Pirates in Ulcinj

I was in the mood to go to the sea side next. I took a quick look at a map hanging at the reception of the hostel and decided to go to Ulcinj near the border of Albania. I asked the hostel host what to expect there. He said: It's a fun place. There're lots of bars and clubs. The historic old town is also beautiful. It's definitely worth to visit. That sounded promising to me. I grabbed a few flyers of Ulcinj hostels and left.

I found a nice looking hostel near Ulcinj city center and asked the guy doing some maintenance work if he was working there and if there was a free room or free bed in a dorm. It turned out that he was only the brother of the owner but he wasn't there at the moment. He called his brother and handed over his phone. The owner told me that he had a free bed in a dorm and asked me to wait for half hour until he would come along so that I could check in. I agreed, left my backpack at the hostel and walked to a nearby pizza place to grab some food. I went back to the hostel after not even half hour and waited for the hostel owner on the patio. A hostel guest came up to me after a while and handed me his phone. I grabbed it a bit irritated and just said: Hello? It was the hostel owner again to ask me if I could wait even longer without saying how much longer. I told him that I didn't want to spend my whole day with waiting and rather try to find accommodation somewhere else. So I gave back the phone, grabbed my stuff and left.

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I found another hostel just around the corner - Pirates Backpackers - which had a free bed in a 3-bed dorm. The host showed me around and at the end of the tour he said: Also, there's free beer on the patio every evening from six. He definitely got me there!

I spent my days in Ulcinj with sightseeing, hiking, chilling at the beach and drinking beer. From a touristic perspective the Old Town is definitely the highlight. Just like my previous host told me. It was built by Illyrians and Ancient Greeks. Inside there's a church-mosque and in front of it is a small square which was used as a slave market from the middle of the 17th century. The slaves were captured by Ulcinj pirates mainly from Dalmatia and Italy.

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Ein Beitrag geteilt von Chris Fritze (@fritzechris) am Sep 8, 2018 um 11:45 PDT

I was recommended to avoid the city beach because it's too crowded which I can confirm. There was literally no free space to sit and despite that it was pretty dirty. There was trash all over the beach. Not a pretty picture at all! Luckily there are smaller beaches just a little bit outside the city center which are less crowded and clean. I spent quite some time at one of them which even had a small bar ran by an elderly couple, probably in their 70s. Only the lady spoke some English so our conversation was always the same when I wanted to order. Me: Hello! Lady: Yes, boy! Me: Can I have a beer please? Lady: Why not! Me after getting another bottle: Thank you! Lady smiling: You welcome!

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Ein Beitrag geteilt von Chris Fritze (@fritzechris) am Sep 6, 2018 um 2:08 PDT

Like every night, I also spent my last night on the hostels patio, hanging with the other guests and drinking free beer. To my surprise, there were quite many people from Australia. I had a hard time to understand one guys strong Australian accent but after a while I adjusted to that. Him, two Welsh brothers, a few other people and I decided to go out that night. I actually planned to leave Ulcinj with the first bus the next morning but at that point I knew I wouldn't make it. And I didn't!