A Short Trip to Montenegro

Earlier this week I spent a few days in Kotor, Montenegro. Kotor is really, really lovely and I would recommend it to anyone wishing to get away from the busy, intense and suffocating city for a few days. The Old Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, is just stunning. The coastline and the mountains rising up from all around you are unreal. I’m a city child – born and raised surrounded by concrete – and I was slightly apprehensive about the very slow-pace of life in Kotor, but I quickly adapted to simply drinking coffee, eating some delicious food, walking around the streets of the Old Town for the 40th time (which didn’t become dull or repetitive), drinking some more coffee, having a beer or two, walking around again, and ending the day with another satisfying meal (and, of course, another beer). Ice cream was also most welcome at every opportunity with temperatures reaching 35C or even higher.

There are a lot of individual and group tourists in Kotor (mainly Australian, Russian and French judging from the accents I heard), but they are not too imposing and I mainly heard Serbian/Montenegrin during my short stay in the town. One thing you should certainly do when in Kotor is climb up the 1,300 ’steps’ (sometimes steps, sometimes broken rocks, sometimes nothing) to Kotor Fortress for some amazing views over Kotor Bay. It is extremely hard work and tiring so bring water and food with you! Flip flops were not the ideal footwear for that adventure…

I also took a daytrip to Bar, which is a bit further down the coast towards Albania. I wasn’t impressed. The food I had was terrible (but that could be down to the particular ‘restaurant’ I chose) and the beach was not particularly nice and lacked amenities (apart from a rather unsafe looking fairground and an ice cream kiosk selling black market cigarettes). The new town does feature some rather astounding architecture with three dome-shaped buildings housing some shops – apparently the locals refer to them as the ‘Three Albanians’.

Ideally, I would have loved to have spent a few more days relaxing in Kotor and perhaps visit some other towns along the coast. The people are generally very friendly, the food is good (just follow the crowds, and you’re in luck if you’re a fan of fresh seafood), and the prices are not extortionately high considering the large numbers of tourists descending on the town every summer. So, if you have the chance to visit Kotor, go for it. You won’t regret it one bit.

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