The bay of Kotor. My last stop before returning to Trebinje.
It’s a fitting day for a departure. The sky is blue, the wind is brisk, and the air has a real chill to it for the first time. Fall has come to Trebinje for the year.
Leaving Trebinje for a second time in the last 3 weeks feels different. When I returned from my quick trip to Greece the hostel was already officially closed, the walls painted white, beds deconstructed, and boxes strewn about. There was excitement and nervousness in the air with so much to do in just a few short days.
Climbing through the clouds in Greece.
We moved, cleaned, drank, celebrated, and made preparations for everyone to part ways following different routes towards Krakow. There was a lot of joy, some sadness, and a few sighs of relief. For two of us; while I’m sure neither of us wants to admit it, there’s at least some uncertainty about whether we’ll ever make it back to a place that has felt so much like a home. I go to Thailand in December to start making my way through southeast Asia, and the other is likely to return to Australia for a while.
Goodness Trebinje is nice!
It’s not that it’s hard to get to Trebinje, it isn’t, but I was harshly reminded recently that life moves fast in the traveling world. A few months can seem like years, and the farther away in time you are, the farther you are from the memories that inspire the current nostalgic dream of returning.
Monastery on the rock in Kalampaka.
Next spring the hostel will reopen in a new and improved location, with a newly married couple providing new travelers with a home away from home. Maybe there will be another new business or two opening for me to frequent, or maybe I’ll never make it back to Trebinje.
Old bridge in Podgorica.
For now, I’m going to try and be content that while I may be saying goodbye to Trebinje, I’ll see almost everyone again soon in Poland. Onward to Sarajevo, Belgrade, Krakow, Prague, Lviv, Kiev, Tel Aviv, Rome, and maybe one or two others before I leave Europe for a while.
Andrew Monfort 