Crna gora

Kotor, Montenegro

Montenegro (or Црна Гора/Crna Gora, black mountains) is a young state on the Balkans which became independent only in 2006 (before that it was part of the federation of Serbia and Montenegro, before that it was part of Yugoslavia). It is a country that is mostly unknown to western Europeans; if they get here then mostly, they get to the Adriatic coast or by cruise ship to the UNESCO world heritage site Kotor.

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Silent capital

Podgorica, Montenegro

Yes, Podgorica is the capital city of Montenegro. But it doesn’t feel like a capital city. It is a town with 150,00 inhabitants and rather a silent capital. It has many green places, the buildings like in many areas very old and gray. The name means ‘at the foot of the hill’ but a lot people still know the city under another name: Titograd. Between 1918 and 1992 Podgorica belonged to Yugoslavia and was named like this to honour Josip Broz Tito who was communist prime minister and president of Yugoslavia.

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Ramada Podgorica Hotel

Hotel Ramada, Podgorica

The Ramada hotel at Podgorica, Montenegro is an absolute alien. A modern, futuristic building between rather unrenovated Soviet style residential buildings. It is the opposite of living like a local in this region of the capital city. I should have avoided this hotel therefore, but I loved it instead for different reasons: I arrived late in the evening at the bus station of Podgorica close to the railway station – from there it was an easy walk within eight minutes to the hotel.

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Soccer abroad

If you’re a real soccer aficionado you’ll have to watch the games also while on the road. Unless you fell in love with the really big clubs in the world this is sometimes pretty hard. As a fan of the SV Werder Bremen I’ll sometimes have to search a little bit more until I find a bar that shows Bundesliga and the matches of my club. But it is always worth the the effort – watching German soccer in another country is always fun.

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