Our dearest friends and family,
After a long hiatus, we finally got around to editing our Montenegro portion of the trip. What a fantastic country. We were absolutely taken aback by the beauty of the place and the generosity of the people. That Balkan charm is true as gold.
It was a shame that the cold snap steered us back down the mountains, but as we love to say, one door closes and another opens. The cycle through small idyllic villages was a very good alternative. We even bought cheese from a local!
Writing this now, we have raised over $2000 for our chosen charities. Let’s keep the ball rolling! Donate using our link tree 🙂 linktr.ee/creakycheeks
Next up, Bosnia & Herzegovina!
See you there,
Finlay & Lydia
Credits:
Typewriter sound by ZapSplat
Map by h ttps://mapswire.com
Music by h ttps://pixabay.com/users/artmanzh-3855363
Where are we? We’re at the border crossing. Here we go. We found a place to stay for the night. It’s a lovely park, very manicured with a spring running into it and some beautiful blue water. So, I’m going to go for a swim. Why do they make glass peanut butter jars? Why don’t they even do them in glass? Just do them in plastic. We want them in plastic. Hey guys, a second second flat tire of the trip. And then as he was tipping his bike over the peanut butter jar. Oh, and it’s made of glass. It’s smashed. It’s cracked. And now it’s like, do we eat that? Because does that have glass shards in it? I wouldn’t mind eating glass. Hey guys. Hey. Hey guys. We’re at the end of day one of Montenegro. Yes. And we’re in someone’s front yard. That’s right. We had a day in the city in Pagora. Pora. Woke up in a park this morning. Did that in the wrong order, but that’s fine. And then we climbed a hill, saw a rainbow, double rainbow, and we asked someone up here if we could stay in their garden and get some water. And they provided not only water, but cheese and and bread and bread and rocky. It’s so big. Yes. He poured us both a big shot glass of Rocky and um and I shoted it because I thought that’s what you were supposed to do. Do you drink the whole thing? You did the whole thing. Oh, I’m sorry. Um we got new socks for the cold. And we’re about to make dinner and kind of wind down for the day. Wind down. 7:13 p.m. And tomorrow we’ve got a big got a big day. And then we’re staying in a freaking little chalet. Chalet is not the right word. It’s like a little It’s just a bed. It’s going to be 1 year since we started dating. Oh my god, you guys. It’s our anniversary in 2 days. Good morning, guys. Morning. Uh we’ve woken up. slowly and set up ourselves a nice breakfast here. We got given some figs and some eggs by the people who live here. We got the onion and the fish and obviously some lovely soft bread and a bit of coffee. Today it’s all uphill. It’s 900 m of elevation. 30 km longitudally longitud longitudinally longitudinally. Hi. We are almost at the top of the hill. Looks like a ball. Yeah, it’s my storage. Ah, voila, my coffee has just arrived. So, having a little bit of a refuel the halfway up the hill, most of the way up the hill. We got a bit downhill. That’s nice. And then we have even more uphill and that’ll be fun. But then hopefully there’s a restaurant. We’ve got dinner, but we might eat at the restaurant. Guess we’ll see you guys at the top. Blow us a kiss. Might be the whole thing. Well, you really had a big sit there. Did you We’ve just checked into whatever you want to call that little cabin home and we’re going to be staying here for a couple nights, possibly more depending on the weather. We’re about to head out of our little abode to make dinner. We’ve layered up. We’ve got thermal fleece, puffer jacket, raincoat/ windbreaker is cold. Yeah, we’re having the Rocky right now. The whole thing? Just the whole shot? Yeah, the whole shot. Yeah, you unless you want to sip it. In mine, I think so. Yeah. This is only to stay warm. I wouldn’t do this. Just to stay warm. Oh, all right. You said 500 ms. Yeah. Guys, look how high I can get. Dude, next trip we do better cooking. Whoa. My god, that was fun, wasn’t it? I’ll tell you guys a little story. So, so I was like, say we’ve woken up this morning. That’s right. And had a look outside. It’s so snowy. And it’s snowing. Oh my god. Look at Oh my god. Look over there. Yeah. Oh. Oh, snow. Bits of snow on me. So guys, it’s cold. It’s uh it’s officially cold. Yeah. Hello. Oh, cold doggy. Yes. Yes, doggy. Hi. Oh, how are you not freezing, buddy? Yeah. Hey, Finlay. What’s going on? Um, we’re currently reassessing our route towards Bosnia because the original route that we do want to take is going through some pretty high areas and at the moment it is snowing and 0° is the highest that the temperature will reach in a day. So, we’re contemplating changing our plans because that All right. So, I really wanted to go to the lake and we’ve changed our plans. So, we’re going to be getting a train tomorrow morning at like 9:00 and tomorrow is when the rain stops and the it’s still like 3°. We heard there also snow at the lake. So, you know, it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be good. And we’ll see you there. Bye. So, we’ve decided we’re probably going to stop. We had a look at the map. We’re not even halfway the lake, and the snow’s getting kind of heavy. I don’t know if you can see. Uh, but we’re just kind of seeing more and more like almost got smacked in the face by a big snowball. Yeah. Falling from a tree. Wait, wait. Stop. Stop. Stop the video. Stop. Stop it. Stop right now. Okay. Because we’re in France right now, right? And we need to remind you that we’re raising money for two charities. Basic in the UK. That’s right. And Royal Rehab. Peters. Peters from Sydney. How much have we raised so far? We’ve raised over $2,000, but we still have a while to go to hit our 6K goal. That’s 3,000 for each charity. So, if you’re watching this right now, visit our link tree, which you can find in the description or right here on screen. link tr.e/creaky cheeks. That’s right. and donate. And if the fundraiser is finished, just donate anyway because it’s a good cause. Back to the video. Back to the Hi, we’re shooting down for dinner at the end of a big day. Yesterday, when we’re in that accommodation, we decided that we can’t really go to DM at all. So, we cycled into town. in the snow and we hopped on a train