Wow, what a pearla! The coastline and bays of Croatia paired with massive mountains (Montenegro meaning "black mountain") made for a ripper surprise when we crossed from the Croatian boarder into Montenegro. Almost instantly the scenery changed as the bus started to wind around the coast line from the Croatian border. It was around lunch when we'd finally got through the Montenegro border crossing via Croatia after leaving Mostar - BiH at 7am with a bit of a hangover we blame on beer from a 2 litre plastic bottle (actually put me off beer for about 2 weeks).
We were pretty keen to get off the bus and grab some fresh air when we finally reached Kotor. We had an AirBnB inside the Kotor fortified walls, our first accommodation in an actual old town which was a bit less then a km from the station to our apartment.
The apartment was pretty small in comparison to what we'd had in the Croatia and BiH, and expensive for what it was. It was up about three flights of stairs (which stunk of cat piss), right next to another apartment which was been renovated from 7am till 7pm each day, sending dust everywhere.... Our bed was a fold out couch, which was fine, but the fitted sheet didn't fit. We love AirBnB but every single place we've stayed at has had some sort of kicker, whether it be big or tiny. The host came back sorted the sheet situation and out and we went to get some tucker by around 3pm.
I jumped on Tripadvisor and the number one place to eat was a little takeaway grill called Tanjga, it had raving reviews so we decided to hit that up - and it did not disappoint!!
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| Number 1 place on Tripadvisor and it did not disappoint!!!! Our regret is that we didn't go back and eat there everyday, it was delicious.! |
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| Most tender and tasty beef sandwich of the trip (maybe ever)!! 25AUD for two sangas and a coke each. Quite pricey compared to BiH. But it did make us super full and we certainly didn't require dinner that night! |
We were pretty shagged so after a full tummy we headed to the grocery shop to get breakfast, fruit and snacks for the next few days, then back to the apartment to get some rest before getting out and about the next couple of days.
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| Main wall of the Old Kotor is impressive at first site. |
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Hiking up the outside of the Kotor Castle walls to find the back entrance - just to save a couple of Euro's and go on an adventure. This track was the original road into Kotor before the Austo-Hungarians built the real road in the 19th century. If we had another day I would have walked up this road and onto the mausoleum (6hr hike). The views would have been amazing.
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| A little Chapel on the walk up outside the castle walls, in good condition for something which was off the beaten track. |
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| Walls access point up the hill! |
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| View from the top of the fortified wall back on the bay of kotor. |
The third day we packed a lunch and decided to hike up the other side of the bay to get a glimpse of the Adriatic, explore Fort Vrmac and generally just get amongst it.
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| The views all the way up the walk are amazing. Its pretty amazing looking back on the old town of Kotor which is dwarfed by a cruise ship! |
Fort Vrmac was built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire around 1860 and saw some action during WW1. It's in pretty good nick considering. It has a eerie feel and we thought it might have been a prison but since we've found out it was used for military purposes.
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| Fort Vrmac. |
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| Running around inside the fort. |
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| LOOK HOW CLOSE THAT SUCKER IS AS I SIT ON WALLS OF KOTOR! Kotor's walls are pretty big, not as big as Dubrovnik but sizeable. Then along comes this steel ship and dwarfs something thats stood for centuries! |
The Great Montenegro Tour
We had to add another day to our stay in Kotor to get onto the 360 Monte - Great Montenegro Tour - 35Euros/person which was a full day of top sites including Lovcen National Part, River Crnojevica, Budva walking tour and visiting traditional restaurants etc. Minus a couple of sites, you get to see majority of the highlights of Montenegro in a solid day tour so we thought it was worth doing. We toyed with the idea of hiring a car and driving ourselves but were happy to be chauffeured for the day with a local guide to get the low down on the country.
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| The famous road to Cetinje - built 1880's without machinery is a pretty impressive feat. taken from 360Monte. |
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| Views from the side of the road up to Mount Lovcen and the mausoleum. The Bay of Kotor in the bottom right corner, Boka bay on the left and the Adriatic sea on the horizon. |
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| Coffee and a cold meat plater at Njegusi village - 9.30am |
The Mausoleum is a dedication and tomb to the "greatest Montenegrin ruler and poet Petar II Petrovic Njegos". At nearly 1700m above sea level, on a clear day you can see 6 countries - Montenegro, Italy across the Adriatic, Croatia, Serbia and Albania. The views did not disappoint and the whole structure and engineering effort to build something so significant and so grand was pretty impressive.
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| 450+ steps through this sucker to get to the mausoleum from the carpark. |
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| Catching our breath after getting through the tunnel. |
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| A 30 tonne marble statue of the great man Njegos. |
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| 12 tonne statues of his wife and daughter. |
After the mausoleum we headed to the city of Cetinje - the old royal capital of Montenegro and today the honorary capital of Montenegro.
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| Cipur Church - not so old but built on some old foundations. |
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| Cipur Monastery included on the tour with some religious facts. |
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| River of Crnojevic - pretty spectacular rainforest feeling. The river runs into Skadar Lake National Park, one of the largest bird reserves in Europe. |
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| A cheeky lunch stop at a traditional restaurant - crispy pork sausage rolled in bacon and filled with cheese! Along with a typical Balkan salad. |
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| A boat ride down the Crnojevic - beautiful calm clear water. There were some pretty nice campsites along the river. It would be a magical place to stay. |
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| That calm water....... |
We finished off the tour at the most popular tourist destination of Montenegro - Budva. Budva is the home of one of Europes largest nightclubs Top Hill which can hold 5000 people, and is super popular with celebrities from all over the world to visit. Also home to a 5 star resort islet Sveti Stefan, a private playground for the rich and famous. Sveti Stefan is notable as the place Novak Djokovic got married...
We arrived at Budva around 4.30pm, just enough time to explore the tiny old town which is compared to a smaller version of Dubrovnik, and see the sunset.
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| Budva Old Town from the beach. |
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| Budva Dancer - tribute to a promising dancer who committed suicide off the cliffs (apparently). |
Montenegro was amazing, we really enjoyed it!! In comparison to BiH it was more expensive, similar to the prices we saw for accommodation and tucker as Dubrovnik - which makes sense since its so close and has a steady flow of cruise ships come and go. Budva a little more expensive again compared to rural Croatia and BiH, it has a modern feel and seems like it would be a great place to explore over summer when everyone is here to party and hit the beach.
Things to know:
Kotor old town has a lot of cats! This is apparently because when Kotor was a rich trading port and a lot of ships came and go, naturally causing a breading ground for rats. So it was law that every house in the old town had to have at least one cat.... not the case any more but as a result there are a lot of cats roaming around.
The Montenegro flag sports a red background which represents blood they've spilt during many battles throughout their history, and a golden eagle in the middle which represents freedom.
They are among some of the tallest people in the world according to our tour guide. I must say after this was mentioned there did seem to be a lot of people (men and women) taller than me... after doing some research they come in the top ten of tall people FYI.
Overall Montenegro was amazing, we could have spent more time to explore the north of the country to visit the famous Ostrog Monastery and Tara Bridge - maybe next time. We can definitely recommend Montenegro as a must visit for its beauty and the amount of hiking/adventures available. I would consider camping at some of the smaller villages or places inland to save money and get a traditional/environmental experience.
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