A Little Visit to A Little Country (Montenegro)

After starving ourselves in Dubrovnik and only eating the cheapest food we could find, we were eager to get into Montengero and order a feast on the cheap. We both needed some protein, and as soon as the bus dropped us off in town, we went and dumped our gear then searched for a place we could find a steak. We sat down and ordered a T Bone steak each. What came out was two pork chops, so undercooked that we could only eat the edges, and for the rest of the day we were looking at our watches wondering when the food poisoning was going to hit.

Our first stop was in the Bay of Kotor, which is a flooded river valley like Hawkesbury River. This means the water gets very deep, very fast, and as such has allowed large ships to come in and pull right up onto the shoreline in these nice, tucked away crevices of the valley. Kotor is the main town within this bay, and has long been a port town. Above the city and stretching up the mountain is the ancient fortifications which lie in ruin, but they can be climbed for a great view of the bay, the mountains which loom above it, and the town below.

We stayed right in the middle of the ‘old town’ area, giving us great access to explore all the quiet and narrow cobblestones streets and back alleys. Museums tend to bore me quick, but the Maritime museum here with old model ships was really cool.

 

 

 

 

Compared to Dubrovnik, this placed seemed to be deserted, and it was great to be able to get a cheap meal, right on the central square, right next to the grand cathedral, while watching the local boys played soccer on the pavement. Dinner and a show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We caught a bus down along the coast and saw other interesting parts of the coastline.

 

Montenegro is a tiny country. You could fit it six times over into Tasmania and it has less than a million people. It’s not part of the European Union yet but sure seems to be on the way. When planning this leg we only put two stops in Montenegro, which is really doing ourselves a disservice, but something had to be cut because Rinski’s time was a factor, and in retrospect I’m glad we did Montenegro on the lean so we could spend more time elsewhere.

The second stop was in a beach town called Ulcinj, with an Albanian majority. There’s not much to say about this place really. There’s an old town overlooking the sea, a poor man’s Dubrovnik, the beach was polluted and full of umbrella’s, Eurotrash everywhere I looked, stray cats that looks a few gasps away from death. Still, we had a good time here. We bought Tuna to feed sickly cats, we went for a swim in the filthy water and it was somehow refreshing, and we had a great meal in a restaurant sitting right on the edge of the cliff in the ‘old town area’ watching the sunset over the Mediterranean and seeing the purple dusk wash over Montenegro’s craggy coastline.  

And we waited at yet another bus stop to go somewhere new…