I am currently located in Montenegro aka Crne Gora (Black Mountain) which is located on the Western edge of the Balkans. I always tell people to find Italy on the map, go East across the Adriatic Sea and there you will find Montenegro situated between Albania and Bosnia.

After 2 months here my first opinions are that the Montenegrins are not the friendliest of people to strangers regardless of color. I work with other Americans of different backgrounds and we all have the same experience. In my neighborhood I see the same same shop workers almost every day and when I say hello (yes, I have also said it in the local language) they just look at me. To this day not one person has responded to me. On the other hand, once they get to know you they are friendly people. I work with locals and they are the nicest people. I have asked my co workers about why people don’t say hello and I’m told it is because they are shy about speaking English and this is a society where you have to be introduced to a person first. I understand and in some ways I don’t but that will not stop me from smiling and continuing to say hello, I will break them down lol.

I have made it to the coastal cities of Budva and Bar and enjoyed both locations. I thought that it was crowded but I was told that was low numbers due to Covid. One thing that I will warn people is that the beaches are rocky so bring some aqua shoes. I’m a scuba diver and did some diving in both locations. It was nice to get some diving in, but there wasn’t much to see.

I plan to travel more around the country and I will be sure to update my experiences here. I will also be doing some traveling around Europe as well. Until next time…..