Kotor

Arriving in Kotor we were amazed at how beautiful of a location it was in: located right on the shore of southern Europe's deepest fjord it's surrounded by beautiful mountains on three sides and gorgeous water on the other. When we got off the bus we immediately set off in search of the old town where we hoped to find some reasonably priced accommodation. After being told that there was a hostel located right in the centre of the old town by the tourist information office we set off in search of it, but 15 minutes later with no luck we ended up at a travel agency hoping they could find us a cheap room somewhere. Unfortunately the lady working there wasn't able to and we would have to wait until 6pm when her colleague arrived for work before they could start looking for us but we did bump into another Canadian searching for a room, Maryhelen, so the 3 of us set off in search of one. Luckily for us we quickly bumped into a guy who offered us a beautiful room right on the edge of the old town so we quickly decided to take it.

Dumping our gear in the room we set off to spend the rest of the day exploring the old town and surrounding area. So the next few hours were spent walking through the narrow cobble stone alley ways of the old town admiring the gorgeous old buildings and popping into the odd church that we came across. We also went for a nice walk along the shore of the fjord to see more of Kotor and gazed up at the fortress perched high above us on the cliff wall but decided that we would climb up there first thing the next morning when it wasn't so hot outside. After our time exploring we spent an hour or so using the internet before heading out to an enjoyable dinner and then headed to bed so we could wake up early to climb up to the fortress.

Unfortunately when we awoke the next morning it was slightly raining and still soaked from the downpour that occurred during the night so we postponed our trip up to the fortress. So instead we passed the morning visiting the small fruit and vegetable market before finding a nice cafe in the old town where we just relaxed over a cup of coffee. Before we knew it it was noon and Maryhelen had to get ready to depart so we said our farewells and saw her off before Lianne and I decided that the weather was nice enough to attempt to climb up to the fortress. The climb up went fairly quickly although it was quite steep and we often stopped to admire the gorgeous views over Kotor and the fjord that lay in front of us. Upon reaching the fortress we spied a small hole in the wall that led along a little path to a small church located a couple hundred meters back in the valley so we decided to check it out. The church was quite beautiful, although starting to get ruined, and its location was even nicer as it sat in a green field with the fortress walls to one side and the cliff face to the other. Returning back to the main trail through the hole in the wall we continued up to the top of the fortress where we got to walk around the ruins for a bit and although they weren't anything spectacular the views that we got more than made up for that. Returning back down to the old town we returned to our hotel for a short break before heading out to find a bit of dinner.

The next morning we got up and headed to the bus station where we quickly caught a bus bound for Cetinje, a beautiful small town that was the former capital of Montenegro and so contains some beautiful old buildings. We arrived in Cetinje and set off to wander around the town to take in the sights and one of the first things that we saw was a huge church procession making its way down to a small chapel where it appeared they had communion, although we couldn't be too sure of that as we couldn't understand anything they were saying. None the less it was quite something to see and was obviously a big event as the entire town seemed to turn out for it. After watching the procession for a while we set off to see the rest of the town which was mainly some old museums and lots of old buildings that royalty used to live in or were foreign embassies. After admiring several old embassies we entered the National Museum of Montenegro and toured through a HUGE art gallery, where most of the art was quite beautiful but towards the end there was almost too much to absorb, before learning a bit about the history of Montenegro. Unfortunately most of the captions weren't in English so we couldn't understand too much but it was still quite interesting to wander around it. After the museum we enjoyed a picnic lunch in one of the many parks in Cetinje before checking out the Ethnographic Museum which had a small display of traditional Montenegrin clothing. This was followed by the State Museum which was the former residence of Nikola Petrović I, the last king of Montenegro. The State Museum was quite well done as we got an excellent tour through the rooms that were still set up as they had been in the king's days. Finally we visited the monastery and were rewarded with getting a chance to see the treasury which included the mummified right hand of St John the Baptist. After touring around all of this we caught a bus back to Kotor where we enjoyed our final night in Montenegro.

The next morning we set off bright and early to catch a bus bound for Dubrovnik in Croatia. Settling onto the bus we quickly left Montenegro, and after what seemed like forever at the boarder, we entered Croatia the next destination on our adventure.










A view of St Tryphon Cathedral in the old town of Kotor, probably the most beautiful church there.



















A typical old building in the old town of Kotor.




















A view of the main square just inside the entrance of the old town at dusk.


















A view overlooking the old town and out on the fjord from the climb up to the fortress.
















Lianne standing in front of the small church that we found hidden behind the fortress walls.


















The small church in Cetinje where we saw what we think was communion take place.