Montenegro

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The train ride from Belgrade to Podgorica was pretty interesting. I sat in a room with 4 other people who didn’t speak any English while listening to Serbian folk music. This was fine with me for a while because I could put on my headphones and rest assured that no one would bother me while I got some work done. However, a little over halfway through the other passengers in my room got bored, I guess, and started asking me questions in Serbian. I, of course, didn’t know how to answer, but that didn’t stop them from trying anyway. Three of them were in their 50s, but one of them was an 18-year-old boy, who spoke very little English. So the 3 older people started bugging this poor kid, who couldn’t have cared less about who I was or what I was doing, to translate for me what little he could. They would say something to him, and about 3 quarters of the time he would just shake his head because he didn’t have a clue how to translate it. This continued for about two hours. Meanwhile, the train was running over an hour late, and I couldn’t wait to get to the train station. Finally, just before midnight, the train arrived. Paul, a former roommate of mine, picked me up there and drove me to his place, where he let me stay in a room for the time there. Paul works for the US Embassy there, and lives in a nice house courtesy of Uncle Sam.

For the first few days I didn’t do much except relax and enjoy the space. We went out around the center of town at night. Podgorica is a pretty small city, with a population of about 150k. The people enjoy walking up and down one of two main boulevards, or sitting and watching people walk by while drinking a beer or coffee. This, Paul said, was the nation’s past time, and it bored the hell out of him. I found it interesting for about the first night, and after that I was in agreement with him. I did walk around during the day to get some pictures of the scenery. The city is very flat, but surrounded by mountains in the distance, and has rivers flowing through it. The river water is unlike any I’ve ever seen. It is an emerald green. I first noticed this on the train ride, and I thought it may have just been the way the light hit at that particular time or angle, but I saw the same thing walking around Podgorica. Maybe it’s a mixture of elements in the water, but it is beautiful. There is a bridge, called the Millennium Bridge, that has a very distinct architecture. There is only one upright support, except it leans instead of standing upright and is off-centered. I found Orthodox Christian churches and Mosques traveling around town.

Paul introduced me to some of his friends there he had met through the Embassy one evening. This was a very diverse group of people, yet all American. I talked with a guy from Minnesota and a girl from Nebraska about college sports for a little while. Eventually I was telling Scott, from Minnesota, about my plans to rent a car and explore some other places in Montenegro. He explained that he knew a guy who rented cars, and would be glad to call and try to arrange something for me. I agreed, especially after I got the final quote, which was cheaper than what I was looking at online. The next morning I met Scott and his friend to pick up the car. I signed the paper work, was given the keys, and was ready to take off for my explorations. I entered the car and noticed something that I hadn’t expected. This car has a manual transmission. Now I have driven a manual transmission automobile before, but I have never owned one, and my total driving time was probably around 2-3 hours. Still, what was I going to do, take it back and demand an automatic? I probably should have known anyway. So I sucked it up and decided to take the next step in learning a manual transmission… by myself… in a foreign country. Hey, at least it was a rental.

After about a 1.5 hour drive through the mountains, my first stop was Budva. Budva is a very small, very touristy destination along the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Only recently has it really become a hotspot. New hotels have popped up along the coast behind the mile-and-a-half of public beaches. However, the place to visit is Stari Grad, the old town. Stari Grad has an area of only about 6-7 city blocks. It consists of 2-3 story houses huddled together with narrow walkways in between. Shops, restaurants, museums, hotels, and churches are found walking through the pedestrian-only streets. The most dramatic feature is the fortress walls that completely surround Stari Grad. I took a staircase that led up to a path along the top of the fortress walls where I could see all of Stari Grad and everything around it. From up top, the town looked like a maze of terra cotta rooftops with a couple of steeples soaring in the midst. Stari Grad is located right on the coast, and as I walked towards the coastal walls I could see everything out in the sea. Lots of large boats and yachts were docked to one side. An island covered in vegetation with only a small corner featuring human presence sat about a mile away in the sea. High-rising cliffs soared over a small beach on the other side of Stari Grad. The water turned from a deep blue to an emerald as it gave way to the beach. I went through an archeological museum where I learned that the old town dated back to 5th century BC. Artifacts from a 3rd century BC Greek era, a 2nd-4th century Roman era, and an 18th century era were on display.

