Sailing into Montenegro was just awe inspiring. It is actually a fiord, who would have thought. I guess that is why it looks like Milford Sounds on steroids.

Absolutely stunning and littered with beautiful little towns. There is the obligatory graffiti, because some bastards have to, but otherwise it was like something out of a story book.

Montenegro makes NZ look big. Less than 1 million inhabitants and only 4 hours to drive across the country. It stretches from the beautiful seaside city of Kotor all the way up to the mountains where you can go skiing in the winter.

This time our lovely tour guide was Ana.

Our tour included a trip to the seaside resort of Budva and then back to Kotor for a tour and some historical insight.

This place is just magical. The bus ride out to Budva was pretty. The hills are rugged and sparsely covered in trees and bushes. As you drive to Budva there are some pretty sheer cliffs where you look down on some beautiful beaches.

There is a little island called St Nicholas, out in the harbour of Budva. Apparently the island was once inhabited by many deer, but they became hunting victims. No comment.

Budva is being trashed, with new buildings, apparently you don’t really need permits and money will get you the approval and the view you need. So all the quaint houses and buildings are being overshadowed by high rise apartments and hotels. The old town is still safe, but that is probably because it is already built on the edge of nothing, so there is little chance of anything being put up in front of it.

This is the first place that we have really been confronted with begging as well. So it was quite a shock. Probably a warm up for when we are in Paris and other places where it is more common. After a tour with the guide we were left to our own devices, that was fun, little alleyways and stairs, and views. Really pretty. Also a little bit of shopping, I am in the groove now J

We finished up at a hotel and partook in the local wine and beer. You have to keep the economy going!

Next stop, Kotor.

Our bus driver and tour guide whisked us back to Kotor where we were taken around the old town. It was almost completely destroyed in the 20^th century by a large earthquake. It has since been rebuilt in the same fashion and it is hard to tell that it was ever so badly affected. It is quite cool actually, and maybe we can learn something here too, they wanted to keep the history and the special feel that was Kotor so decided to stay with the traditional architecture, with a few strengthening techniques thrown in.

After the tour we walked around the town a little more. Despite being ridiculously small, it really is tiny, it is so easy to get lost. No street names, no grid, no easily identifiable landmarks, just a lot of guessing and back tracking. Quite a bit of fun though!

We went back to the boat for lunch, it was so handy, really just a little walk from the town, where we quickly recouped before heading back into town. We had a hill to climb.

Kotor is surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs and mountains. It is the second best preserved fortification walls in Europe. The fortress is located a fair way up the hill, Castel St. John. There are 1350 steps leading up to the fortress. This seemed like a really good idea at 2 in the afternoon with 25 degree heat. WHAT were we thinking.

Anyway, we had said we would and we did. I thought it would take us a week bit of time, as it is about 1 kilometre straight up. But we did it in 30 minutes then spent the 30 minutes trying to cool down and get our breath back.

I love the entrepreneurism here, there was a chap at the top of the hill selling cold water, coke, and beer. