac is that it's surrounded by plains but it has a fairly tall hill next to it on top of which the turks built a fort.

In the afternoon it was off to Belgrade by car to catch our 7 o'clock bus.