Welcome to Podgorica
Montenegro is known for it’s beautiful high mountains, gorgeous rocky coastline, and infamous Kotor Bay. Coming from Croatia, I spent a lot of time traveling down the coast stopping in different cities along the way. I’ve met a bunch of people who travel to Montenegro and it’s not uncommon for people to only travel the cities on the coast as well as Kotor Bay. But noone ever talks about the capital city, Podgorica, formerly known as Titograd from the 40’s to the 90’s.
When I told my hostel owner in Ulcinj that I was headed to Podgorica, she was like “Why would you go there? There is nothing there” Well, as expected she was right. I arrived by hitchhiking with a really kind older Montenegrin man that dropped me off right on the edge of town. Getting out of the car it was as if the city was established and created several years ago. The streets are in a perfect square grid and the not so exciting looking buildings have the same shape. Many apartments resemble the socialist bloc apartments that now all have multiple personalities on each terrace.
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It was an insanely hot day walking around the city because I had to wait two hours until my couchsurfing host got off of work. It was the longest two hours of sweat and direct sunlight. Meanwhile there are maybe three or four things worth seeing in the city. Clock tower, old bridge, modern bridge, and river. If i was trasiting through and asked myself if I should stay a day or see it in a few hours, I honestly would not feel bad avoiding the city.
However, since I did not couchsurf at all during my time in Montenegro, I felt like Podgorica would be much more worth just going. As always couchsurfing makes any experience anywhere very personal. While there was not much sightseeing to do with my host, we had a good time grabbing a drink in a local pub with some football on TV, something I probably wouldn’t do on my own. At the end of the night we went out into the “center” where there is a two block radius of bars and music to have more drinks and meet up with friends.
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Speaking with some of his friends, they asked me the same thing, “What are you doing here?” If I was alone, I probably would have had a less appreciation for the city. But because I was hanging out with locals, it felt nice to be a part of their city which they certainly are proud of. They felt good that I am enjoying there little capital city being around them. So in conclusion, Podgorica may not be a great place to vacation and good for a stopover, it’s certainly worthwhile if you have the opportunity to stay with and or spend some time with locals. 🙂
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Beer cheers!
