Wandering Old Town

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016--Kotor

I went out to explore Old Town today.  It is a maze of small streets lined with small shops and occasional plazas with sidewalk cafes.  There were two cruise ships in town, so it was crowded everywhere.  It was hard to enjoy the best views for guides, one after the other, holding up their identification wands leading groups of maybe 30 people immediately behind them.  I took photos, bt they aren't the kinds of photos that I like, since there are always people standing in the way of each shot.  There are many special features of the Old Town, though--arched passageways, small churches, windows of carved stone, shuttered windows with laundry hanging outside on lines, views down narrow streets with a mountain rising at the end of the street, etc.

After making it up and down most, if not all, of the streets, I went to the bus station to buy my ticket for Saturday.  Unfortunately, they told me that tickets are only sold 10 minutes before each bus departure.  So I just have to hope that there will not be more people trying to take the bus I want than there are seats on the bus.

Returning, I stopped in a grocery store.  I am tired of trying to find places to eat each evening.  Plus, Kotor has mainly sit-down restaurants with slow and expensive service.  So I decided to play backpacker tonight.  I bought some pasta, pasta sauce, parmesan cheese, and a bottle of local wine for dinner tonight and tomorrow night.  (If I were really playing backpacker, I probably would not have bought the sauce.  Instead, I would have bought some vegetables and made the pasta with butter and garlic and the vegies, since so many backpackers tend to be vegetarians who prefer fresh foods rather than bottled sauces.)

As I returned to put my items away, it started sprinkling.  By the time I was inside, it had turned into a light shower.  I just stayed in bed and read from my novel.  Then, around 17:00 as I thought I might go back out, it started thundering.  I checked the weather, and we had scattered thunderstor ms in the area.  I never went back out, since they continued until later in the evening.  Instead, I prepare my dinner and enjoyed it around 19:00.

The wine was Crnovorski Vranac.  Vranac is named in my guide as one of the major wineries in Montenegro.  The wine tastes good and was a bit more expensive than some of the other local wines.  But there was an interesting aspect to it.  Instead of a cork (real or artificial) or a twist-top, it had a flip-off cola-style cap.

In the evening, I listed to a nice jazz concert on TV.  Although I didn't do much today, I felt tired again.  So I was off to bed rather early.