that was going to Serbia. And we caught that back down to Pod Podgaricha. We did a little bit of shopping and cycled again from Podaricha towards Nix. Uh, and that’s where we are now. Hey guys, we looking at this girl who’s hitchhiking from China to Cape Town and we’re just talking about how you need confidence when you’re traveling. And I don’t think you need confidence off the bat when you start traveling. But I think it’s something you develop because you realize if you’re not confident, you’re less likely to go out. You’re less likely to try new things. You’re less likely to meet people and start conversations. Yeah. Like we asked people where we could camp and they showed us this spot here which is by an abandoned something. Yeah. Semi-abandoned. I think you you definitely do get to a point where you’re just like the worst they say is no and you just move on. Mhm. Ladies and gentlemen, the fourth tire puncture of the trip so far and we realized that we bought the wrong inner tube. So, we’re working with Presto Presto valves as opposed to whatever the call those, but hopefully it’s going to be fine. So, we’re getting ready to cycle to Nikk Nitsik. It’s more It’s 50/50. We’ve got accommodation there because it’s going to rain. It’s going to pour and the old man’s going to snore. And by old man, I mean Finlay. This is where we camped last night. right here. We were just over there and we asked Oh, dude, he finally got it. He’s been trying to get that going for like an hour. People in that restaurant over there and there were two police. I think Lydia talked about this last night and they were like, “Just come over here between these two cabins and you can camp in this meadow.” So, we did. This here is an abandoned building. Hello everybody. This is where we cycled yesterday. We So, yesterday we cycled up this little path here. Finley stopped where all those trucks are to take a little wee wee. That’s right. A wee wee wah woo. And then we we woo wooed up the hill. And we came all the way across there. We stayed in that town last night. That’s where you just saw that last video. We teleported to where we’re standing right now on this. Yeah. Take him off. I’m trying to film a video on plants, but all the audio I’m picking up is just it’s just protein wrapper. Sorry. I don’t know what’s going on. Yeah, we just stopped on the side of the road. to ask if they sell cheese. And the funny thing is, I don’t even know if they farm cheese. They might be just giving us cheese from their fridge. Oh, how much is it? Three. Do you understand? Okay. We can cook something with it tonight. Yeah. Doi. Oh, cool. Mission success. We just got this much cheese and they gave us some warm bread. Warm. Dude, that’s the best one we’ve had yet. The rain is coming. We might just miss it. So, we are cycling because we were given the wrong address and they wouldn’t give us the real address, but they came in that red car there and we have to follow them to the address. So, that’s what we’re doing. And luckily, it’s not raining yet. What I’ve done on the stomach here, that looks really cool. It’s I kind of thought about the fact that the skeletons and fish go the other way. They don’t go sideways like this. Today here we have a lovely little spread of Montenegrin food. This is called uh domache sarma. Dom means homemade. It’s obviously not homemade, but from what I can tell, it’s like a minced meat with onion and garlic and spices and cabbage leaves. Broccoli soup. It’s really nice. This we have some pickles, nice and sweet. And then here we have some chapi and an entire bottle of milk. So that’s what we got for dinner. Apple tea. And bapple teepee. All right, guys. The moment that I have been waiting for. Bagged milk time. Yeah, that’s milk. No, you’re going to open that with absolutely nowhere to put it afterwards. Yeah. You giving it to me? Yeah. Dude, let’s Before you finish making that, how about we pour the rest of the milk in here? Okay. You’re the boss. What do we think? Wait, wait, wait. I need to give this to you. I can do it. I can do it. I am I can do this on my own. I think one of my superpowers is I can pour things into bottles really well. She’s not lying. There’s milk everywhere. You got milk all over your phone. It’s okay. Milk is temporary. Phone is forever. Yeah, we can’t here. Hey, puppy. Hey, puppy. Hey, we’re being accosted right now. Oh, cutie. He’s purring. Oh my god. Did you hear it? Who else is gross? Hi. Hi. Oh. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Oh. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Oh. Once again, accostered by vicious beasts. Hi. Hey guys. We are about to leave Montenegro. We are. Thoughts on Montenegro? I’m honestly really sad that we didn’t get to spend more time here. Mhm. Because the people have been super lovely. Um, and the camping has been really nice. Like the nature has been so good, the mountains, the rolling hills. We even passed through like a few lakes, but didn’t really get to stick around for long, which was a shame. The town’s been great. Like just a really nice kind of vibe of the people in there and the aesthetic of the towns. You still have a lot of really old buildings and really old walls, but a lot less trash, I think, than Albania. Yeah. And it feels like we’ve seen older buildings, old churches. Yeah. Lots of really nice old churches. And all of them have very I don’t know, very unique architecture and doors and bells that Finland was not allowed to ring. I’m upset we didn’t get to try more of the food. Yeah. Well, me too, cuz I’m hungry right now. We didn’t try the lamb. We didn’t try nearly as much food as Albania. No. Um which is a shame. But we’re just we’re being really we’re being cheap skates. Yeah, we are. What we did have was really nice. We did at that one lodge where we had some soup and the fish. And we’ve had chavapi which has also been really nice. And the cheese has been really good. The cheese here is great. It’s like a sort of mozzarella goat cheese. It’s Yeah, it’s really good. I’ve really liked the vibe of the farm areas. It feels like everyone’s got their own little subsistence farm going on. We even like stopped in some places and asked for if we could buy cheese. Mhm. Oh no, there’s a car coming. Car. Okay, we’re wrapping this up. Goodbye, Montenegro. Bye, Montenegro. Bye. Byebye, Montenegro. Ah!