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Published: December 7th 2006
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Kotor
From the top of the citadel The overnight bus from Peja went without problem and I was dropped in Uclinje at 5AM in the bus station. I wasn't too sure if I wanted to stay as the sights in town didn't seem to be overwhelming. My question was answered for me by a bus heading northward that was leaving 3 minutes after my bus arrived. I hopped on it because it meant I could have 2 more hours of sleep and not spend hours trying to find accomodation at 5AM in Ulcinje. I arrived at a comfortable 7AM in Kotor, and after a cup of coffee in the bus station's cafe, I headed to the Old Town. Kotor is a small city situated in the Fjord of Kotor, it has been a harbour used for centuries and the Old Town of Kotor is still largely intact, complete with the fortifications. As a bonus it is not as touristy as neighbouring Dubrovnik in Croatia, but from what I've seen it's only a matter of time as Montenegro is well on the way to opening up.
I found a room with a man called Brando which offered me a very nice room with hot water in his apartment,
the only problem is that it was not heated. He looked like a nice guy but surprised me when, after chatting for a few minutes after I had decided to take the place, he told me that all muslims were bad people and should never be trusted. Hmmmm. Doesn't give me a good first impression of Montenegrins, but considering they were fighting alongside the serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo, it's not too surprising.
The Old town of Kotor was quite an important player in the Mediteranean in earlier days. In 14th century it was powerful enough to make Venice jealous and after some resistance teh venitians finally managed to conquer the town in 1420 and they held it until 1797. It was an important player in the Venice empire. It was then under the Hapsburg (and briefly under Napoleon) before joining Yugoslavia in 1918, then Serbia and Montenegro after the breakup of Yugoslavia and finally Montenegro. Anyway, I had a little walk around the Old Town which was very beautiful. It is basically my first old medieval city ever so I quite enjoyed it. I took a long time to visit it all and totally loved it. There was
a little square full of cats and I played with them for a while, probably making the locals think I was crazy (they were probably right). Then I went up the hill to the citadel, I had a picnic near an abandonned church which was really hard to get to (I had to go through the citadel's window then go down a sleep rocky slope). But it was definately worth it. The views from the citadel were quite mindblowing. Kotor is situated on the biggest fjord in southern europe. I didn't know there were fjord in the Mediteranean. I guess that removes one thing from my list of thing to see, without even entering Norway!
I disovered a new type of food in Kotor that day: borek! It's a pastry fillled with cheese or meat or potato. It's full of fat but I'm loving it. Plus it's cheap. Apparently it's eaten everywhere in the Balkans. Wow. Try it out if you're in the area. There wasn't exactly much nightlife going on in the city though so after it got dark I retreated to a cafe to read a bit and then went to bed.
On the 12th I
Kotor fjord
On the way to Dubrovnik. It was amazing but the pictures don't show it well as they were taken behind a window on a bus going fast. got up really early to get the 7AM bus to Dubrovnik. Now, waking up at 6 something for a bus is bad, but it's even worse when the bus doesn't even show up. Apparently there was an engine problem and the bus didn't run that day so I had to wait for the next one at 3PM. After drinking 3 espressos in the bus station's cafe (the only one open in town), I woke up enough to realize that I didn't feel like doing a day trip to another town around Kotor. So I just sat walked around the town, went up on the hills nearby again, sat at a cafe to wrete and chatted a bit with the people around before heading back to the bus station.
The ride from Kotor to Dubrovnik is among the most scenic I've seen on this trip. Really amazing. Too bad the bus never stopped so I could take pictures.
I wasn't staying too long in Montenegro because I just wanted to see Kotor before making my way to Bosnia. I figured since I'm in the area might as well see Kotor and neighbouring Dubrovnik but didn't plan to spend longer
Cat square
In Kotor Old Town as it was too late in the year to swim in the sea and it's too cold to trek in the mountains of Montenegro. But still, I quite enjoyed the town and the people, aside from the overly racist man who rented the room.
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marko
non-member comment
world's youngest country
heh, greetings to you, man. nice travel journals anyway. without any bad intention, just letting you know that Montenegro is actually one of world's oldest countries, but got no time right now to explain how and why :) And I'm not montenegrin anyway ;) have a nice time man. keep writing. marko