A Week in Montenegro

Europe » Montenegro
August 29th 2012

Published: August 29th 2012

Day 2

The next day we got up early and headed into town to collect our hire car. I was going to be driving and was slightly apprehensive about it. Mind you, nothing could be as scary as driving in Zagreb on a previous holiday. To this day, I still don’t like driving places where you share the road with a tram. Actually, New Zealand where the road merged with the railway was pretty challenging too. Driving a camper van at the same time didn’t help. Anyway, back to Montenegro. We picked up our car without hitch, noted the various dents and that the wing mirror didn’t match the colour of the rest of the car, and headed on our way. It’s a one way system out of Herceg Novi which isn’t so bad, apart from the fact that the road is a little narrow and of course I was sitting in what would normally be the passenger seat. A few terrified squeals later, we were out of town and on the road.

To be fair, there is pretty much only one main coastal road in Montenegro, which is good as we only had a guidebook map which wasn’t that detailed. We followed the road, admiring the views (which are beautiful – mountains, water, boats – you get the picture) and headed to Perast). It didn’t take long to get there as Montenegro is so tiny. We drove around the bay and looked out for the Venetian church spire, and also the islands in the fjord. The two islands sit near each other while one is a monastery and closed to visitors, the other is open to boat trippers. We decided not to visit, time was one issue, and the other was that we just didn’t fancy it. At Perast we parked the car (phew – one journey completed and the car was intact) and wandered along the waterfront. The sky was overcast and it was drizzling, but nothing could hide the beauty of the place. It’s very small, and obviously Venetian. It didn’t take long to have a wander, and soon we were thinking about breakfast.

Most places were shut, and as it was only just approaching lunch time we had limited opportunities, but we found a place that looked promising and settled down. One thing to note is that Montenegro is a seasonal place, in that in May was just starting to get into gear for summer. Come June/July everywhere would be heaving and everywhere would have been full of hot, sweaty, grumpy tourists. Having places that were closed or quiet was perfectly acceptable when we knew the place would be hideously busy in just a short time.

We had the ubiquitous fare of ham, cheese and bread. Again, this was overlooking the water and instead of chatting the view took up a fair amount of our time. Every so often the sun would tempt us with a sparkle, and then there would be a hint of blue sky. The weather report had said that the weather would get better so we weren’t too worried. After our lovely little break we headed on towards the coast – the seaside coast that is – not the fjord coast.

We drove past Kotor, which we would be heading back to, went though the tunnel which takes you under the mountain, and emerged the other side and continued our journey. The driving was easy, the speeds were slow (not surprising given the bends in the road) and there wasn’t too much traffic to worry about. As we got the coast it became more difficult to concentrate on the road as the views were gorgeous. The outskirts of Budva weren’t particularly attractive, but when the road started to climb away from it the sea just stretched out. We drove past Sveti Stefan, which is where we were due to spend the night, and head onto Bar. The plan was to head to Stari Bar, the old town which was inland, and the main player of the area for a number of years, before it started to decline towards the end of the 1880s and became the ruin that it is now. The huge earthquake of 1979 didn’t help either as it shook down some of the buildings. In fact, we had seen evidence of the earthquake in Herceg Novi, and Budva had also been hit badly.

We drove towards Bar, passed an illogical road junction (which demonstrated that the brakes of our car worked properly) and promptly took the wrong road. I think it’s quite difficult to take the wrong road, but we did, as we climbed higher and higher, and as the road got more windy, we did start to wonder if we had made a little error. Our guidebook map wasn’t that clear, but eventually we decided to turn around. The view which had been behind us on the journey up, was now displayed on the journey down. It was beautiful – and very difficult to keep concentrating on the road. The sea stretched out, it sparkled, the weather was clearing up, and we were on holiday. What could be better? Well knowing where we were driving to would have helped, but we don’t let little things like that bother us.

Eventually we picked up the right road and headed towards Bar. We passed under the fortress of Haj Nehaj which perched on top of a mountainous ridge that appeared to jut out to sea. Sadly we couldn’t visit this, although its altitude would perhaps have put us off even if we could have visited. It brooded – and looked a bit spooky too. We drove around Bar a bit, looking for a sign to the Stari Grad, it was a case of following our noses until luck stepped in and we found a sign. About 15 mins after that we were outside the Stari Grad. We parked in a large car park/basketball court and walked up. As we had noted elsewhere, it was quiet, people stared at us from their shops and cafes, but we weren’t going to buy anything – although it was quite cute. We were going to explore. Walking up to the gate was steep. Very steep. The floor was made up of the type of cobbles which are slippery – or at least they were to my shoes. Walking down was even worse, I had to frequently to stop myself going flying. They weren’t big slips, just the little juddery ones which are somehow worse.

We got to the gate, spotted the Venetian lion, and headed in. It was a couple of euros and it appeared that we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The town is just a shell of what it used to be, the walls of the buildings are no longer standing. But their foundations indicate where they would have stood. The streets still run along, despite the weeds. Some of the outer walls lean precariously, a consequence of the earthquake. A couple of buildings have been reconstructed, but were shut. We wandered around, imagining what it would have been like in its heyday and how sad it would have been when just a handful of people lived there – everyone else having moved out. The main inhabitants of this town now are sheep.

We left as it was starting to get late, and headed back to Sveti Stefan. Stari Bar was the most southern point of our journey and where we noticed that the Orthodox Churches had started to be replaced by mosques.

The drive back was pretty simple and we managed to not get lost. We found our hotel for the night and admired the view. Our balcony looked directly on the island of Sveti Stefan. To fully appreciate the view (and the setting sun) we decided that we needed some type of sustenance to keep us going. We had obviously finished the snacks we had bought at the airport, so headed off somewhere that could sort us out. Approximately 2 minutes walk from the hotel was a corner shop/mini mart type place which sold all sorts of lovely stuff. We stocked up on crisps (or is that chips?), unidentifiable items, weird croissant things and beer. The plan was that this would last us a few days at least. Well, the plan failed. We wanted to taste everything that we had bought, so we did. I especially liked my tzatziki chip things. We sat, ate the spoils, drank the beer, read our books and watched the sun set on the beautiful setting which was Sveti Stefan. Again, it was the stone buildings, the red tiles on the roofs and that sparkling sea which kept drawing our attention away from the page.

After eating copious amounts of junk, it was time for dinner. We had decided to eat at a restaurant that had a terrace and which conveniently was also only two minutes away from our hotel. The whole town of Sveti Stefan (mainland), or rather village, was empty. There was nothing much going on and we were the only people in the restaurant. This, you would have thought, guaranteed good service, but although everything – drinks, starters and mains- appeared on time, the clearing up of the main course didn’t. This wasn’t to the detriment of the meal, but it happened nearly everywhere we ate. Perhaps it’s the done thing in Montenegro. Our view from the terrace was obscured by a building that was being put up, so we made the most of the peripheral views of the sea. It soon got cold, and after a lovely meal we headed back to the hotel. The hotel dog welcomed us at the door, and watched as I struggled to lock it, which was quite embarrassing as the landlady was also watching and couldn’t work out why I was struggling so much. It certainly wasn’t the wine. It was the door, definitely the door.

Stayed at: Apartments Dijana (v good and great view)

Ate at: Famelja Kentera (head upstairs for the terrace)

Car hire: Budget Car Rental - Njegoseva 90 (we thought about hiring from Dubrovnik Airport, but decided it was easier – and cheaper – to do it in Montenegro.)

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