This expression sounds, admittedly, a bit less romantic than the "Nachtzug nach Lissabon", a succesful novel by the Swiss philosopher Peter Bieri a.k.a. Pascal Mercier. However, I imagine the Lisbon night train to be a pretty dull and exhausting affair---after all, from the center of the universe (=Cologne) it takes you more than 24 hours until you reach your destination. The night bus from Split to the Montenegrin (I had to look up this adjective) capital Podgorica does it in a bit more than nine hours. Since flights via Belgrade or Zagreb are expensive, not really eco-friendly and involve substantial stopover time, I opted for the night bus. That also gave me the opportunity to spend two days in Montenegro (Crna gora) and to travel on to Skopje, Macedonia, from there.
Me and my baggage arrived at 2:00 a.m. at the autobusni kolodvar in Split, which is conveniently located next to the passenger port, in the very center of the city. Since I am used to bus station in dodgy city outskirts, this was a real relief for me. Half an hour later, the bus left and I managed to (sort of) sleep, interrupted only by a passport control in the Bosnian port of Neum, which we had to cross. (Another country checkmarked on the map.)
In Dubrovnik, around 7:00 a.m., the sunlight woke me up and I had to change buses anyway. I already dreamt about arriving early: Montenegro looked so small on the map that the scheduled arrival time of 11:00 a.m. seemed excessively conservative. However, these naïve dreams were smashed by the brutal reality of Montenegrin topography. The number of curves in the hilly terrain is not even the main problem. More importantly, there is just no thing such as a straight road in Montenegro. There is some reality behind the advertizements of tourism brochures ("mediterranean fjords"). In particular, you may need half an hour to travel two kilometers as the crow flies: namely if there is no ferry or if the bus operator is too stingy to pay it. In that case, you would drive around the entire bay or fjord and enjoy the view of the very same place from all possible angles.
This sounds slightly sarcastic, and indeed, 15 minutes on a boat would have been a welcome interruption from the bus travel. But the drive through the fjords is absolutely scenic and comparable to any Norwegian fjord, just with Mediterranean vegetation. (Note also that it rains most of the time in Norway.) Mountains that tower hundred of meters, turquoise waters blistering in the morning light, small tree-grown islands in their middle... it is one of Europe's most beautiful roads. Also the last part of the journey, when the road is winding up from Budva to the central highland, offers some incredible views of the mountains and of Lake Shkodra at the border to Albania. I took some pictures from the bus window, but they have the usual defects of those pictures, which you will undoubtedly discover yourself.
Summing up: the night bus to Podgorica is nothing for those who value a comfy bed instead of a less comfy bus seat, but it is one of the highlights of European public transport.
When arrived in Podgorica, I decided to move my city tour to the next day (a report is to follow) and to do an excursion to Cetinje, the nearby old capital, and to Mount Lovcen National Park. The main reason was the good weather which was threatening to vanish on the next day. Cetinje is cute and charming---it is a small village which served as a capital for the young Montenegrin state in the 19th century. If you ever asked yourself what would be a good example for an "Operettenstaat" is (=a state not to be taken too seriously), the Montenegro of the Imperialist age would be a good example. Even the diverse embassies in Cetinje look more impressive than the Royal Palace, without making a great effort to this end.
But the real thing about my excursion was the ascent to the holy national mountain, Mount Lovcen. I hired a taxi and up we went, to roughly 1600m above sea level, driving through beautiful autumn forest. On the top of the mountain, the national hero Petar Petrovic-Njegos (1813--1851), philosopher, poet, archbishop and country ruler is buried in a great modern mausoleum, designed by the Croatian sculptor Ivan Meskovic. You have to walk up long and steep stairs, but it is more than worth the effort. Apart from the mausoleum, the view itself is just be great! You oversee the entire Montenegrin coast, the capital Podgorica, tips of Croatia and Bosnia, and on the southern side, there is Lake Shkoder (Skadarsko jezero) and behind it, Albania. A memorable outlook and a good moment to close this first posting about Montenegro.
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