The next leg of my drive was shorter and featured a tunnel passage through a mountain to the town of Kotor. Kotor is situated at the southern point of the Kotor Fjord, the largest fjord in southern Europe. Kotor had an old town that was eerily similar to Stari Grad in that it was a mass of terra cotta roofed houses huddled together with pedestrian-only walkways in between and a fortress wall surrounding it. I think I am noticing a pattern here. The fjord was surrounded by, and I guess this is true of all fjords, high mountains. A steep walkway leads up to a fortress up on the mountain top just behind the old town. I read in my guidebook that there were two ways to get up to the fortress. I took the way that was closest to where I parked, which I would later realize was the “back” way. The walkway went back and forth across the steep mountainside with hairpin turns. I stopped to look out at the fjord at many intervals because it was just too surreal. I could see the fortress wall over to the side, but as I got higher, I noticed that there was a crevice between the path I was on and the fortress wall. I kept going and eventually came to a small house on the mountain side. I waved to a man who seemed to be living there and after playing a game of charades got some directions to the fortress walls. A small entryway led me to the other side of the fortress walls where steps led to the top. Using these I completed the 1200m ascent where I could enjoy the fruits of the hike: the view. Here I could see all around the Kotor Fjord. The old town of Kotor below looked like an orange blob. A cruise ship just off the coast looked like a tug boat. I could see the mountain tops in the distance for miles. On my way down I took the “main” way. After eating lunch inside the old town I went back to my car to drive around the fjord.

The main road goes all along the coast of the fjord. I drove for about 45km to Herceg Novi, where I turned around and drove back the same way. On the way there I noticed many places or pull off on the side of the road, but they were all on the other side. I took note of them on the way to Herceg Novi and stopped at the best places on the way back. There are small villages about every 10km along this road. Many of them seemed to cater to tourists. On my way back through Kotor a police officer stepped in front of my car and waved me over to the side. “Great,” I thought, “I am totally screwed now.” I grabbed the papers from the glove box and handed them to the officer along with my license. Wouldn’t you know the officer starts talking to me in gibberish. I was about to say, “I’m sorry,” when he pointed inside the car to my headlight knob. Now, it was 6:30 in the evening, but the sun was shining bright. People still had their sunglasses on. I thought, he must want me to use daytime running lamps, so I quickly turned the knob to the parking lights. Then he reached down and turned the knob over so that my headlights turned all-the-way on. Apparently that is the rule in Montenegro, a rule that was conveniently left out of the discussion when I rented the car. I nodded at the officer, and to my surprise he simply handed me back my things and waved me to move on. I didn’t have a whole lot things on my checklist when I first came to Europe, and getting pulled over in a foreign country was definitely not one of them, but now I feel some sense of bliss because of it.

Montenegro is the smallest country of former Yugoslavia, but it has some great features to it. While Podgorica is somewhat tame, Budva and Kotor are subtropical paradises. Budva seems like a great place for a vacation getaway for anyone looking to avoid the crowd. Kotor doesn’t have the beaches like Budva, but people lay out and swim off the docks just the same. I could go on and on about the scenery of the entire coastline of Montenegro, but the pictures will do a much better job. With a preview like this, I can’t wait to see what the coast of Croatia has to offer.

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Photos

River
Through Podgorica

Beach
Just North of Stari Grad

Fortress Walls
Surrounding Stari Grad

Stari Grad
View from along the Fortress Walls

Stari Grad
Down the Street. View from the Fortress Walls

Fortress
The "back" way on the left

Old Town Kotor
View from the Fortress

The "Front" Way
Looking down from Fortress

Comments

[shannon]

beautiful pics!
Wow, what great scenery! So jealous!