After 5 days of reading on the beach and island-hopping in southern Croatia, we picked up our car at the Avis in Dubrovnik to begin our trip to Montenegro. As I mentioned in the last blog, we had no map or GPS. We somehow were able to get on the right road out of Dubrovnik, and follow the signs against our tourist map and find our way to the border of Croatia/Montenegro. It was a short drive, and the line of cars going into Montenegro was not very long – at least not as long as the line going into Croatia. We did our best to appear innocent (it’s always so nerve-wracking dealing with customs officials), sweating it out in the car and jamming out to Croatian pop. When our turn came, we handed over our passports, our green card for the car and our best smiles. In return we got stamps and a grumpy face. We thought we were in Montenegro, but that apparently was only our first stop – the duty-free shops on the side of the road were our tell-tale sign. The next border patrol was just as short and just as easy, and we managed to score a real road map on Montenegro from a girl walking past the cars and selling them. One look at this thing and we laughed – there are no road names in Montenegro, they don’t deal with that sort of triviality, I guess. Instead there is a “main road” and “other main road”. We took the main road for this leg, and made our way over to the Bay of Kotor.
Somehow, the plant life in Montenegro was more lush and green – as soon as we crossed the border we noticed this. It’s a really raw country-side, and so beautiful and still rather untouched. The drive was pretty long to our destination in Dobrota, about 2 hours including our wait at the border, mainly because we had to drive around the whole bay. The Bay of Kotor is spectacularly beautiful, with mountains jutting out every each way right up from the bay. The towns along the bay are small, and only one road across, because the mountainside is so steep that they really can only build along the coast.
In Dobrota, we stayed at the Palazzo Radomiri, mainly because it had a pool and deck chairs on a slab of pavement just off the bay. This is how people go in the water here – there are no beaches because of the mountains. If you are really loaded, you can also dock your yacht at the Palazzo when you stay there. Our first day we relaxed on the chairs by the bay – we jumped in a few times, but the water was a bit dirty here, mainly because of all the oil from the docked boats. It was a great temperature, though, and such an amazing view. We went on a hunt for lunch, and found a cute little konuba (Montenegrin for restaurant) where we had cold beers, salad and fried calamari – heaven. The place was so charming; there were actually kiwis and grapes growing on the vines above our head.
That night after some drinks at the palazzo we dined at the Stari Mlini, the restaurant with all the signs up on the road. This place was like Disneyland – absolutely massive, with little bridges and wells dotting the outside. I had giant mussels – bigger than any I’ve ever seen – but not as good as the ones in Belgium.
The next morning after a good breakfast at the palazzo, we asked the concierge to call us a taxi to go to the Old Town of Kotor. While we were at the desk, another couple came up to ask about the buses going to the Old Town. The concierge said there were no buses, so we offered them a ride with us. Susan and Scott came along for the ride, and we ended up spending the entire day with them. She is Scottish and he is Australian, currently living in Edinburgh, and they were on their honeymoon. In the Old Town, we did a hike to the top of the mountain. Note: if you are traveling to Montenegro, do not bother buying the only travel guide there currently is – we both had the same book, different editions, and we agreed it is the book of lies. We decided to do this hike despite the 38 C weather, so by the end we looked like drowned rats. Afterwards we cooled off with a few beers, then found a little Italian place where we shared a few pizzas. While we were there, the power went off, so we mostly ate in the dark – thankfully, the ovens were not electric.
After we ate, we were sufficiently exhausted from the heat, the hike, and the pizza and beers, and Matt and I decided to head back to the Palazzo for a swim. We lounged by the pool for a bit, then Matt headed up for a nap while I stayed, and then Scott and Susan returned – turns out the town was not all that interesting. We agreed to meet up for a drink later that evening. Matt and I ate at the palazzo that night – which is included in the price of our room – and the dinner was pretty good. We had a laugh though, b/c there were two options of an entrée – grilled calamari and Gordon Blue. We had had our fill of calamari the day before so decided to try out the Gordon Blue, assuming they meant cordon bleu (they did). After dinner we met up with Scott and Susan for drinks al fresco at the palazzo, chatting about weddings until 2am. They also gave us some great recommendations for things to do in Montenegro, since they were at the end of their trip.
The next morning we headed out of Dobrota to our next destination in Lake Skadar. We took the “other main road” there, as Scott had recommended, which goes up the mountains, through the national park and back down. We saw some incredible views, and Matt had fun navigating those turns around the mountain – switch-back after switch-back, so tight that we prayed every time that there was no cars coming the other way. Sometimes the road was so narrow and strange-looking that we thought we had lost our way. We couldn’t believe that this road, which looked more like a hiking path, was the other main road of a country – an EU member, at that. At one point, we came across a guy walking a fleet of horses down the road. We saw some strange piles of hay shaped like huts that looked like wigwams. Sometimes the countryside looked like a different planet. We passed through the village where the king used to holiday and saw the buildings riddled with bullets.
After about 3 or 4 hours of driving, that included some arguing over which way to go, we arrived at our destination – the fishing village of Virpazar. As soon as we pulled into the town, past the railroad tracks, a man we recognized from the pictures on tripadvisor of our hotel, wearing a sorry old hat, stood in the middle of the road until we stopped for him, then asked us “boat?” We told him we were staying at the Hotel Pelikan and he seemed pleased. Before we had gotten to the hotel lobby after parking and walking over with our bags, we had a few similar offers for a boat trip. We checked into our miniscule room, and relaxed for a bit before heading out into this village. As we walked around, we were asked repeatedly if we wanted a boat trip, from people telling us how nice it was and how they are the best in the town. Once we realized how teeny tiny this village was – we had walked to the edge of it in 10 minutes – we stopped at an outdoor café for lunch. I ordered a steak that was certifiably disgusting, and Matt got two whole fish that were decent. While we were sitting there, the radio that the restaurant was blasting started playing the theme song from The Exorcist, then the Door’s “People are Strange”. It was like a bad omen. We realized there was nothing to do here except this boat ride everyone was trying to sell us, so we went back to the hotel to request that they arrange one for us.
