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Published: November 3rd 2008
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Took only about 45 minutes to get from Budva to Kotor. The arrival in town was quite dramatic for me, through mountain pass and out of it you immediately see the fjord! it was very cloudy and windy and when i got off at the bus station no one offered me rooms so i was forced to go to the old town about 1 km away, there was a green market going just outside of the fort, went in and looked around until i found Meridian Travel Agency according to LP is very helpful in finding accomodations. Jelena the lady who help me was very nice and booked me a single room right away in the old town 15 euros a night. Since my room is still being cleaned we chatted for a bit. She gave me a map of the city and tips on how to get up the fortress and where to avoid the snakes!! She then sends me to the private accomodation, map in hand I still got lost! it is confusing at first because it looks like a maze on narrow streets. There was a lady Desa i think waiting for me and showed me the room.
KOTOR
ME, SILVIO AND RICARDO IN THEIR ROOM AFTER A NIGHT OUT The next door room is occupied by 2 Italian lads, said hello and then i went off to go to Cetinje.
Dodging torrential rain and gusty wind, surprisingly quite warm and humid, like in the tropics but were in a fjord. At the bus station bought the ticket to Cetinje, it took a good 1 hour 1/2 to get there. We were dumped in a dilapidated building which is the bus station. No time scheds for return, so i just started walking where I think was the center, no map in hand as always just winging it and of course got lost and went away from the center. Found my way and saw some interesting buildings, Presidential bldg, with uniformed guards, French Embassy, Former Italian embassy etc. lots of embassies from it former glory as the capital of Montenegro. Walked some more and eventually got to Cetinje monastery. The monk opened the church for me, and a few devout tourists started kissing this coffin, i waited for them to finish, they prostrate themselves on to the floor, and felt awkward having a look at the coffin at that time, when they were done i approached it and asked the
monk who is in it, it is a holy monk, St.Peter of Cetinje and get this, a piece of the "true cross" and 2 mummified fingers of St. John the Baptist! Cool! had a very long look and then went. i tired to see the museum but the monk said it only gets opened for 10 guests at least at one time, no individual viewing. Having failed i walked down to town and went to an exhorbitantly costly museum to see the former King of Montenegros house. Skip this if you can, 5 euros was a waste.
The pedestrian walkaway is empty and its quite gloomy, no tourist but me, bored already i headed back to the station and 15 minutes later a bus appeared. The drive back was slow, rain and wind and fog on the roads. When we approached Budva it was sunny then gloomy again in Kotor. At the private accomodation i cooked my dinner of pasta and swiss chards and mystery dried mushrooms i bought at the market, i just hope i dont poison myself tonight with this dodgy shrooms. The Italian dudes arrived and started chatting with me, Silvio was the first one to
talk to me but his English is not very good so i have to talk slowly, Ricardo the other dude, is an architect, Silvio a chef in and they are slowly making their way to Athens to run in the marathon on Nov.9. After dinner I went for a walk and overheard 3 Filipinos dudes talking, i wanted to approach them but they seem to be preoccupied shopping, so just went for a long walk around the town, saw the Italian dudes and this time we chatted longer and they invited me to dinner with them, these dudes are so cool and very laid back, we hit it off right away, its like we know each other for a long time, it helped that we are all about the same age, 20 somethings you know...
I have not spent a lot of time with Italians, but i noticed they seem to argue a lot by the tone of their voices and gestures but that could just be the way they are actually i enjoyed listening to them even if i cant understand, very melodic tonal sound, like Spanish. Ricardo is an avid photographer showing me his fine Ricoh camera,
he gave me some tips as well. At the restaurant we I just had beer while they have dinner as I already ate. I quite enjoyed their company, they are very down to earth and we joked around as if were old friends, they even have me write down a greeting on the postcards they wrote for their friends. they paid for my beer and wont take no for an answer.
Walking slowly back to the old town, we noticed all the hot girls walking around with high heels, Saturday nite party time in bars and they told me our rooms are quite noisy because we are above a bar! True to their Italian bloods the boys wasted no time drooling over girls and making comments in Italian, quite funny really. the girls here are hot! We arrived near the bar they went the night before and we just stood there for a good 1/2 hour gawking at girls, then we went back to the room and we get ready to go out. We had a few beers at the bar below, service was slow, we went inside and loud music playing. We chatted with these groups of girls,
one was from Louisiana visiting family here, her cousin , quite a chubby girl lived in franklin, Mass. as an au pair. Around 2 am police came , i think music is too loud, and then 2am last call bars closed we headed back to the rooms and went to bed.
Early morning the boys woke me up and they are getting ready to go for a run, did not dare to join them, dont have proper shoes. Went for a walk after shower and met them back at the hotel, took a few more photos and bid them goodbye, sad byes actually i wish we travel together for a bit but they are going the opposite directions, they promised to let me know when the run the Boston marathon and they stay with me.
Found the north entrance to the fortress of St. John, walked up slowly, looks like it will be a fine day, blue sky starting to peek, took my time, took heaps of photos, have to top Ricardos photos. When i got up to the tower, there is a metal door shut and cant find a way to get around to get down the
CETINJE
MONASTERY trailon the other side, frustrated at not finding a way to the other end, i resolved to go back the same way then halfway down found a trail and followed it and eventually got me to the other side but i thoguht really i could scale from the top and got down from it but realized there was no trail there just walls.
Made my way to the bus station and asked the lady in the counter for buses for Perast, she was quite annoyed and told me go to information booth next counter, the guy said buses leave there and to buy ticket from the wicked lady. i said to her are you going to sell me a ticket?!! I was quite annoyed, she could have sold me one without sending me to the other counter first. 30 minutes later the driver dropped me off on the road and i walked towards the small town of Perast, quite picturesque , spent an hour walking around tokk photos and then waited for the bus back, sat under a pine tree to wait for the bus next to the road, when it came I hailed it but did not stop,
probably did not see me in time to stop. 10 minutes later another came and i got on. Bought lunch at the grocery store and ate lunch in my room.
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