Kasia Nowicka heads to Montenegro to see the Tara River Canyon meeting friendly locals and spectacular scenery along her way...

The aim was to see the Tara River Canyon. To get there, the four of us packed only the necessary items into a small Ford and got on our way early in the morning. After a few days driving, we approached Montenegro from the Serbian border. As the day was slowly drawing to a close our search for accommodation began in a town called Mojkovac. Despite its population of around 4,000 people, the town seemed quite busy and even had its own three star hotel. The rooms were spacious, pleasant and clean and promised a good night sleep.

However, it was the day of my birthday. As we walked out onto the main square, both the young and old were promenading looking for some fun on a Saturday night. We couldn't resist and took a walk to see what was going on that evening. I was very surprised to see that in this small town there was such a variety of venues. Starting with a locals' restaurant, then moving to a hipster-like chilled out bar, we ended up at a vibrant place with live music. The atmosphere was incomparable! Three members of the 'band' were playing the keyboard and singing Montenegrin hits while all the crowd was singing-a-long. It soon infected us and we were dancing with the locals. And they were so pleased to learn that foreigners enjoyed their music almost more than themselves that they started offering us drinks. I supposed I shouldn't have had as much to drink that night but it will be a well-remembered one.More...

Given Montenegro’s beautiful mountainous scenery and historic coastal towns, it is not surprising that Podgorica, formally Titograd, Montenegro’s business-orientated capital city, is not usually on anyone’s itinerary. I wanted, however, to get to Sarajevo and this was a good midway point between Albania and Bosnia i Herzegovina.

I had come across from Albania to Ulcinj and had a couple of hours to wait until the midday bus to Podgorica. Since there was nowhere to leave luggage, added to which it kept raining, there was not much for me to do but wait at the bus station. More...