Mountains and motorboats in Montenegro

From Tirana we decided to head straight to Montenegro and see how far up the coast we could get in a day. In a stroke of luck we made it all the way to Kotor, a dramatic walled coastal town, with one of the nicest Old towns we’d seen (photo above). A little like Gjirokaster without the gloom, Kotor’s old town is sandwiched between the ocean and a group of steep cliffs that tower above. The only way to protect this defensively weak location was to extend the city walls up the cliffs and build a castle at the top. Thus today you can walk up the steep windy path atop the city walls (photo below) to the ruined castle and enjoy stunning views over the town and valley beyond. We slogged up in the late afternoon heat to enjoy sunset from the top. Far below the old town is just as enchanting with tiny cobbled streets connecting a series of never ending plaza’s full of café’s and restaurants, all with great views of the walls above. Hidden away in Montenegro, Kotor is a really beautiful place, and well worth a visit. Later, we would come to think of it as a mini Dubrovnik.

We had arrived without any pre-booked accommodation but were soon accosted by an elderly lady offering a room. We followed, at first reluctantly, but after only a short walk arrived at her apartment. She showed us the only bedroom (which would be ours as she slept on the couch) and after some bargaining we sat down for coffee at the kitchen table. A little eccentric, our host was nonetheless very accommodating. Strong Turkish coffee was always on offer after our outings and many encouraging words in Serbian were forthcoming. Our common language was limited to “hello, goodbye, coffee, and thankyou,” but there were always smiles all round. It was a little like staying at your grandma’s place, only a grandma that only spoke Serbian.
(Photo - Kotor's old town)
After Kotor we headed back down the coast to the resort town of Budva. The beach holiday resort of Montenegro, Budva’s beach is covered with never-ending rows of beach chairs for rent. Occasionally you can find a few free square feet of rough sand to put down your towel (See below photo). Europe and the Balkans have a very different idea about what a beach should be. Beaches are owned, fenced off, and filled with chairs and umbrellas for rent at ridiculous prices. Going to the beach is not the free family holiday it is in Australia. And rubbish, especially cigarette butts, cover the sand. Perhaps the locals are sick of their pebble beaches and feel a beach of cigarette butts would be more comfortable. They are not far off anyway. But enough beach snobbery, Budva has a fantastic hostel, a nice enough beach and the requisite walled old town. And despite a heated argument with a taxi driver (Ryan’s first for the trip) we still enjoyed our stay, mostly due to the great hostel and the people who stayed there. We also headed out into the bay on a boat with some others from the hostel and explored the surrounding coves. Kelly and I joined the locals in a spot of cliff jumping in which the main aim was not to loose your bathers. We didn’t lose them there but Kel would later leave them at the hostel, only to have them returned to us in Dubrovnik. Isn’t it great when things just work out! So we left Budva, and headed inland into Bosnia Herzegovina. We were looking for a big lesson in modern history, and some insight into a conflict that we remember from the television screens of our youth.