We now believe that every person that asked us if we wanted a boat was tied to the Hotel Pelikan in some way. The guy that scored us one was super shady, telling us and another couple that the boat would be there in 10 minutes. Nearly an hour later, we were finally walking towards it. Aside from the sketchiness of this town, Lake Skadar really is a sight to see. We only saw a small part of it. The boat reached a bit out to a wide area and stopped so we could go swimming. The water was perfect. Two hours later, we were back in our tiny room at Hotel Pelikan discussing our course of action. We had booked two nights, but I could not imagine staying there another day. We decided that we would have dinner at the hotel, which is supposed to be great for its authentic Montenegran dishes (I still don’t know what that means) then get out first thing in the morning. Another concern was cash – we didn’t have much left. We asked the hotel if they took credit cards, and they said no. When we asked where there was a cash machine, the man working there with a glass eye (!) said there was no cash machine in the town, but there was one 15km away (!!). So we got in the car and drove to another shanty town with a bank, seriously doubting that we would (a) find this ATM and (b) be able to take cash out in the middle of nowhere in Montenegro. Somehow it happened though, and we have never been so excited to have cash in our hands! All was set for a rapid escape in the morning. We had dinner at Pelikan, and it was horrific. I still hadn’t regained my appetite from the nasty steak I had at lunch, so eating the icky tomato salad that did not taste right and the rotting fish balls I ordered was not something I was willing to do. Instead of just taking my full plate away with a nice smile, the waiter pointed at my uneated food and kind of yelled at me for not eating it. When I said, “Sorry, I wasn’t very hungry” he grumbled something then walked away. We went back to the room, shut the shutters tight, and winced the night away. I really expected these freaks in Virpazar to turn into vampires and eat us. So I was surprised to wake up in the morning. Still a bit weirded out, since the room was pitch-black, I asked Matt what time it was. He said “9 o’clock”and I said “let’s get the hell out of here!”
Back in the car, we considered going straight into Dubrovnik, but decided instead to visit the town of Perast that Scott and Susan had recommended. Since the drive they told us about went to well, we decided we agreed with their travel suggestions. Perast, like Dobrota, is on the Bay of Kotor. This time we took the main road and were there in less than 2 hours. I was so happy to see people with real eyes! We stopped by the first hotel we saw, which is one that the book of lies listed, and got a room. While in Perast, we swam, had a few beers and some tasty food, then took a little boat to one of the islands on the bay that has a little church and museum. The waiter at the restaurant where we had lunch was Serbian, and was asking where we were from and where we had been. We told him about our experience in Virpazar, and he said that anything south of Kotor is “uncivilized”. That night we had a nice dinner al fresco with tasty wine at our hotel restaurant. Very civilized!
The next morning we skipped breakfast at the hotel so we could get on the road at 8am, since we were foreseeing delays at the border. Luckily, we managed through with no problems, and by 9:15 we were returning our car to the Avis and hailing a cab to our 5-star resort, the Dubrovnik Palace. However, when we arrived at the hotel, the clerk told us that they had sent us an email 3 days ago to tell us there was a problem and they had no room for us. We freaked out! Our panic was needless though, since they had booked us a room at their sister hotel, Hotel Bellevue, also a five star resort, and closer to the Old Town of Dubrovnik so we could walk to it instead of having to take a taxi.
That day we hung out on the beach, then in the evening we walked over to the Old Town for drinks and dinner. The place that was recommended to us literally had a cue, so we went in search of a replacement. We ended up at another restaurant where I had a very delicious shrimp scampi. Matt, as usual, had huge mouthfuls of my dish. However, later that night, we realized that that shrimp scampi was not that great after all, b/c it gave us both food poisoning. Not to get too graphic here, but I was up all night as my body rejected this dish. The next morning I woke up, feeling much better, only to find that Matt was cold and clammy and pale. He hadn’t gotten rid of the evilness as quickly as I had, so he was even more poisoned that I was. We had scheduled appointments at the spa that morning, and Matt had to cancel his massage, and I had to take my pedicure lying down! It was funny and a little awkward, but I couldn’t sit up or I would pass out. We obviously missed the hotel’s luxurious breakfast, but I ordered cereal by room service and was able to eat a little then go down to the beach and read in the shade while poor Matt sweated it out in our room. His fever was so high at one point that we asked the hotel if they had any medicine, and they did and gave us plenty. We spent the evening in fluffy bathrobes watching the Olympics. Thank god this didn’t happen at the Hotel Pelikan!
By the next morning, we felt heaps better, and went down to spend our last day at the beach. That day we did get to enjoy the breakfast. We were only about 20 minutes from the airport, and caught our afternoon flight with no problems.
Overall, a really great trip – Though our experience in the south of Montenegro was strange, it was such a cool adventure and we got to see things that most people will never see in their lives. Now that Montenegro is in the EU, it is inevitable that its dynamic will change, and the Montenegro we saw in 2008 will be a far cry from the Montenegro 10 years from now. But it was also nice ending the trip at a 5-star resort in Dubrovnik!
