Travels with Kathryn

I shall start this post in the most British of ways by writing about the weather. Yesterday was forecast to be a lovely sunny day, and perhaps my last “good” weather day for a while… The whole of my time in Montenegro (other than yesterday) is forecast to be grey and rainy. It’ll also be rainy in Belgrade, and I’m even forecast snow in Sarajevo! Therefore, it being a sunny day, I dd what every British person knows we should do, I went to the seaside.

The train journey between Bar and Belgrade is suppposed to be one of the world’s most scenic, and although I am doing this journey in a couple of days from Podgocia to Belgrade, most of this will be in the dark (only the sleeper train runs in Winter) I decided to do the Podgorica to Bar section to see what I can.

So, early to the station where I purchased a ticket (€4.50 return), and I was also able to book my sleeper ticket for 14th November. A first class ticket (a bed in a 2 bed cabin) cost me €42.50 – cheaper than it is probably going to cost me to do my last journey from London to Mum’s, and that is partly by rail replacement bus!

Anyway, off I set enjoying the beautiful views. The rail line crosses Lake Skadar (which is the largest lake in Southern Europe) and then skirts around the coast:

Bar itself is a perfectly nice little seaside resort, although the very ugly Soviet buildings to detract somewhat from the setting – it is very much the sea, ugly buildings, mountains:

I had been intending to visit the Summer Palace of King Nikola I, but it seemed to be closed for maintenance. King Nikola was the first and only King of Montenegro. He was first the Prince of Montenegro (1860 to 1910) when Montenegro was declared a Principality, and then the King of Montengegro when Montengergo merged with the Kingdom of Serbia (1910-1918). The palace was built in 1885 by King Nikola as a gift to his daughter Princess Zorka and her husband Prince Petar Karadodevic and is literally across the road from the beach and has its own pier – interesting fact, King Nixola owned 10 yachts including one previously owned by Jules Verne.

However, I did visit yet another brand new cathedral. It is not quite as impressive as Podgorica (as you would expect for this not being the capital), but does seem to be yet another example of where the church (whether this be Christians themselves or management) wants their money spent).

Anyway, I had a lovely day at the beach in the sun (sitting in the shade to avoid getting burnt!) and then in the afternoon, got back on the train to Podgorica, packed, and slept soundly after all that sea air.

Today, it was off to the bus station to catch my bus to Kotor. A slight difficulty in that the bus security man wanted my ticket printed (even though it clearly states on it that it is an e-ticket), but this is evidently a money maker for the bus station which has a dedicated email for ticket printing (at a cost of 1euro). However, my issue was a lack of connection (none in the station and I am refusing to pay £7.42 a day to use my data) – but this was easily solved by the very nice people in the station bar who gave me their wifi password without asking me to buy anything (although I did) and having a nice chat after they thought I was from Israel! I get the impression they do not get many English people here… The bus was not quite what I expected, being a small 16 seater bus which looked lovely, although the drive was not quite so lovely as the driver chain-smoked the entire way, and had the heating on high.

Anyway, I arrived in Kotor at 12 in the grey surroundings and managed to make it to my hotel in the dry. I am really pleased with this hotel, it’s lovely, in the centre of The Old Town and also has free laundry facilities (I currently have a full load on as I write this). As I set for a wander of the Old Town, it started to rain, but I am British and carried on (interestingly, the few other tourists still walking around also seemed to also be British!).

So Kotor is a fortified city, and this is the first example of Venetian fortifications I have seen on this trip. The city was first fortified in the middle-ages and was taken various kingdoms over the centuries, including the Bulgarians, Serbians, and Hungarians. In 1391 being aware of the Ottoman Empire gearing up, Kotor asked for protection from the Venetians – in 1420 Kotor became part of Venetian Albania (which is remained part of until 1797) and you can clearly see the Venetian influence in Kotor. It then passed to the Hapsburg Empire, the Kingdom of Italy (altough during WW2 was captured by the British) and remained part of Italy until 1943 when the majority of the Italians left and Kotor became part of Yugoslavia. The Bay of Kotor is described as a fjord, but apparently, it is actually a flooded river canyon. I am hoping to explore more of it in the next couple of days.

Kotor Old Town is absolutely beautiful, and even though I was walking around in the rain, I was still able to appreciate that this is one of the best preserved medival towns in the Adriatric. But for me, what is more impressive are the 16/17th century Venetian fortifications – I only walked around the walls today (see photos of gates above) but I am intending to climb up to the fortress on the hill (so more photos, and whinging about walking uphill shortly).

Once I was thoroughly wet, I allowed myself to stop for some food and decided to treat myself to a steak – whereupon I was presented the largest hulk of meat I have seen in some time… I worked my way through it, and I may now not need to eat again!

So, it is about time to retrieve my laundry, and I am formulating a plan for tomorrow. Ultimately, I am going to get wet, but hopefully, it will be clear enough to make the schlep up to the Fortress worth it. Fingers crossed!