A Wonderful Old Walled City

Wednesday, Aug.31, 2016--Zabljak to Podgorica to Kotor

It was another rather long travel day.  Thanks to all the advanced planning I did for the trip, however, it went smoothly--every bus I had planned working out just as I had determined in advance.

An interesting aspect of the bus from Zabljak is that they had substituted a larger bus because university students throughout the region were returning to Podgorica to start their new studies for the year.  I talked with one of the students while waiting at the bus station.  Since it was a big bus, there was an advantage for me--room for my bag.  Of course, I had to give in to the scam that drivers pull on foreigners here--each checked bag costs 1 Euro paid to the driver if you are a foreigner, but there is no charge if you are a local!!  Those Euros never get reported to the company or to the tax authorities.

I could have gotten a bus straight through to Kotor without stopping in Podgorica, but I didn't due to the fact that I wanted to by my ticket for next Tuesday from there into Kosovo.  There are only two buses, one in the morning and one at night making the run, and I wanted to be sure I had a ticket for the morning bus.  I bought that and then took the next bus heading to Kotor.

While there, however, it was interesting to see the changes in the city.  They must have torn down many of the old communist apartment buildings, because almost all the city seems new.  Even the center of town is completely rebuilt.  Out by the bus station, places where the old apartments stood now have brand new apartment buildings.  One interesting thing to note, however, is that the bus station is the same one where I changed buses in 1982 on my way from Dubrovnik to Greece.

I arrived here in Kotor in the heat of the afternoon around 13:15.  The apartment I am renting would not be available until 15:00.  (This is the first time I have not been allowed to check in early with the apartments I have rented.)  So I sat in the shade outside the walls of Kotor and read my novel and watched people until time to get the apartment.

My apartment, St. Francis accommodation in Kotor Old Town, is the nicest I have rented on the entire trip.  When you go to the webpage, be sure to go through the photos to see how pretty it is.  The only disadvantages are that the a/c is only upstairs and doesn't cool the downstairs well and that noise from the nearby bars can be heard downstairs.

In 1982 on the trip from Dubrovnik to Greece that I mentioned above, I also changed buses in Kotor.  It had been raining in Dubrovnik for 4 straight days and I just wanted to get away from it.  I was headed toward Greece, and they told me I could catch a bus from Kotor at noon or I could wait until the evening and catch a bus from there in Dubrovnik.  I left for Kotor.  Of course, it was raining in Kotor, too, but I was only here to take the next bus out and didn't get to see this beautiful city.

Kotor is one of the nicest old walled cities I have ever visited.  It is situated on the waterfront (Bay of Kotor), and the mountains rise immediately behind the Old Town.  To protect themselves, they built walls around the city and also up the mountain, over, and back down.  So at night, the walls on the mountain above the town are lighted and look much like the Great Wall in China.  Inside the walls down in town, there are very narrow (2-3 meters or 6-9 feet wide) streets.  They twist and wind with small shops, hotels, churches, bars, etc., that make up a town.  Unfortunately, it is overrun with tourists because of its beauty and its uniqueness.

I wandered around town after it cooled off some.  It has a great atmosphere at night.  The cruise ships have left, the people living outside the Old Town have gone to their homes or hotels, and it is like a maze of locals and tourists staying in the Old Town dining, drinking, walking, etc.

I will be here for two more days to enjoy the town and to maybe make a side trip to another place along the coast.  I have traveled much of the area north of here in my three previous trips to the Dalmatian Coast, and I have seem most of the sights were seeing south of here in Albania, but there are many resort communities near Kotor.  I just have to figure out which is the best to see.