Balkan Tour: Montenegro

One of our day tours from our hotel was down into Montenegro. They were smoking everywhere, and I had become so accustomed to having smoke free pubs/restaurants that it was quite a shock to have someone chain smoke right next to me, luckily I was outside. It was warm, even though there was no sun to be found. We snaked past the inlets and bays from the sea where pirates once stalked. That is one of the reasons why so many of the old towns were walled and heavily fortified. The water was so blue and sparkled in the sunlight that broke through the clouds. We weaved through the Sveti Đorđe and Gospa od Škrpijela islets off the coast of Perast, stopping to take photos along the way.

Our first city stop was in Kodor. It was a much bigger walled city, with a wall that serpentined up the mountain. Their religious background is a bit different in that the communists wanted atheists so a lot of their churches wend into disuse and they practiced in secret. Many of the churches were Orthodox so it was strange to see no pews, organs (musical instruments), no statues and only iconography 2D images. The city is part of the UNESCO world heritage so we had another tour guide. Montenegrins are very tall, and our female tour guide, towered over me. It was so great to see so many tall people again as I can feel like a giant in Ireland at times. We went through the Cathedral of Saint Tryphon, as it contained relics (mummified body parts) that were of someone once important. This started tourism hundreds of years ago, as people would travel far and wide to see religious relics. Strangely enough they use the Euro but are not a part of the EU, so that worked for me since I had a few quid still on me. I had to pay to use the toilets and the WC woman spoke German to me, so it is good to know I look my roots. The WC woman proceeded to speak in 5 other languages to other customers, so she just spoke what she thought was the most appropriate. As I said before, I love blending into Europe.

The second city we stopped at Budva, where Ben had even done some design work, so it was great to see his sight. The streets of this smaller walled town was reminiscent of Greece with a look of Venice. The sun came out during a lunch stop for some pizza where I made my first friend on the trip, Collette and her mum, Mary. We swung in our bench and watched all the cats run about. There were everything. The beach just through the wall was beautiful sand, with many enjoying the fleeting sunshine. The city was packed with quaint churches, small shops and great eateries. Russians flocked to this area for their holidays since they use the Cyrillic alphabet as well as the Roman one, and are also Orthodox. The land around the area was quite cheap which is why Ben had looked at putting a hotel there in his office.

With the sun setting we took off down the coast again, but instead of driving hours around, we drove right onto a ferry with another buss and about 8 other cars, and sailed across the Boka-Kotor Bay in about ten minutes. We got hassled a bit at the boarder trying to get back into Croatia, but that just meant more stamps for me, in my nearly full passport!