Extra Post: Remembrances from 1982

Friday, Sept. 2, 2016--Kotor

I wrote a couple of days ago about changing buses in Kotor to get away from the rain in Dubrovnik, but I didn't tell details of that trip which occurred in May, 1982.  They are still vivid in my mind. 

This area was not a major tourist center then, and the tourists who did come were mostly from other parts of Yugoslavia or from Germany and came to be on the nearby beaches.  Few people even knew about Kotor much less the inland part of Montenegro where I was headed.  English was not commonly spoken. 

I was just trying to get away from the rain and had no idea about the trip I was about to take.  The mountains rise dramatically behind Kotor.  As the bus left the station here, it started climbing and climbing and climbing with one switchback after another.  On each turn, I could look out and see the bay and the walled city getting further and further away--one of the most dramatic and beautiful views I have ever seen in my life.  It was a narrow road with barely room to pass if we met another vehicle, so there was also the thrill of the bus being right on the edge of a road with no guardrails and a very long drop-off--as exciting as I have experienced in the Himalayas in my mind.  The roadway was, and remains today, one of the most exciting road trips one can take in the world. 

(See this map of the switchbacks on the P1 road from Kotor to Cetinje)

(See this website for information and photos about the P1 road from Kotor to Cetinje)

(See this video of driving up the switchback portion of the P1 road from Kotor to Cetinje)

At the very top, far above Kotor and the bay but with them still in sight, we made a final turn onto a plateau.  What a surprise.  After all that climbing, we were on flat land that spread ahead of us rather than heading back down the other side of a mountain.  And best of all, it was thickly covered in colorful May wildflowers. 

It was all local people on the trip.  A group of country men, probably farmers, seated just in front of me pulled out a bottle of homemade brandy.  I don't know if it was because we had climbed the mountain without going over the edge and could relax now or if it was because they were getting closer to home.   They started passing the bottle around.  One of them handed it to me and insisted that I take a swallow.  I was hesitant because I actually was suffering from a fever and didn't want to to infect them.  But they insisted, and I took a swig to join the merriment. 

Someone on the bus spoke a little English; I don't imagine it was one of the farmers, but I don't remember who it was anymore.  As we passed through the edge of the first major town up on the plateau, I noticed it was old.  But more imprinted in my mind is that I noticed that it had marble curbs lining the edges of the streets.  That's something I had only seen in Rome before.  I had never heard of the name of the city before--Cetinje.  Whoever spoke English explained that it is the former capital of Montenegro and a very old city.  I kept thinking, I would like to see this place, but the bus kept going with my destination being Titograd (Podgorica, today) where I would change buses again to continue to Skopje in Macedonia where I would switch to a train to Greece taking me far away from Cetinje. 

In planning my trip for this year (2016), I knew I would be near this area, so I decided to return.  I had only passed through Kotor and had not seen the old walled city, and I had only passed by Cetinje.  I wanted to see both and to take a bus over the same road heading up the mountain.  My plans have failed in one respect, and it is probably best as I think about it.  The old road (now numbered P1) still exists, but there is no longer any public transport service on it.  Therefore, I cannot repeat the road trip.  Now that I have accepted that, I realize it is for the best.  I am always advising people not to repeat a travel experience that was exceptional, because the repeated experience will never be able to live up to the original one.  The view would still be there as we headed up the mountain, but there would be no farmers sharing their homemade brandy and there would be limited, if any, wildflowers on the plateau at this time of the year.  Plus, I would know what to expect of the view back down the mountain and of our entering a plateau at the top. It would likely just be a bus trip (if buses still made the route) with no surprises.

I now know that the surprise plateau is a national park that I will be able to visit this weekend.   Rather than making the mistake of trying to relive an old experience, I am adding new experiences by visiting both Kotor and Cetinje.  And by taking the bus over the new road between the two cities tomorrow, I am preserving those wonderful old memories from my 1982 bus trip in the region.