A Week of Mold and Mosquitos

  

After my most recent debacles with simply getting a cab in Montenegro, I finally learned my lesson.  If a host tells me to just message them with any issues, I got an issue for you.

I shot the host the message as I was packing up.  She soon knocked on my door and we both took a seat as she called the cab company.  The last driver had given me his card and I’d given the number to her but no one was available.  She called another dude, translated cost, and helped me get the bags to the curb.

I’d managed to find another place in Tivat and let the cabbie know where we were going.  Or at least that’s what I thought.  My GPS and his were giving two different areas for the new place.  Eventually we just pulled over in a bakery parking lot while I called the host.

Now for a little geography lesson.

Risan is about 15 miles from Dobrota/Kotor and that area is about 15 miles from Tivat Center.  Problem was, this was not the only area that considered Tivat.  We ended up having to go in the opposite direction of the area I was used to, past the airport, and onto the part of Tivat Municipality that could be seen from Porto Montenegro.  Okay.  Seeing more of the country than I’d intended.

The host and the cabbie had to have one more conversation before we reached the right place.  This was another private residence with an apartment beneath the main house that they had rightly named the Underdeck.  The host was waiting just outside to help with my bags.

Now, admittedly, this place looked like the pictures.  I’ve never really had a listing with Airbnb that was a poor representation of a place.  It’s a studio, which I hate, but the place was cheap and was in a familiar area or at least that’s what I’d assumed.  No microwave but, like the last place, a stove and plenty of counter space.  Those were the good things.

What the pictures don’t convey is that the entire place slopes down towards the bathroom.  I spent the whole week stumbling around like a drunk because the floor kept putting me off balance.  Additionally, it turns out the apartment is a mosquito spawn point.  As many as I killed, another one just appears out of nowhere and none of them were drawn to the pretty blue light I bought months ago just to kill them.

The doorway is crooked and difficult to lock, the dining room chairs are so creaky I was afraid to sit in them, and the mold smell persists even with the air purifier and air fresheners, particularly when the cabinets are open.  The damp also explains the mosquitos and the fact that when I put my dirty pair of jeans on the floor of the tiny laundry room in the bathroom, they ended up soaking wet by the time I put them in the wash.

And speaking of the bathroom.  Here we go again.  At least the place in Kotor had a shower curtain.  This shower area, despite the spa feel with the flooring and shelf of soaps and body wash, was completely open to the rest of the bathroom.  The washing machine was behind its own door but the rest of the bathroom was ripe for a soaking every time I took a shower. 

Sigh.

I ended up spending a great deal of time in that apartment as there was not much else to see in this part of Tivat.  The beach was only accessible after a long walk in the hot sun and navigating a bunch of sloping streets between apartment building.  The grocery store was close but not much else.

I did eat at a place called Restoran Picnic that did indeed have a picnic theme with its wooden chairs and tables covered in red and white checked tablecloths.  And no, the irony did not escape me of being a black American woman eating in a restaurant in Montenegro while listening to American soul music and recalling the origin of the word “picnic” (look it up in case you need a reminder that everything in the U.S. is based on racism).

Anywho, I got way too many bug bites while trying to work in a sloping apartment full of damp.  And, being on the ground floor, I had to contend with the host and his family constantly walking by my kitchen window because I couldn’t close the blinds

Eh.  I’ve stayed in worst places.

***

I still hate that YouTube shows too many commercials in this country.  But they also show local videos on occasion and I found one that I wasn’t rushing to skip through.  I have no idea what this guy is saying but I ain’t gonna lie -- I kinda dig it.  A little bit of Montenegrin flavor for you.