A Brief(ish) Moment in Montenegro

Do you know the feeling of running out of time?  Here I was, happily wandering around, spending three days here and two days there, no hurry, no stress.  And then all of a sudden, I realised that I only had another four weeks to go.  And there was so much left to see and do!  So, I'm sorry to say, I didn't do Montenegro justice, staying only five days and really only exploring one little region.  Mind you (and I probably shouldn't make a snap judgement since I was there for so little time) I found the Montenegrin people rude!  Abrupt, terse, eye-rolling at every moment, dismissive and just plain rude!  Take me back to Albania!

I hadn't realised that Montenegro is not part of the EU so it was a case of hard borders in and out.

So where did I go?  I went to Kotor (along with a lot of tourists from the massive cruise ships) and stayed in a wonderful apartment in the old city.  The lovely thing about staying in these places is that it becomes quiet and normal after about 4pm, when all the tourists scuttle back to their ships.  I loved Kotor.  It's a small place with a walled old city (actually, that's nothing special I've discovered since everywhere seems to have a walled old city) that is a warren of tiny narrow alleyways, none of which go in a straight line.  I've been lost (in the most pleasant way) every time I've set out to do something.

The walls of Kotor - you can walk along the top

The north gate

I enjoyed wandering around, finding a very expensive local market where the cheese was fantastic but worth almost as much as my accommodation and the plum raki actually tasted like plums and not battery acid (not that I know what that tastes like).  I also found a brilliant bar where the beer was ice cold and a coffee shop that served decent coffee (not to Greece's or Albania's standards but reasonable).  It was interesting seeing the prices change ... when a cruise ship was in, the coffee was 4 euros but once it had left, my americano was back to 3 euros.  Isn't it great being a 'local'!

My bar was a really cool place, full of punk art and great sculptures.  Most of them were by Marko Petrovic Njegos - never heard of him but evidently famous in Montenegro.

Loved this ... it's a portrait of Nikola Tesla, made out of computer parts (how fitting!).  That's a Serbian 100 dinara note that also has a portrait of the Serbian inventor and futurist.

This looks like some really dirty washing hanging between the houses (and washing did hang like this) but this is made out of metal.  Amazing!

Kotor is famous for its cats.  Lots of cats.  I mean LOTS!  They are everywhere and they are allowed everywhere.  The locals feed them and look after them, make them beds and take them to vets.  There are cats in the restaurants, on the streets, prowling the alleyways and invading the accommodation.  They all look smug.  They have this town wrapped around their well groomed paws.  There's even a Cat Museum!  Every night (around 2am ... trust me, I know because I woke up whenever this happened), men come along and hose down the alleys.  I originally thought this was just to reduce dirt and dust but a local put me straight ... they are washing away cat pee!  Think of it ... all those toms ...

On a lovely sunny day, I decided to walk up the Ladder of Kotor.  This is a rocky path that zigzags up the mountain, past the Kotor Fortress and up, up, up to spectacular views.  Ooh, it was steep!  But the views were amazing and well worth the effort.  Towards the top, I stopped at a hut where two old women and a bent old man were running a sort-of cafe out of their little hut.  Willing to support Montenegrin aged care, I ordered a coffee.  Luckily, the old guy went to greet some new suckers and I was able to pour the 'coffee' into a potted geranium.  It will die.  Undrinkable!

The path was bordered by a range of flowers/weeds, all in vibrant reds, whites and blues.  Poppies, sage, (I think) chamomile, it was lovely. 

Having spent three lovely days in Kotor, it was time to move on ... all of 14 kilometres up the coast to a lovely little village called Perast.  This is a gorgeous village, on the shores of the sea but climbing up the hill.  There are no cars, just steps and alleys and lovely stone buildings and ... AAAHHHH!!! tourists from the cruise ships.  So Perast is VERY expensive.  Luckily, my lovely (actually REALLY GOOD) accommodation had a coffee machine, a fridge and small kitchen (as well as a beautiful terrace with a view) so I didn't go broke here.

Opposite Perast are two tiny islands.  One is man-made ... the locals spent quite a bit of time throwing rocks into the sea and sinking boats that they didn't want anymore until they had enough land for the Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Rocks to be built (appropriate name, huh?).  The other island is natural and has a 12th century monastery on it.  I visited neither.  I am monasteried out (Word says there is no such thing ... but there is!) and I am over tourists.

The Isle of the Dead - with monastery

Our Lady of the Rocks

Instead of doing the tourist stuff, I decided to walk up the road to Risan.  It was a beautiful walk and I really enjoyed watching the mussel farmers pulling in the ropes of shellfish, getting ready for the lunchtime demand of the cruise ship shoppers.  I reached Risan, which is NOT a tourist destination ... a good coffee was 2 euros ... but it has a fascinating museum of Roman mosaics.  This entire area was very popular with the early Romans and the museum was the excavated building that, they think, was a travelers meeting and boarding house.  The floors were simple but rather striking mosaics and there was a lot of information about the Roman presence in the area and the history of archaeology in the region.

There's a healthy mussel and oyster industry here (on a very small scale)

Perast is also famous (in its own mind I think) for being the site of "The Great Raid"!  In 1624, pirates from Tunisia and Albania sailed into the Bay of Kotor, ending up in Perast where they pillaged and plundered and abducted 415 people (women, children and the elderly).  They ended up getting most of them back by paying ransoms.  Evidently, that was why there were quite a few shop dummies scattered around Perast in rather strange positions ... celebrating (probably not the right word) the 400th anniversary of the raid.

But it's time to move on.  I'm off to Croatia ... from what I can see, more old towns, more walls and more tourists.  I'll let you know how I go!