Black Mountains

The past weekend two coworkers and I had a "girls" weekend on the coast of Montenegro. Our plan was to meet at least half of the population of Montenegro, or Cerno Gora as they call it there. It may sound like a lofty aspiration, but is in actuality entirely possible as there are only around 600,000 people in the entire COUNTRY! I am convinced, however, that as soon as this place is "discovered" there will be a huge influx of citizens.


The coast was a very rugged and breathtakingly beautiful place. We hit the season just right as there were almost no tourists (besides aging Britains) and yet the weather was still pleasant, although not warm enough to swim. Our trip started out in Budva, your traditional beach town. There were palm trees and lots of beachside cafes with very few people. One of my coworkers, Chrissy has an Irish friend who owns a pub in Budva, and we wanted to make sure to find him. As it turns out, there is only one Irish pub in old town, a small area of town amongst the walls of an old fortress. This pub is NOT the English pub.

Colom showed us around Budva, and Kotor, a town at the tip of Southern Europe's deepest fjord. Kotor is home to an old fortress high on top of a mountain that rises straight up from town. We climbed the stairs to the top to enjoy some amazing views. On our way up, we thought two Japanese tourists wanted us to take their picture. Of course we agreed. The next thing we knew, we were IN a picture with an elderly Japanese couple.... I hope I make their photo album!


Kotor also has an old town. The old towns feel like a fairy tale as the streets are too narrow for cars, so it is entirely walking cobblestone streets. I felt as if I was in a different world. While I had a hard time understanding Colom, I believe he said that the Montenegran coast has a strong Italian influence from the trade ships way back in the day. This is supposedly why the old towns feel so different from the rest of Serbia.

On our third day (long weekends are the best) we headed down to check out Sveti Stefan, an old fishing village turned exculsive resort. It was considered the most exculsive resort in 1972 and was frequented by Sylvester Stallone. It is currently under construction, but still makes for quite the sight. The entire village is located on an island about 50m out to sea. It is connected by a man-made sand bridge and has stone walls the entire way around. Unfortunately, my camera broke so I do not have pictures after the first day of our trip. I can't wait to head back to Montenegro!