One of my days on a trip to the Balkans on the eve of my birthday. Wild. Beautiful. Montenegro My life in Montenegro 0404

Hi all! 😊
My name is Alexandra, I’ve been living in the country of the Black Mountains and the turquoise Adriatic for 9 years now 🌅I moved from a multimillion-dollar Kyiv to a 15-thousand city with a considerable amount of adventurism, deciding to leave my comfort zone at 1 night, I really wanted to change my life. And what can we hide - the warm climate, ecology, evergreen coast and the Adriatic Sea played an important role!🌄 It wasn’t for the sake of work, citizenship and other social benefits that I exchanged my homeland for abroad, there are no such “guests” here, Montenegro is relatively Western Europe— a poor and unstable country, I won’t say anything about the legislation. But there is no such thing as easy emigration!

I guide around Montenegro, Albania and Bosnia 🚙 I also organize exciting events together with a young man ⛵

I recently realized that I am not just guide... and a teacher on assimilation in the country 😁 My guests are taking a course on “how to become a Montenegrin.” For example, on one of the excursions in the morning we ate donuts with honey, washed down with Deutsch coffee, then enjoyed the beauty of the country in the “polaco” style on the coolest panoramic benches in Montenegro in the gorge 🌄 And for dinner there was veal from under the sacha🍖 fish chorba, Shopska salad 🍜 and shouts of “live!” near local Vranac 🍷

Moving to Montenegro for permanent residence

I moved to Budva spontaneously, I was thinking of taking a summer break and returning to Kyiv. But I liked the slow life by the sea, in a warm climate and without office work so much that I stayed for an indefinite period. In 2011, obtaining a residence permit for work was very easy, in half of the cases they didn’t even get a job at the company and didn’t pay taxes, in those days even plastic cards They didn’t issue me, they just stamped my passport. An annual residence permit allowed me to live freely in Montenegro. Read more


Since 2014, the country’s legislation began to change, I had to collect stacks of documents for legalization, officially pay taxes, etc. Now I am the owner of my own company, which is why I sleep peacefully, because... I don’t depend on any scams, assistants of “friends” and I wish the same for you.

The main rule of moving to Montenegro- do not rush to register a company, a residence permit (Ukrainians have the right to live for 3 months as a tourist, Russians can apply for an infinite number of visas every month). Don’t rush to buy your own real estate, understand the country’s legislation, look at 20-50 options, talk to uninterested people about nice houses and decent developers. Be patient for six months or a year, live in the off-season in winter, when the weather here is not so hot and there is no heating...


Similarly, I do not recommend opening a working business here upon arrival. A very small market, only the services and tourism sectors can generate income, and that too seasonally, which is bad, but you will have expenses all year round. Our schemes don’t work here at all; no one needs Russian, Georgian restaurants, etc. Montenegrins do not trust strangers and will always go to their own people for goods or services, not to us. There are at most 20 thousand Russians permanently living here all year round, scattered along the entire coast and the capital. Who to make money from? The answer is only for the visiting tourist, the emigrant. First, learn the language, observe the life and work of Russians in Montenegro, study the laws and tax system, popular niches and, most importantly, the mentality of Montenegrins. If you don’t do this, 99% of you will be deceived at one stage or another.

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December 2014

For me, Albania is an explosion of colors in the appearance of houses, fashionable girls, old Mercedes. It is also a tolerant country, although many people think otherwise. Mosques, Catholic and Orthodox churches coexist here. But most people who have never been to Albania judge with stereotypes: there is mafia, drugs, gypsy thieves and Muslims everywhere. No need to exaggerate or exaggerate! Let's take a walk around the capital Tirana before Catholic Christmas.

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Tirana airport looks modern, accepts many international flights, there are also low-cost airlines, for example, Turkish Pegasus. At the exit you can catch a taxi to the center, or you can wait for a bus, which costs 250 lek (140 lek = 1 euro). The bus runs exactly at 00 every hour, the same from the center.

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Rinas Express schedule. That is, it arrives at the airport in about 30-35 minutes and waits for filling until the next hour.

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At the stop I am met by Muscovite Vera, an acquaintance from LiveJournal, who has been living here for 3 years. We take my bags to her house for a couple of hours.

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Opposite her house is a small shop with vegetables/fruits. Is the picture different from your area? Everything is civilized, clean

Let's go for a walk around the center and take a "lap of honor".

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Historical buildings have been preserved, and new ones are also being built. The capital is like a capital!

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Stands in the center christmas tree with reindeer, and a little further on the Christmas market begins.

Autumn leaves and above-zero temperatures go against the idea of ​​Christmas... But what can you do - geographically, you can’t move Tirana!

The Fair features locally produced food and drinks. Let me remind you, 140 lek = 1 euro.

