Off to Montenegro

A new country today. Liz had managed to talk the company transferring us from Dubrovnik to Budva into giving us a 14 seater mini-bus rather than an 8 seater van - think more luggage than people! The driver arrived a few minutes late and we proceeded to load up the bus. After much struggling and cursing, all luggage and personnel were safely on board. We soon discovered the driver spoke no English, so the trip was a rather non-informative affair, despite the best efforts of Liz to attempt communication.

Once we crossed the border into Montenegro (this translates into Black Mountain) the scenery changed dramatically - from bare limestone crags to tree covered mountains. We stopped at the border soon after the driver pulled into a service station to fill up and take our passport details. The crossing took a little while because the driver was given another piece of paper to complete despite his protests that he had already completed his log. Bureaucracy gone mad again! We followed the very scenic coast road until we came to a huge fjord - apparently the largest this far south in the northern hemisphere. Towards the end of this fjord is the small town of Kotor.

As we approached, we could see 2 huge ocean liners pulled up at the docks. Their size dwarfed the buildings which made up the old town. We met our local guide Sanja who took us on a short tour of the old town itself - reminiscent of Venice with its narrow cobbled streets and boutique shops every few metres. This town seemed to have more squares than most - each one having its own name. Originally, the squares were named after the merchants who sold their goods - the square of meat, the square of shoes etc. There is even a square for the churches! The first and largest square has a large clock tower centuries old and still working. In front of the clock tower is a tall pyramid to which recalcitrants were tied to suffer the indignity and humiliation of having tomatoes and other sundry groceries thrown at them for their naughtiness or crime committed.

Inside the smallest of the many churches in the old town of Kotor Jill spoke to a priest - think much sign language and pointing accompanied by questioning looks and blank stares from both. In the background, sacred music was playing  and Jill, being Jill, spied a copy of the CD. It turns out that the priest she was talking to was trying to tell her that he was singing the tenor part on the disk! Needless to say, Jill just had to buy a copy!

Surrounding the old town was another wall - the intrepid wall climbers - Liz, Marie and Dave - had to test themselves against the much younger Sanja who claimed that it only took her 10 minutes to walk the 700 steps to the old church perched high on the hill. Off they set with great enthusiasm - Dave claims it only took them 13 minutes to make it to the church. Maybe his watch is running a little slow! Goodbye Sanja and back on the bus heading to Budva with our silent driver.

Arriving in Budva some 50 minutes later, our bus driver managed to get us lost. He stopped several times and asked directions to our hotel and, finally, a taxi driver told him that the Bella Vista was on the outskirts of town. By this time his silence was accompanied by body language clearly showing his increasing frustration. When we finally spotted the hotel, he had to drive past almost a kilometre as the hotel was on the other side of a divided road. With great difficulty, he turned the bus into the narrow driveway of the hotel, unloaded us and our luggage as quickly as possible and was out of there on his way back to Dubrovnik like a scalded cat.

That's when the real fun began! No hotel reservations! Apparently the Kompas people in Ljubljana had neglected to pass the relevant details on to the hotel. There we were - no driver and no reservations. After some phone calls, the problem was sorted out and the hotel did have enough rooms available for us to stay. We deposited our luggage in our rooms and headed for the beach. When I say beach, I mean the place where the Adriatic sea washes up onto coarse, but colourful gravel. The beach was over a kilometre long and, being the early part of the season, was not quite empty but the cafe strip a little back from the water was quite active with vendors putting the finishing touches to their many stalls. The many empty deckchairs and umbrellas gave us an indication of what the high season must be like in this place.

After our walk, we settled on dinner in the hotel - a little disappointing for the price. A thunderstorm greeted us as we headed for bed. Let's hope the new day dawns a little brighter.