Montenegro

Well hello there. I’m in Montenegro and I have to say- expect the unexpected.
First things first- language and currency. There are multiple languages being spoken around here. As a Polish citizen, I do understand a fair bit of everything. People of Montenegro seem to use their native language first, rather than English, towards tourists. The official language in Montenegro is Montenegrin. Also, Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian are recognized in usage. All of these languages, except Albanian, are mutually intelligible. According to the 2011 census, most citizens declared Serbian as their mother tongue. Sales attendants speak Albanian, from what we found out. That’s pretty impossible for me to understand.
Moving on- prices. Currency in Montenegro is Euro. Pizza cost 4, salad 2.5 and G&T 3. Restaurants are not the cheapest, but not expensive. Dinner for 4 comes up to 90 euro. Another thing is that food isn’t great. With broken heart (I hate complaining), but some of the worst food I had tried in my life was here, in Montenegro. If I was to visit again, I would buy my own food and cook, or eat everything from Pekara (bakery). Burek, supposedly Serbian or Turkish (many opinions on this heard from ladies at the bakery) traditional baked pastry, is very popular here.

Only supermarkets accept cards, everywhere else you need to pay cash.
Cities we’ve visited have very close-minded way of looking at things. Women are objectified, men are strong, sex is promoted all around the place. Stalls are full of fake designer sunglasses and bags, beach towels and ‘luxury’ watches. Everything here is luxurious. Literally every building built in the past 5 year will have ‘Luxury Apartments’ on it. The more expensive coffee will be named luxurious, luxury cruises, luxury shops. It got to the point, that the adjective doesn’t mean anything anymore.
Everything I say here is based on my stay in the south of Montenegro, Ulcijn. Kotor is different. Kotor has English speaking tourists, coffee shops (nowhere else did I find one), card payments are accepted in most places and women can walk past a man without being wolf-whistled at. Restaurants look about the same, which is a shame, but still, I’d recommend Kotor to anyone. Probably best to do a road trip down the coast, do Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and maybe even Serbia. I think that would give you a good picture of culture and history.

People here are nice, but in their own way. They don’t mean anything bad, when they stare at you. They are very touchy, so don’t be petrified when your personal space is invaded. Men think that looking at women in a sexual way is flattering, women here seem to like it. It might be just us, living in a big, multi-cultural city, where we’re all equal. I truly believe people here are innocently trying to do their best. Best as they were told. Different best to what we think best would be.

Beaches- there are no not-private beaches. Every beach has an entry, a bouncer, chairs and parasols. One set (two chair and a parasol) can cost 6-15 euro. You pay once, can stay all day. People of Montenegro seem to like remixes of Ed Sheeran songs, as well as Rihanna and Modern Talking.
Good mix, good mix.
When I say they like’em, I mean, you are forced to listed to the songs they play on speakers on a beach. Every beach has its own DJ and music is loud. Sometimes, if two or more beaches are too close to each other, you hear 3 songs at once. Forget about peaceful sound of waves.

To sum up: The country is beautiful. Not taken care of, not in a way that would work for it. Pretentious and loud surrounding, but that’s the way it is and people here like it. It’s far from what we’re used to, it’s more like Poland 20 years ago.

There is a lot of potential there, but it requires a lot of work.