A step into the world's newest country
Trip Start
Apr 08, 2007
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67
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Trip End
Oct 01, 2007
Kotor,
Serbia and Montenegro
Thursday, June 21, 2007
This is how Dubrovnik should have been. A picturesque and charming, old walled city on the edge of the Adriatic, with a sprinkling of tourism, but in the end still quiet and a pleasure to explore. Oh, I'm sure it'll all change. In ten years it will probably be swamped with tour groups and cruise ships. But for now, it's lovely and a great place to while away a couple days. The location - smack at the foot of a dramatic fjord - only adds to the allure of the place. Kotor's got it going on.
It definitely isn't any cooler here though, unfortunately. It's a little less humid than Dubrovnik (thankfully), but that Adriatic sun beats down just as hard. Luckily there are plenty of narrow passages and high walls providing welcome shade. Prices here, while probably a bit high for Montenegro, are still reasonable and the locals aren't out to milk every tourist that walks through the walls
01: Just outside the walls of Kotor Stari Grad
. And, apart from a few select squares, there are lots of quiet backstreets and alleyways to discover. In parts of the city today, I even began to wonder if I was allowed to walk through the area - it seemed like I was intruding into someone's back garden or private stretch of the wall. On the contrary though, it's all perfectly ok; it's just that life still mostly goes on here as it always has.Kotor is a puny little place though. The entire city has maybe 20,000 people, and the wee triangular old town is maybe a third the size of Dubrovnik's. One day is more than enough to take the place in, but the atmosphere here makes you want to stay on longer. Fortunately, there's plenty in close proximity to allow for numerous daytrips, so it's a great place to use as a base. Myself, I'm here for a couple nights, with the intention of starting early tomorrow. There's a fortress up on the cliffs overlooking town - a hike that's a little too much for a midday walk in the summer sun - so I'm hitting that first thing. Then I'll pass the day in Cetinje, Montenegro's old historic capital. I would actually spend a couple more nights beyond that, but there's one negative to my visit here: my accommodation is way out of town (about 15 minutes walk) and priced out of justifiable reason. Sure, €15 per night isn't a great deal of money, but people are paying that for places in the middle of the old town and I sure as hell ain't walking all the way there with my pack in this heat. So I'll spend a couple nights in nearby Budva, another apparently beautiful town full of history.
Anyhow, Montenegro's looking good so far. Hopefully the next few days here will go equally well.
