Budva is a city along the Montenegro coast. It also has an Old Town right on the water’s edge. It went through the usual Illyrian, Roman and Byzantine periods and then the Venetians rebuilt, fortified and then controlled it for about 400 years. It is a smaller scale than Kotor and has the usual shops and restaurants that attract tourists. We wander all the narrow back lanes looking for photo ops.
Crossing the border back into Albania is painfully slow. The line up of cars creates a 45 minute wait until we get to the kiosk. Then the customs officer takes an extraordinarily long time processing our passports. Fortunately, no issues and we are on the road again.
We end the day in Shkoder. It is a depressing place with Soviet built apartment blocks. Large concrete blocks with no decoration or architectural style. Apparently they have two and three room units, which would be a kitchen and a bedroom or a kitchen and two rooms. The city is filled with these blocks and they are not in good condition, asking the city depressing. The upside of Skoder is the few streets built in the 1800s that have been turned into to a vibrant coffee/restaurant area. It is filled with folks socializing and enjoying the sunshine.
Tomorrow we drive back to Tirana to complete our circular route.