Hi All,
Arrived in Kotor after a long drawn out journey. Initially boarded the bus in Zabljak for Niksic and thanked our lucky stars that we were not on the bus with the four bald tyres. We didn´t actually have to cover a great deal of distance to get to our first destination but over half the journey involved crossing a mountain range in a bus that seemed to be pumping carbon monoxide back into the bus so it wasn´t ideal and was from far from safe. The bus developed some kind of mechanical problem which meant that we could have walked faster than the bus was travelling at one stage but we eventually limped into town over 30 minutes late. Nauseated and slightly dizzy from the lack of oxygen we disembarked from the bus to discover that the bus that we had intended on catching to Kotor had departed 5 minutes prior to our arrival so we now had a two hours wait for the next bus. The bus station was hot and not overly inspiring so it was a relief to board our new bus with air-conditioning and begin the final leg of our journey. It was beginning to feel like the travel gods were starting to conspire against us because 3/4 of the way through our journey just as we hit the Adriatic Coast the second bus started developing problems .Maybe it was something to do with the 25 hairpin corners that the bus had had to cope with between Cetinje and Kotor but the air-conditioner started to fail and the temperature climbed to 30 plus degrees within the bus just when the temperature outside was starting to climb. There were no passenger windows that opened so we were happy to see Kotor and alight from the stifling heat of the bus to the oppressive heat of Kotor .Ahh the joys of being in an under regulated country.
We had no accommodation booked so decided that we would try our luck with the scrum of eager room rents at the bus station. We found out later that they were actually touts rather than property owners. The one we chose was for a place well located to the bus station and the old town. It was clean but old and was hot so we decided to look around the town. The prices in town were ridiculous so we ended up heading back to the original place but the sly fox old lady owner had decided to push up the price having figured that we had run out of reasonable options. I wanted to call her bluff and go back to the bus station but after having previously walked around for an hour looking for accommodation Vanessa was ready to stay. The place was hot. Hot, hot, hot. A fan would not have gone astray. The mosquitoes were quite active so we couldn´t leave the door open but it did have a screen section which could be opened in the upper half of the door that gave the illusion of cooling. The place did cool down by about 3am , it was cheap ,the follow neighbours all tourists were quiet and it was convenient.
We were beaten by a little old lady on price. She got us for 0.5 Euro each more than we expected. Damn her. We ate that amount in grapes from the vine that grew on the trellis near the entrance and we also took the toilet paper so don´t mess with us little old lady we play tough and dirty. Actually she was probably a nice little old lady and had lived in many places around the world and she told us that the Russians and British had bought up most of the properties around the town pricing the locals out of the market.
Kotor sits on Europe’s most southern fjord. Another old Roman town. there is a fortified wall that runs up into the steep surrounding mountains and could loosely be compared to a section of the great wall of China. We made the arduous climb up the hill early in the morning for some stunning views of the fjord and old town. The temperature was far to hot for us. We have been avoiding summer temperatures for almost all of our trip so we are really feeling the 30 degree days. There wasn´t much to hold us in Kotor so it was time to head to Croatia.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
