Montenegro – Wandering Henry

One of the most beautiful countries I’ve visited so far in terms of what I saw of the Landscape. I spent some time driving through the countryside on buses. I didn’t spend that long here though as I’m trying to make a push for Turkey and then Georgia where I plan to spend some time in the outdoors. No hugely entertaining stories but a summary.

Kotor

The Montenegro coast was stunning and Kotor far exceeded any expectations I had. Following the testing bus ride to get there I used my time for a bit of trip admin to catch up on the blog, sort photos and catch up with people.

I walked around the old town which is a walled fortress on the waterfront and also went for a hike up to the old city walls (love a good city wall). They’re quite high up in the cliffs and you can pay €8 to walk up them or do as I did and take a zig path up the near mountainside and the climb up a wooden ladder and through a window into the walls to get in for free.

I didn’t take any photos of the old town because it was too busy with tourists.

Having had such hot weather, running just hasn’t been possible but I managed my first little jog in a while by going along the waterfront of the bay in the evening. Great views but still very hot and sticky at 28°C! My Skye hand iPhone shot la don’t do it justice.

Podgorica

I pronounced this a different way each time I said it. I visited Montenegro’s capital for the convenience of taking a train. I’d heard it wasn’t all that exciting and it wasn’t. Just a small city with some shops and not much else to speak of.

I stayed at a hostel not far the train and bus stations. My instructions from the Hostel owner Miro were to go to the platform, turn left, and follow the tracks! Not something That coke naturally to a health and safety conscious Brit. I just has to stand out of the way if a train came.

Miro turned out to be a bit of a legend. A very dry, straight talking Montenegrin who did his very best to make you feel at home. Most anecdotes seemed to revolve around him telling us that Montenegrins are ‘very lazy’. He was also the social engineer and came around and coordinated everyone for a beer in the evening. I’d panned to go to Cetinje (Montenegro’s historical capital) the next day on my own on his suggestion. When I came down in the morning, he’d already gathered together Luke, a Parisian who hated Paris and Emma from Tasmania who was also taking a career break like me and basically thrust us together and told us we were off to Cetinje which turned out to be great. He then took us across the railway tracks for breakfast. Legend.

Once there we took a taxi up to Lovcen a peak at 1600m or so with what we were told was the world’s highest Mausoleum (unverified). Great views were had. The fresh mountain air felt good also.

This gentleman was posing for someone else but I shamelessly snuck a photo. I cannot say with any certainty but I assume this is a traditional Montenegrin outfit. He may also have just been off to a fancy dress party.

Cetinje wasn’t big but we also explored the city and checked out the ‘unusual’ former French embassy and a Monastery.