An illuminated old fortress with lots of goats

Trip Start May 06, 2007
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Trip End Jul 24, 2008


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Flag of Serbia and Montenegro  ,
Tuesday, December 11, 2007

After another beautiful bus ride along the coast and a very easy border crossing (I was the only one on the bus - everyone else got off at the stop right before the border), I arrived in Kotor, Montenegro.  As there are no hostels in Kotor (there's only one hostel in all of Montenegro and it's only open during the summer), I knew I'd need to rely on the friendly touts greeting me at the bus station with offers of room rentals in private accommodation.  I was not disappointed.  I took a room in an apartment for 10 Euro a night with a shared kitchen and bathroom.  The best part about it was its location only steps away from the South gate of the fortress and the view from the windows of the fortress ways.  When I arrived, my room was the only inhabited one out of the three in the apartment, though later that evening two other American girls arrived to take over one of the other rooms.  They just finished up their Peace Corps service in Ukraine and were taking a month to travel around the Balkans before heading home.

Kotor is a beautiful town set in a fjord and surrounded by mountains.  The main attraction is the old fortress that was built up into the mountainside.  The part on the relatively flat ground, the Old Town, is still in working condition with lots of restaurants, shops, and apartments, while the part built up on the hill is now a collection of ruins.  My favorite part of the city is the fortress ruins on the mountainside at night, when they are all lit up forming an arch of light on the dark mountain.

My main goal on Wednesday was to hike up and down the ruins on the mountainside.  It was a nice hike, taking about 3 hours total to go up, down, and explore the ruins a bit.  Though on the way down, I'm pretty sure I inadvertently veered off the path since it wasn't exactly as clear or well laid out as the path up.  At one point I had to hoist myself over this massive boulder blocking the way.  But I eventually met up with the real path and made my way back to the bottom.  Throughout most of the hike I was the only person I could see on the ruins, but there were plenty of goats around.  At first I was a bit apprehensive with all the goats there, but as soon as I realized they'd run away from me as I walked near them I eased up.  It was rather smelly at points with all the goat shit there.
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