Sunday, July 17th:
St. George's Island at Perast, Montenegro
Today Max and I woke up and said goodbye to Chris before we rented a Volkswagen Passat for our drive down to Montenegro for the day. We drove down to the Old City of Dubrovnik first to do the hour-long walk around the city walls. This was one of the most beautiful days of my entire trip so far, but also the hottest as it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit! The walk around the city walls was really awesome, but we hurried through it a little bit because we wanted to get down to Montenegro. There was a ton of traffic at the border and I had to offer up some extra money for agriculture taxes, but we were across the border in no time. The Balkan Mountains around us became more jagged and taller with each passing kilometer, and I stopped all the time to take pictures of the beauty.We also passed some scenic old cities such as Perast and Herceg Novi, but we did not stop for more than a picture.
St. Lawrence Fort from Atop Fort Minceta on the Dubrovnik City Walls:
Max took a short nap while I drove around the Bay of Risan and the Bay of Kotor, and we arrived at the Old City of Kotor at around noon. This city is another medieval walled-in city of old, but it is smaller than Dubrovnik. It does not lack Dubrovnik’s beauty, however, because Kotor is tucked in the biggest fjord in Southern Europe, and is surrounded by tall mountains on each side. We walked around the city for a little while, exploring some of the small churches, before we stopped to have some lunch at a place called Scorpio Caffe. I went a little wild here and tried the Shark Medallions in Orange Sauce which was very good, and we also drank a local beer called Niksicko. After lunch we went inside a tiny church called St. Luca’s before we decided to climb the 1300+ steps up to St. John’s Fortress. The Fortress is over 850 feet above the city of Kotor and was built to protect it from invaders.
The Walls of Kotor:
The climb was not very rigorous, but it sure felt pretty tough in the sweltering heat. We had to take a lot of water breaks, and thank God I brought my camelback backpack filled with water. We finished it by the top, but boy was the climb worth it. The top of St. John’s Fortress will stick in my mind forever as one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen (and I had another that trumped it later in the day!). We descended slowly before we left Kotor to drive farther down the coast to another medieval walled-in city called Budva. The drive did not take very long, and we quickly noticed how much of a beach vacation destination Budva was. There were tents set up along all the beaches and the traffic was heavier for sure.
St. John's Fortress Above Kotor:
The View from the Top of St. John's Fortress:
We drove passed Budva down the coast farther a ways before we found a tiny island connected by a small foot causeway called Sveti Stefan. This island has been turned into a resort, and it sure looks funny and cute jutting out into the Adriatic and covered with old Mediterranean buildings. We tried to walk out to the island but we were not allowed unless we were a resort guest, or we had restaurant reservations. We hopped back into the car and made the rather quick decision to drive way out of our way to Lovćen National Park. The drive to Lovćen was over an hour out of the way in both directions, but it was one of the most scenic drives of my life. Switchbacks climbed higher and higher up the mountains and breathtaking views of the coast, the Old City of Budva, and Sveti Stefan existed on every corner. We finally got over the first row of mountains before driving through the old capital of Montenegro, Cetinje. It was a pretty small city, and once again we were climbing, this time into Lovćen National Park.
Sveti Stefan:
Budva from the Climb to Cetinje:
We got there very late in the day, and the weather was quite temperate on our drive up to Jezerski Mountain. The park information was closed, so we had to feel our way to the top, but I was on a mission. I had heard about a mausoleum that was built atop this National Park, and I was determined to find it. We passed multiple broken-down buses on our drive but we made it up just before the mausoleum was closing for visitors for the day. Thank God we came up here, because this trumps St. John’s Fortress as the most stunning sight my eyes had ever seen. The view at the top of Jezerski Mountain offers miles and miles of untouched mountains above the clouds in all directions. What a beautiful country Montenegro is! Max and I remained up here for a while and also went inside the Njegos Mausoleum to visit the bronze statues inside and the tomb of Njegos before heading back down. On the ride down we offered a ride to three backpackers who were planning to sleep up there but found out it was forbidden. The trio each hailed from one of Austria, Poland, and Spain, and were quite nice on our drive back down (which was much quicker than going up) to Budva.
The View Atop Jezerski Mountain in Lovćen National Park:
We got to Budva famished for dinner, so we found the nearest parking spot on the main strip before looking for some food. Little did we know that our parking spot was a metered spot, but I will get to that soon. We walked through the Old City of Budva for a little while before settling on a place called Konoba Stari Grad right on the beach. I ate some absolutely wonderful Grilled Octopus here and Risotto with Sea Fruits while we both drank some local beer. The Octopus was served with head and all, and it became a favorite of my trip immediately! I don’t know what I would do without seafood in my life. After dinner we were thoroughly tired from our long day, and knew we had a long drive left, so we quickly walked by the Citadel of Budva before going to find our car.
The Budva Citadel at Night:
When we got to our parking space, our car was missing. We looked around for a while before noticing a sign showing a tow-truck towing a car, so we went to find police to figure out the deal. The local policemen laughed at us, told us it would be two-hundred euro to get back, but then said it was merely twenty euro and that we had to only walk about a kilometer to retrieve the car from a nearby lot. We walked to the lot and an argument ensued between myself and the clerk, and it was only made worse by the language barrier. After asking a cop nearby if my two-hundred euro bill was counterfeit or not, he finally accepted it and we were on our way. The drive back home was fairly uneventful and quick, and both of us crashed in bed at around 2am. What an amazing, crazy, and awesome adventure! Tomorrow we are off to Split, a four hour drive to the North.
The Adriatic Coast at Budva and Sveti Stefan from the Climb to Cetinje:
No comments:
Post a Comment