Rosie and The Operator have arrived in the country of Montenegro on our way to Kotor, a small town at the end of the Bay. Our passports have been stamped at the border and we are in very foreign territory. You might laugh, as this area is a popular European tourist destination, a favorite especially with the cruise ship trippers, but this is abit ‘off the beaten track’ for us. Somewhere we only have ever dreamed of really going, and despite the ‘Montenegrian Facts’ Rosie has googled it is still a real unknown as we do not know what to expect or even know anyone who has ever been here before.
Driving into this country is like arriving on another continent. The rocky barren landscape of neighboring Croatia is forgotten as our new world, at the border, suddenly turns lush and green again. Straight away you are following a narrow two lane road winding along the bay with gigantic prehistoric hills soaring so high and steep from the roadside. On the other side of the road is the Bay of Kotor, slate grey with a tinge of navy blue alluding to its coldness and deep fathoms. The bay is still, with barely a ripple on it and the other side is so close that you totally feel engulfed and enclosed by the ominous hills even though the sun is shining brightly. It feels like we have totally just entered Jurassic Park, Rosie and The Operator are excited!
The road is slow going around the bay. The small towns we drive through are not grand, they are everyday towns with a look of boxy, practical utilitarianism about them, left over prefabs from the Soviet era. Square stone houses dot the bay side as we pass by, fitting so charmingly into the mountainous, green terrain with the bay at their front doors.
The houses are starting to get thicker as the strip of land widens between the Bay and the base of the mountains, every spare space of flat land is utilized here as it is a rarity. Houses too are starting to travel up the hillside, we are nearing our destination!
Around the corner we come and the horseshoe which is the end of the Bay of Kotor is before us. The Bay of Kotor comes off the Adriatic Sea and is 28km long with a shoreline extending 107 km. The narrowest section of the bay is 320 meters across and the deepest part is 60 meters, with the average being 27. Because of the huge mountains of stone that rear up encasing the Bay it has a very exotic and Rosie would describe, having never seen one, as a fjord like, viking feel to it. It is amazing. Above Photo Credit to Lonely Planet – this is Kotor, our destination right on the horseshoe.
Rosie notices palm trees lining the street and the new town sprawling upwards at the end of the bay. A giant cruise ship is moored so close to the town, its nose hangs over the road.
This is Rosies first fleeting impression of Kotor, the two lane road is crazy with traffic and roads branch out to other areas of the town. Before we even enter the town proper our navigation is telling us to turn off the main road as we head towards our apartment.
To be honest, we are not very hopeful at finding our apartment….the host we have rented it off was very evasive about the physical address, we did not have an actual street name and number. He also suggested we down load the offline Maps.Me (great site) for Montenegro because as soon as we cross the border the locations on ‘google will go haywire’. He also suggested we search for Apartment Emma, on the map…really…..and we would be guided from there. We were a little skeptical about all the cloak and dagger instructions but, he was right. This mysterious country seems to have its own magnetic pull, or ‘outside world jammer’ cause our sat nav was all over the show as as we crossed into Montenegro.
We are driving up steep streets that are only one way and reminiscent of Dubrovnik, the next thing is there is another car coming in the opposite direction, driving really fast towards us. It stops, nose to nose…who backs up? The Operator guesses by the aggressive way the car approached us he has to back up to let the car pass. Where do we back up to? Well, right down the road we backed to the first pull in area we could find. We have since learnt on these thin lanes the person who has driven most of the way down the lane has right of way…..the person who has driven the least amount down the lane, has to back up. Hence the fast, dangerous almost reckless driving down the lanes of this town.
Our Navigation was showing we were right in front of Apartment Emma….Rosie hoped we weren’t. These grim grey four story apartment blocks (pic above) were totally not what she had booked. Wait here said The Operator, I will go and have a look around. Turns out our apartment was another 50 meters up the road…..momentary confounded by Montenegro mapping.
Bostjan greeted us on arrival, he is the owner of the apartment and lives…next door. Which was great if Rosie ever needed anything, just knock on the door he said. Our apartment is on the top floor (above pic) on the left half of the building under the orange awning. Bostjan and his family live in the big flat to the far left.
His little daughter Ema came over with a welcome plate of goodies for us and a bottle of wine was already chilling in the fridge. Now that is a welcome! What a great little place this is! Rosie knows she is going to feel right at home here in this lovely space. It is a small one bed apartment….with everything you need catered for.
Plus, we have another great view….this one over the the other side of the Bay of Kotor looking across the water to the other side, right over the tops of the flats in front of us. Above is the very first photo Rosie took in Kotor. We are going to love sitting on our terrace watching the evening unfold tonight.
This is our view looking directly to the left towards town. The grim block of flats in the front were the ones that we stopped outside looking for the apartment.
We stowed our snacks in the fridge for later and hit the street, time to check out the town and how far it is to walk to it.
Well, 400 metres later, we are at the main gates of the town. These are the next two photos that Rosie took of Kotor. You know this is going to be a special place when the first three photos you take of a place are just overwhelmingly stunning.
Rosie cannot wait to start showing you around the beautiful town of Kotor tomorrow.
>You know this is going to be a special place when the first three photos you take of a place are just overwhelmingly stunning.
Very true, Although it’s quite difficult to take a photo that isn’t stunning when you’re in Kotor 😉