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How do Albanian cakes differ from Russian or Montenegrin ones? Answer: nothing! They look just as appetizing and are obviously delicious.

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I really envy the Albanians; in Montenegro, where I permanently live, they don’t hold Christmas Fairs of this level. By the way, it was morning, maybe 11 o’clock. But I was ready to eat a whole lamb...

Tourists, take note of what kind of wine you should bring from Albania

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People have been sitting in cafes since the morning. It’s a common Balkan habit to spend half the day in cafes.

In the central clearing, let's call it that, there is SOMETHING! Moreover, it is already falling apart into tiles. And this is a monument to the Independence of Albania, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2012.

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We walk along shopping streets, where all the first floors are shops. The prices are reasonable, the models are modern. For those who don’t know yet, there is a huge shopping center outside Tirana where tourists from Montenegro have taken to shopping.

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Shop for tourists

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We meet a cute grandfather with fruit; we couldn’t resist the fragrant strawberries.

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There are taxis standing by the side of the road, with licenses and, I suspect, meters. I've never used them in Albania, but they look exactly the same as in Istanbul or New York.

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We approach the cafe. It looks simple, but the main thing for us is to satiate our stomachs.

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Study the menu. The prices are just ridiculous.

For 2 meat portions, fried potatoes and a glass of wine, the bill was 700 lek. It's 5 euros. And at this moment, Albania, “scary” for many, can turn into pleasant, hospitable and delicious

Hello everyone from warm Montenegro and its main resort Budva, where I have been living for 4 years. This is my first time writing to the community, so I’ll tell you a few words about myself. I moved from the bustling metropolis of Kyiv to the small village of Budva for one summer, but it turned out that I stayed because I fell in love with the country. I wasn’t looking for a job or a husband here; I’ve been freelancing all this time. I make a living from copywriting and giving private tours. Today I’ll show you on April 3, 2015, how I went for a ride through the Balkans with friends in honor of my upcoming birthday. That day we drove 300 km along mountain serpentines, crossing Montenegro from south to north and capturing part of Bosnia. We left Budva and stopped overnight in Visegrad. Whoever thinks that this is a tourist post, you are a little mistaken, this is what 50% of my days look like - I am constantly on the go because of my hobbies and work.

I wake up at 7 in the morning, my soul and body in a distant country are warmed by the bed that my mother sewed.

My friends will pick me up in half an hour, but I haven’t washed up yet. I went to the bathroom, and at the same time I’ll pack some cosmetics to put on my makeup on the road. Dressed with sleeves at home due to the fact that in Montenegro there is no central heating.

I drink Turkish coffee. And I also paint my nails while running, of course, I ruin my manicure on the go too...

At 8 a.m. my three friends arrived, and there was one guy among the female harem.

We say goodbye to the Adriatic Sea for 2 days, we go into the cold, snow and gray... My city of Budva can be seen in a cove

I’ve already applied my makeup, I do it professionally on the go :))) The whole company are emigrants from the CIS, let’s say - freelancers, we don’t go to the office, we work for ourselves, so Friday outside the tourist season was free. Katya (from Novosibirsk) was driving all day, Arina (from Kabardino-Balkaria) can be seen in the back seat, and her husband Maxim (from St. Petersburg) is nearby.

We approach the town of Niksic, mountains covered in snow can be seen in the distance. For us, residents of the evergreen coast, this is wildness

Two of the company were hungry and stopped for a snack. The time on the iPhone is set by the capitals of the Balkan countries

We snacked on this strange sandwich again later and took what we had left with us in the morning. So at first they cursed at the lack of vegetables, then they rejoiced at the presence of a stash.

Roadside cafe, at a gas station. We collected a common fund of 50 euros from each person for 2 days, I was the bank. For some reason, on all my trips I act as a banker, pay, and keep track of expenses. I explain this mathematics education:))) From left to right - Katya, me, Max.

The photos are different in clarity and colors, because... from different cameras and iPhone

We are approaching northern Montenegro, a completely different climate and landscape have begun. No tangerines or palm trees...

We stop at Lake Piva for a photo. I put on second socks, I had boots with me, but I feel more comfortable in sneakers. So I spent two days wearing them.

The place opposite is the Piva eye, that is, the eye. The color of the water is always emerald, in summer greenery will appear on the slopes

We arrive in the godforsaken city of Pluzine. It appeared after the construction of a hydroelectric power station.

In the summer it will be beautiful here, you can drive motor boat along the canyon of Pivko Lake

We surprised the local residents, apparently they will now have a siesta in the kafana

We went to look for food, we wanted soup, but this restaurant didn’t have it

Inside there was mead in all the corners

We went to another cafe. We started celebrating tomorrow's birthday with coffee and rakia. A sandwich hidden in the morning saved us from hunger

On the first floor there were Montenegrins. Their favorite pastime from morning to night is drinking rakia (moonshine), coffee and gossiping.

