Pansion Pana Kotor

... views looking down on the city but out into the bay. the fortress ruins are open for you to wander and are in serious decay but still evident enough for you to get an idea of the scale of the fortress when it was complete.

I managed to squeeze three days in here - with two little side trips (see Budva and Perast) and it was so relaxing that I'm sure I could of easily spent a week here.

... the Montenegro border. Montenegro is completing the process of splitting from Serbia. While it is still drizzling, the bay around which we are driving is beautiful with high hills and interesting villages. Like many of the bus stations on my future stops, it is what one would envision a 3rd world station to look like with minimal maintenance for decades and few amenities. No luggage room. My original thought was to spend the night here and the following day at one ...

... water in my backpack so what more could anyone need if the rest of the bags disappear?

After ten minutes of this the taxi driver got in and said, "Ulcinj, yes. Podgorica, no. Euro, yes! Pogorica, Yes! Yes! Yes!" He smiled, put his thumb up, and looked like he had won the lottery. That was the extent of his English but that "Podgorica Yes" was all I need to hear. Evidently a few Euros changed hands as a bribe to let this taxi ...

8/23/2009 sunday

Water blog-

Water always seems too plain to drink to me. I am usually running on a pretty dehydrated state. When Lawrence offers me water, I usually accused him of drowning me.

But whenever I am in Europe, I always feel like a fish out of the water! I am always dying of thirst. Can it be the fact we are traveling Europe during the summer and its warm, the extra walking, or is it the 20 time the alcohol consumption I ...

... hear my confession owing to his not understanding English well. He gave me a gift, a book about the monastery itself which I gave to Archbishop John LoBue in West Milford (my priest). While visiting Ostrog, we venerated the holy relics leaving an offering of either food or money at the door leading to the holy relics; I can't remember which now. Leaving, we looked around the gift shop, had coffee at the small Ostrog monastery café and Darko gave me a tour where the monks sleep and ...

... s very nice tho.

We climbed the fortress (on the mountains behind the city) and we were taken by the view from the top of it. People are very helpful and hospitable in Montenegro so we felt great and welcomed there.

To see my photos from Montenegro please click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =cHWEG5CfyFU

To read more about Montenegro please see this link:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Monte negro

... fjord in southern Europe and sending out 400 ships. Arriving under dark skies, the beautifully preserved old town reminded me of the fort from "Pirates of the Caribbean," all clean white stone and palms, somehow with a different feel from Albania's white towns. However, on entering the town, I was swept back to Gibraltar. A massive mountain rises above and behind, while old town streets are lined with expensive cafes and boutiques. The shock is not unlike arriving ...

... The following morning, Tammy and I hiked to one of the nearby glacial lakes. We didn't have time to hike all the way around one of the lakes, but we were able to take in the stunning beauty of the area, especially as the weather had turned gorgeous that morning. Here are several photos of the area: After that, we headed back to Niksic on now a slightly bigger more comfy bus that the van that brought us up the mountain. Though, the ...

... was quite a scene [Lynne: these people were jumping off huge rocks, very high above the water. It was quite a site]. All in all, I rank the wall as one of my favorite walls in all of traveldom. I place it firmly in third place, just behind a pair of other walls: Israel's Western/Wailing and China's Great, respectively. And ahead of Fenway's Green Monster, which checks in at number four. We had a peculiar and intriguing sighting about halfway through our walk around the wall ...

... about the upcoming vote on independence as things could change for the worse... Their hatred towards Muslims amazed me. Alot of their troubles are blamed on the Muslim populations around them. But, I must say, that they don't have alot of sympathy towards the US or it's present 'war on terror' as the NATO bombings upon Belgrade in 1999 are still quite fresh in their minds. Nada said it was a horrible 72 days, as the jet planes rocketed by overhead toward Belgrade. We found ...