Dreams of Bond
I've dreamed of going to Montenegro, mostly because of the Bond film Casino Royale. I've spent so many years watching Bond films wishing I could travel to the all the romantic locations. It was everything I had dreamed it would be and more. Another beautiful country, infamous for being the newest country in the world. The region was part of Serbia until June 3rd, 2006 when they declared their independence. The economy seems to be taking off. I would highly recommend that everyone invest some money in local real estate. I'm sure you could quadruple your investment in a couple of years. This place is on fire.
We spent most of our ten days in Kotor, a small town nestled at the head of the deepest fjord in southern Europe.
The first day we arrived we met Boris who drove us out around the coastline outside of town to a pension owned by his father. We had a beautiful room on the top floor with a balcony overlooking the water. It would have been perfect except for the lack of a fan or A/C in the 100 degree heat. Fortunately, the beach was across the road and the water was perfect.
Boris went out of his way and even helped us find a different room within the walled city when the heat got to be too much. He took us to a beach on the coast called Jaz with perfect sand and perfect water. The Adriatic is salty. You don´t need a raft to lay horizontally in the water. The salt content keeps you fully buoyant, feet up and everything. Pure bliss.
There is a huge field next to the beach that's used as a parking lot. The Stones played a show there and the government is going to pay Madonna 20 mil or something to play as a way to promote the country. I guess you have to pay well to get someone like Madge to play a show in a beach parking lot in a country with only half a million people.
We met a Serbian waiter that took us out to a Turbo Folk club. Turbo Folk is the local music sung by porn goddesses. It's not very good and either was the conversation. The guy wasn't our friend for long after he explained how Albanians and n*ggers smell bad. It was my first exposure to the racial, religious, or whatever conflict that's bashed this part of the world. The guy had fought in the war and was a real Serbian nationalist. I carefully explained to him that Serbs smell bad too, that I had sat next to several on the bus. He claimed that Serbians had never hurt anyone but that Bosnians and Albanians went around killing people??? I decided I should refrain from asking him about Serbia's whole ''racial cleansing'' thing.
After a week in Kotor and the surrounding areas we headed up into the mountains of Montenegro to Durmitor national park. It was such a relief to feel the cool mountain air. The mountains were peaceful. I loved being surrounded by A frames and ski area signs. We spent some time walking and hiking through the woods and were so happy to curl up with blankets at night. It was a relaxing few days for us before heading to Bosnia.
For all of you travelers, I would like to suggest Montenegro as a destination. There really is no reason to go anywhere else in Europe, the country has it all.
Durmitor
Dubrovnik
Lake Ohrid
I was walking in the hills looking for a church perched above Lake Ohrid when people started shouting at me in
Macedonski from their house. I yelled back
that I didn't understand and they waved for me to come over. There were three,
sitting on their terrace overlooking the water, eating tomatoes and cucumbers
and drinking local whiskey. They motioned for me to sit down, fixed me a plate
and poured me a shot. I was just walking down the street! The man, his sister
and their uncle spoke some words I could understand and after we struggled to
communicate for a bit the man called up to his 15 year old daughter to come
translate. They were all so sweet and I was surprised at how readily they
invited me into their home. The whiskey was strong. I don't think I've ever
tasted whiskey in my life. The girl spoke English very well and we sat and
talked through her for about an hour. The uncle invited me to come to Montenegro
to stay at his house and said he would drive me around the Balkans. I couldn't
believe the generosity, at least not until I had spent more time in Macedonia.
Come to find out the people are just like that here. After finding the small
13th century Church of St. John Caneo I wound my way back down the hills to the
waterfront.
While walking along a man dressed like a guide on the Mark Twain Riverboat
cruise at Disneyland struck up a conversation. I stopped and talked to him for a
while and his friend from a nearby cafe joined us. After ten minutes the man
took a call and said he had to pick up some clients in his water taxi, would I
like to come? Of course I would. We cruised along the coast to a beach side bar
and instead of stopping we kept on along the coastline to watch the sunset. We
toured some caves and he reached into a hole to show me bats which he seemed to
think of as friends. He asked if I wanted to hold one of the bats. Uh...let me
think about that for a minute...NO! I was offered whiskey which I tried to
decline but after much harassment, accepted. He told me about a friend who lived
in a cave nearby and had for the last 35 years and asked if I wanted to meet the
Macedonian David Crusoe. Okay? We pulled up near a big cave opening and he
called out when a man appeared looking just like David Crusoe. The man waved and
my friend told me to take his picture so I did. We finally went back to fetch
his paying customers, five friendly 20 year olds from the bar and headed back to town. All of this in
one afternoon.
I have a multitude of similar stories and I grew to love the country
because of the openness.
We left Macedonia headed for Montenegro and decided to avoid Kosovo and head through Albania. We spent only
one night in Tirana. I wasn't really
feeling the love in Albania until we were headed out of the country waiting for
a bus at a cafe in a town near the border. Three women in their fifties sat next
to us and asked where we were from. One of the women lived in NYC and was just
home for a visit. Within five minutes she offered to drive us across the border
into Montenegro. She called her brother in law who picked us up in his Mercedes
and drove us the hour across the border to a town called Ulcinj. The woman took us to lunch and helped us find a
place to stay. We thanked her profusely for everything and her response was that
she didn't have much money but people who have no money have big hearts and
people who have a lot of money have injured hearts. Is that a Mother Teresa
quote?
Later that night while out to dinner, the waiter was struggling to explain
the menu so he asked his English speaking friend to translate. When the man
found out we were Americans he sat down and decided to tell us all about
American politics. After a long discourse on the US justice system he invited us
to stay at his house and offered to drive us around to the many beaches and go
out on his speed boat. We politely declined and decided to head up the coast to
Kotor the next day. Montenegro!
