The Bay of Kotor - Montenegro!

The sea was missing from the itinerary till this point of my ex Yugoslavia search. The Adriatic practically runs Croatian tourism and Dalmatia the area of Croatia, which is the principle crowd puller is beautiful, but still has a very touristy feel in the peak of the summer. Even at the beginning of it the hotels don’t live up to the cost to service ratio.  I had decided to keep Dalmatia out of the itinerary.

The Adriatic bends to the south east of Croatia and partners with Montenegro, the youngest country to adopt the Euro. The bay of Kotor, and its views that everyone speaks of made me take the 8 am bus from Trebinje towards the coast. However it was more to find an alternative to the overly hyped Dubrovnik in Croatia.

Montenegro (Black Mountain) as named by the romans, does actually live up to its name. I don’t know about the color, but the mountains!! They are everywhere. The ‘van bus’ made a dramatic decent over the mountains reaching for the town of Herzeg Novi on the Adriatic. My next change to Kotor was in 10 minutes and it was not until 20 minutes into the drive that the bay started unfolding in front of my eyes. The shore is rocky but still as the small towns passed, there were more heads popping out of the blue sea than on the streets.

The towns all looked pretty much the same, and it didn’t create much of an impression. I was re thinking my move of including Kotor instead of Dubrovnik, it was only later that I realized that the bay looks its imposing self from the mountains and not from where I was looking at it.

The Bay of Kotor

The old town is beautiful and to get lost in it was a nice experience especially as the very narrow lanes shielded the sun and stone walls kept the walk pleasant. In my first 60 mins of walking around, I was surprised to learn that not once did my path cross with the earlier one. It was still post mid day and the sun would sneak in its fiery self from some random corner.

Too much of beer I had thought earlier, but there I was again with a wheat in my hand, not really for the heat but just for the wheat!

Kotor was in, even before I worked on what excursions can be worked out from there. Its position on the sea merited its position in the itinerary by default.

So a 50 euro taxi to catch the views of the bay from the top really made no sense, but I had to do something to make me feel that I was working. Sometimes I let the money go and think of it as an investment, just to cut the guilt I guess.

The rest of the evening I spent in checking a hotel out, again to remember that I was here on work. No matter what Hotel I check, if it has no contract with the agency I work with, the prices at the end will ensure that I don’t stay there. But nevertheless I still keep checking the hotels, so that the agency knows at least what kind of accommodation I would like to give my people to elevate the whole experience of the place.

The Old Town Kotor 

I longed for some cooler surroundings after 4 days in + 35 deg heat. When a country has ‘mountain’ in its name, a low temperature zone is just a pass away.

Montenegro was a wild card entry in the itinerary and it might just prove to be favorite, of the people, with a rare mountain and sea combination. Slovenia and Bosnia ruled in terms of its greenery but the color blue was missing, which Montenegro filled up with the bay of Kotor.