In my previous post Candice and I had just said goodbye to our friend Mike who spent 18 days with us travelling Croatia.  Since we had hit 6 cities in that time and were busy sight seeing and having fun we had decided to make the next week a quiet one.  After going from the very north of Croatia all the way down to its most southern tip we kept the momentum going and headed into Montenegro.

Probably the most popular tourist stop in Montenegro is the medieval city of Kotor.  It’s fairly close to the Croatian border so it made an obvious first stop for us.

Driving from Dubrovnik, Kotor impresses well before you even see the city.   It lies at the far end of the Bay of Kotor and you need to drive the long way around with the mountains directly on your left and the sea directly on your right.  It doesn’t appear I took any photos which is a shame but the view was amazing the entire way round.

Going Back In Time

The old city of Kotor is built directly into the mountain side and surrounded on 3 sides by a medieval wall with a moat.

After more than 3 months of travelling Europe you might be thinking we were getting tired of seeing old towns but this one in Kotor truly felt like going back to the Medieval times.  The old towns of the Baltics, Poland, Bratislava, Ljubljana, and Zadar were very pretty with their painted buildings full of colour and their wide open town squares but there’s something charming when you enter the entirely unpainted old stone city.

Yes Dubrovnik and Split were also not painted up but they had a sense of grandeur and polish to them.  Mostar in Bosnia came the closest to what Kotor felt like but it was only a single small street to enjoy.  Here you really got the feeling of living in a small medieval village while walking the tiny twisting alley ways.

I am so incredibly thankful that we were travelling in mid-November when we got here.  I’ve read that up to 3 large cruise ships can dock at the port at one time and I’m sure that happens frequently in the summer months.  This charming, tiny, medieval town probably turns into a tourist nightmare in the hot, humid summer months.  Narrow, winding, alleys are a nice novelty until you’re fighting your way through them with a hundred other people.

There isn’t much to say about the city as it’s not a living town so it’s full of hotels, hostels, cafes, restaurants, and souvenir shops.  Fortunately Montenegro is firmly in the center of a large mountain range and offers a lot of outdoor day trips from Kotor.  We only spent 3 days here and it rained on all but 1 day so we only did 1 thing that took us out of the city.

To help defend the city from attackers a large wall was constructed from the North part of the city that winds all the way up to the top of the mountain pass.  Hiking the wall to the fortress at the top only takes about 45 minutes one way but if you’re up for a full day trek you can continue onto some extensive nature trails.

After 2 days of rain we were feeling lazy so with a late morning start we decided to only make our way up to the fortress.  It doesn’t take long to start getting a good view of the area once you’re on the wall.

There’s quiet a few nooks and crannies to poke around in along the wall.

The incline is steep and it’s stairs all the way up though a few paths along the side are flat as well.

20 minutes up and now you’re getting some good views.

You might even find a kitty friend to stop and enjoy the view with.

Without too much trouble you finally get to the fortress with the best views of the bay.

We found plenty of more kitty friends enjoying the sun at the top of the fortress.

The fortress is completely ruined and is really interesting to explore.

Looking off the backside of the fortress I spotted a camouflaged stone church down below.

While going back down from the fortress take a side trail to reveal a secret exit.

Something about this abandoned stone church with a roof full of moss was so cool.

There wasn’t much more to see but the church made a perfect stop for lunch.

Coming down the back side we crossed a small river and Candice wanted to get a photo using the timer on her camera.

Skadar Lake – A UNESCO Heritage Site

I don’t think I mentioned this yet but our time in Montenegro was limited because Candice’s Mom, Joan, was flying into Bucharest in Romania to meet up with us for some of our travels.  With only 4 more days on our own we wanted some relaxing time alone so I decided to book a room at Skadar Lake National Park.

On paper the drive isn’t too far but by bus you have to take a round about way going to Podgorica and then catching a mini bus to Virpazar on the West side of the Lake.  In the summer months busses are more frequent and you can do a more direct route by going to Petrovac and then to Virpizar but we were told by our AirBnB host it was safer to go to Podgorica during the off season.

The Lake is the largest one in the Balkans and a migratory destination for more than 270 species of birds in Europe.  It is ranked as one of the largest (maybe the largest?) bird sanctuaries in Europe and has an amazing bio diversity.  Bird fanatics love this place for obvious reasons and in the summer months you can book boat tours, hikes, or just explore the many villages along the lake by car.

Of course you can do all these in the winter as well (the temperature stays above 10 degrees all year round) but it rains a lot from November to February and for us it rained for all 4 days we were there.  It was fine for us since we planned on just staying in and wandering a bit.

Virpazar is by far the largest village on the lake but don’t be fooled as it’s a single street that goes about 300 meters.  It’s a tiny place with one grocery store and plenty of hotels and restaurants open in the summer.

Before I skip over this tiny detail.  When we transferred busses in Podgorica we clearly told the bus driver we were going to Virpazar (twice).  After a 15 minute drive the bus blew right past the tiny village and up the hill.  Telling our driver for the 3rd time we were going to Virpazar he seemed surprised (seriously??) and dropped us off on the side of the highway to catch a bus coming back.

As luck would have it it monsooning outside and so we sat under a toll booth station with our umbrellas and luggage waiting for a bus.  After 90 minutes we gave up on finding a bus and we started to walk off down the highway.  Not 30 seconds after walking a car pulled over, asked where we were going, and told us to get in.  Of course they could drive us the 8 kms down the hill to the village.  And that is the story of our very first hitch hiking experience.

For 3 of our days we stayed out of the rain and enjoyed movies, YouTube, and lazing around but the rain broke for a few hours one afternoon so we took advantage and did a 1 hour boat tour on the lake.

The mountains surround all sides of the lake and even though we had a grey and drizzly day it was hard to not notice the natural beauty of the area.

A few birds were out and about but November doesn’t seem like peak bird migration time.

Candice goofing around.

Don’t Forget Podgorica

Montenegro is a tiny country will less than 600,000 people so its largest city, the capital of Podgorica, is one of the smallest capitals in Europe.  We didn’t properly explore the city and only spent a bit of transit time here but I don’t believe there’s any real tourist spots to explore however it looked like a pretty cool and hip city.  There were plenty of street cafes and restaurants and the 2 places we ate at had amazing prices – just 2-3€ for a small meal or 4-5€ for a very large filling one.

On our overnight stay before leaving for Bucharest I had the chance to try a Montenegro beer, or pivo, and a traditional local dish.  I forget the name of the dish but it was a battered and deep fried sausage roll with a yogurt sauce served with fries.  Very heavy and filling but extremely tasty especially with a beer to wash it down with.

If you want to properly explore Montenegro you’ll need to rent a car or hire a driver.  Transit isn’t well developed and the country is sparsely populated but I’ve read that its natural beauty is hard to beat.  We found the people friendly and welcoming (noticeably more so then anywhere else in Europe so far) and I left with a strong desire to come back and properly see the country.

Unfortunately our time was limited and we had to be on a plane to Belgrade and onto Bucharest for some Romania time.