Kotor

What began as a fitful night of sleep somehow ended in oversleeping until 1015. This gave us a later start than anticipated. I thought perhaps it would be easier to find a place to park near the old town on a Monday morning, but evidently today is also a holiday. There was no parking to be found. Crawling behind other desperate cars looking for parking was less than ideal. As we drove around, we saw all kinds of groups marching into the old town -- students, tour groups, and others. It had to be packed inside. None of this seemed fun, so we just drove to a spot where we could see it from above and called it good enough.

Our little VW Up had a chance to take a rest before we continued on to Montenegro. As I gathered the vehicle documents for country crossings, I noticed the little car was purchased from a Porsche dealer in Split and had Porsche plate holders. I therefore find it fitting to hereby refer to our car as "the Porsche." We went through two border checkpoints which took us about 35 mins or so.  After another hour or so of driving we got to Kotor in Montenegro. Traffic was a mess. While we did eventually find a spot, the guy who booked the room for us called and was trying to guide us to parking.

After walking about 3km in vain, he called again and said, "I'm wearing pink shirt!" and appeared seconds later. From there he guided us via scooter to a special parking lot. Somehow the traffic had now dispersed and it was like following Moses through the Red Sea except it was man in pink shirt on a scooter riding through the streets of Kotor. We are staying in an apartment in the middle of Old Town and were given a free bottle of local wine. Not too shabby. After getting settled, we walked around town for a bit, checking out the shops and various food options.

The streets were a bit crowded with tourists because a cruise ship had docked there. Sometimes we could find a back alley or square that wasn't as crowded, but as a whole, it was a bit difficult to navigate. Also, there are no street names, so we ended up finding our way around by referencing shops and other landmarks. The interesting thing about this place is that nobody really thinks anything about Montenegro, yet here were all these tour groups and cruisers mobbing the town.

We got dinner at a pub in the square and watched one tour group after another enter and exit. I heard one group mention that 730pm was their meeting time. I looked at my watch. 700pm. Soon enough... It became quite apparent when the groups had taken off because the atmosphere was a lot calmer. As the sun set, we went back out to take more pictures at dusk.

While there were still a fair amount of people, most of the groups had departed, so it was much more relaxing. We have pretty adequately seen all of the old town by this point, at one time even walking on the city walls themselves. There is a path leading up to a fortress, but it seemed a bit ambitious. You can sort of make out the walled path in the previous picture as it winds it way up the hill. 

 After walking around the whole town again, we returned to our room and settled in with a glass of wine out on the attached terrace. Perhaps as a result of our oversleeping last night, we will be back on some sort of normal schedule. We will see. The Porsche has another border crossing ahead of it tomorrow as we go into Albania, a country with a reputation for theft of high-end German cars. The Porsche will no doubt be highly sought after. Good night from Montenegro. Yes, I know you don't know where that is. Neither did I. Apparently it was in cahoots with Serbia for a while, so it has only been an independent country since 2006. The more you know . . .