Well all the guidebooks advise you not to stay at all, so the prospect of 2 weeks work there was not something to get excited about. I had spent one day there, a couple of years ago, just to tick the box. Three of us wandered round at lunchtime to find somewhere to eat and managed to miss the main street with the restaurants on it. This time I hoped I would do better.
My daily routine settled into:
- breakfast on the hotel terrace by the river
- taxi to the EU Delegation
- morning reading tender documents
- lunch with colleagues from the EU at a nice restaurant by the river
- afternoon reading tender documents
- walk home and collapse from heat
- sit on hotel terrace in evening and have drink
- listen to singer on terrace and watch fountain
There were slight variations, like I went to the town museum in a gap in the work; or I walked to find this famous street of restaurants (a few cafes serving the usual balkan food); or I had a beer instead of wine in the evening. I also sat in the terrace of Hotel Podgorica, an unreconstructed hotel from the early Yugoslav style. I made the mistake of visiting the toilets, which in a state hardly seen outside the Ukrainian countryside.
The main problem was it was hot, I knew nobody, and the hotel was quite comfortable. So I can recommend Hotel Ambasador, for the very friendly service and comfort. I had an "apartment", a big L shaped room overlooking the river, with one part of the room set up as bedroom and the other as sitting room with desk. The hotel internet didn't work, but I quickly piggybacked onto another wireless connection so I didn't bother to complain.
The room wasn't specially cheap, but I got a discount for staying (just under) two weeks, so it was reasonable.
Luckily I was spared working at the weekend and went off by bus (a spectacular ride) to Kotor on the coast. The regular thunderstorms spoiled the beach part, but I managed to find good food in the Old Town, which is a bigger version of Piran with well preserved walls and narrow streets. So now i can say I have seen Montenegro's Wild Beauty.
At the end of the two weeks work, the Man from the Ministry got instructions to sabotage our work, as the result was not to his minister's liking. So my two weeks were wasted, not to mention at least six months of EU work.
Nevertheless after two weeks I could sing along to Montenegrin pop songs with the singer on the hotel terrace, as his routine did not vary at all from night to night.