I have been living in Montenegro for 4 years, but this is the first time I saw these places in the snow. Very beautiful and harsh mountains

And under your feet there are funny green flowers

We pass the Montenegrin border in the town of Scepan Polje with long conversations with the border guard about the upcoming tourist season

Hello, Bosnia and Herzegovina!

We rush along the Drina River. In the photo - the town of Gorazde, which suffered greatly during the last war

The buildings are almost restored, but retain traces of the war

And throughout Yugoslavia, there is a memory of Tito everywhere. Street in his honor

And the inscription TITO with a star on the mountain. I saw something similar on the border between Serbia and Romania, where there is a hydroelectric power station on the river

We drive along the beautiful canyon of the Drina River, constantly crossing tunnels

They show Yugoslav traces

We are approaching the famous Turkish bridge in Visegrad. Here we will stop for the night

We are heading to Andrichgrad - this is a part of the city of Visegrad, built by Emir Kusturica in 2014.

My friends are rushing to the hotel, but we got a little confused about its location, local people suggested it, since we know the language well. On the square there is a monument to Ivo Andrić, the only Yugoslav writer to win the Nobel Prize for his historical novel "The Bridge on the Drina".

Our hotel looks like this. Modest and inexpensive, 30 euros for a two-room apartment

View from my window of the Drina, the bridge and the restaurant in the fortress

Let's evaluate the situation. She is ascetic. There is no hairdryer, I dried my hair with a heater (it's on the left)

The TV showed all sorts of blizzards, I couldn’t even find a music channel

Bathroom and wardrobe. The main thing is more paper and second blankets, we needed them

According to the stories of Andrichgrad workers, the bulk of tourists come from Russia

This city is also called Kamengrad as opposed to Drvenograd, another village of Kusturica, it is half an hour away in Serbia

It’s already 5 pm, we are wildly hungry and go to cevapi. Prices are in convertible marks, divide by exactly 2, then you get euros. In Bosnia, food is always cheaper than in Montenegro.

We ordered cevapi in flatbread and cold cuts with salad. And also nettle and pear brandy

It turned out that on April 3, everyone was in high spirits, we had fun all day. No one cared that the birthday was tomorrow

the surroundings here are cool

Having had our fill, we wanted spectacles! We went to the bridge, which is already 450 years old

The bridge was ordered to be built by the chief vizier Ottoman Empire Mehmed Pasha Sokolovich, he was from these lands. Ruled under the famous Sultan Suleiman. He himself had never seen this bridge. The length of the bridge is 180 meters and has 11 spans. Now it is under reconstruction, but in general it is pedestrian.

Nearby on the wall of the house is a portrait of the writer Ivo Andric

At sunset we went for a walk around Visegrad. The city is now located in Republika Srpska, part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although there have always been more Muslims living here. Today everything seems to be calm, you can see mosques and Orthodox churches.

In Bosnia, the Cyrillic alphabet is used more often, but Latin alphabet is also present on signs

The Austro-Hungarians built a railway line here to Sarajevo a century ago.

Visegrad is a gray, dying city. One can only write about it in the context of wars and genocide of Muslims...

We walked along two streets and met resting firefighters. And again coffee!

We ended the evening in a restaurant in Andrichgrad. I asked the waiter what Kusturica was eating here. He said that the simplest food, like ordinary Balkan people - grilled meat and fish, salads, chorbs... One girl painted the walls and ceilings in the restaurant. It was interesting to recognize famous faces

Here you can recognize director Nikita Mikhalkov on the left, Nikola Tesla on the right, and Ivo Andric in the center. When we pointed at strange people, the waiter waved him off "These are local moms!", that is, local guys :))

And here Kusturica himself listens around the corner to conversations between Vova Putin and Milorad Dodik (president of Republika Srpska, part of Bosnia). Well done to the artist!

We ordered veal chorba, coffee, wine

And while I was going to the WC, the waiter quickly brought out a cake with a candle. Friends ordered it in advance when booking a hotel. It says in Serbian "Happy birthday, Alexandra! 18 years and 168 months"

I know that birthdays are not celebrated in advance, but after sunset you can! In total, we celebrated it for 2 days, and the next day we went to Serbia.

It was 21:50, we lay down under 2 blankets, the heater didn’t help, I forgot to close the window during the day and the room was frozen

I was able to fall asleep only at one in the morning, when the rock musicians stopped playing in the nearby beer pub. And I'll be born soon :))

Second - about the beauty of the Balkan landscapes during the trip