HAVING A RANt

If you drive a high powered European car, especially an Audi or BMW, or if you enjoy cruise ships, you might find it best not to read on. Having said that, maybe you should read on, it might lead to an Orthodox Easter epiphany.
This was always going to be a pretty nothing day. A two and a bit hour drive to Tivat Airport then a flight to Belgrade followed by another leg to Ljubljana. If you get through a day like that, relatively unscarred it's a bonus right?
I'm now pretty used to the driving here, being on the other side of the road is the least of my problems. So I've adopted some strategies to maximise our safety; keep the speed down, leave space between me and the car in front and sit behind trucks where possible so in the event of a head on collision, the truck, not me takes the impact of the idiot who decided to overtake in a dangerous place.
It's also apparent, that a disproportionate number of the hard core idiots drive BMWs and Audis. It's probably a combination of entitlement and some misguided belief that these cars are safer that leads to the cowboy driving. If you own one of these cars believing they are safer, I suggest you do some research. You'll be surprised to find out that Japanese cars are in fact the safest. So the people that drive these things are not only homicidal, but they also have their own death wish. Today I lost count of the number of vehicles that overtook us in death defying places on narrow roads, often over unbroken lines. It became such a source of fascination that we decided to take some videos just to prove that we survived this madness.
I didn't keep an accurate count, but I would estimate that 70% of serious crazies were driving Audis or BMWs. I couldn't care less if you want to drive like a lunatic and risk your own life and limb as well as the possibility of writing off a AU$100 000 car; that's entirely your business. However it does worry me that you want to put other peoples' lives on the line.
I'd love to be able to say that this behaviour is all the fault of the authorities. Sure the roads are in poor condition, but this is a relatively low income country by European standards. Building multi lane highways here, ain't gonna happen anytime soon. In fact, in defense of the authorities, the roads here are heavily policed. Their cars are visible and they do issue fines, not just warnings. We met two young women from Berlin who had found themselves on the wrong side of the traffic police and they had to pay up.
So how do you stop this craziness? I have no answers. The danger should be obvious to any sane human being, but sanity seems to be in short supply once people get behind the wheel of a car in this country.
This Insta link will take you to a video of today's experience. Watch the first clip closely to see an act of sheer madness.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DW6qoeIjOSF/?igsh=MW1uYmR3YjFtbDc3eA==
Anyway, we survived the drive to Tivat physically and mentally intact. So this is where part 2 of my rant begins.
Cruise ships WTF?
The GPS warned us that this would be a slow drive so we were well prepared. After all, this weekend is Orthodox Easter, so the roads were bound to be busy. When we drove the road alongside the Bay of Kotor, we saw not one, but two monstrous floating hotels in the vicinity. I suspect sitting in a room with Donald Trump, JD Vance, Pete Hegseth and Karoline Leavitt might be less taxing than spending even a few hours on board one of these things. Just imagine having to queue up at the Mike Pompeo buffet bar for three square meals a day and in the evening being entertained by performers too low rent to even get a gig at the Budgewoi RSL.
Anyway, the centre of Kotor was heaving with pedestrians, many of whom had spent too much time at the Pompeo buffet. They were on the ubiquitous cruise ship tour of town which is more about taking the guests to high commission souvenir shops rather than engaging with history or culture.
Evolution tells us that humans are pretty resilient creatures. We are also inquisitive. So why the need to move in packs and hence make life hell for everyone else?
This conveniently leads into the third part of my rant; airports. The airport at Tivat is tiny and I mean tiny. I hate these places at the best of times. I'll always take a 12 hour train trip over a few hours in a flying bus. Even worse than the flight is the luggage check in followed by immigration and security. What a drag. As luck would have it, the group in front of us had all come off the cruise ship that had arrived in Kotor. As a general rule, I like to travel with less than 15kgs. That's check in and carry on together. This mob were each checking in two suitcases that pushed the scales to nearer 30kgs. On top of this, they had some decent carry on. This really re defines hell on earth. Ten days out at sea on a floating RSL Club and then lugging 30kgs of gear to and from the airport. I'd much rather stay at home and watch Married at First Sight!

You can find lots more of my travel blogging here
https://www.travellerspoint.com/users/djscooterman/