Bojana border walk, kite fight

Velika Plaža · Bojana River · wide awake, sand-polished, politely blistered · Wind: afternoon wind · another kite fight · recovery negotiations opened

One week is over. It feels like one month, which is either a sign of a rich trip or proof that my legs have started using a different calendar.

The morning began with a roughly five-kilometre walk to the Bojana River, where the river meets the sea and quietly becomes the natural border between Montenegro and Albania. From there the whole long line of Velika Plaža opens up: beach, water, distant hills, and enough horizon to make any step counter feel ambitious.

The Bojana has a slower mood than the beach. River houses sit along the water, small boats wait in the green-blue channel, and everything looks as if it has signed a formal agreement not to rush. I took the slow route back, partly because it was beautiful and partly because my feet were already preparing their legal case.

Back toward the Kiteriders spot, the return became a coast-and-water walk through sand: the type of walk that looks meditative from the outside and is actually an advanced ankle workout. At around one o’clock the wind reported for duty. Naturally, the next kite fight could begin.

Adrenaline did its job. Two blisters on my feet were suddenly downgraded from “problem” to “background documentation”. The kite, the board and I continued our negotiations. Some moments felt almost coordinated. Other moments were a short public seminar on humility, with the Adriatic providing practical demonstrations.

By evening, the management board held an emergency meeting and decided that my normal twenty-thousand-steps-a-day policy needs regulation. My host gracefully offered his bike, which is a generous act and also possibly an intervention.

The days here are starting to flow in their own slow rhythm: long mornings, sudden wind, sand everywhere, strangers becoming conversations, and small positive surprises arriving without booking a time slot. Montenegro keeps adding chapters. My feet have filed a minority opinion, but nobody has given them editorial control yet.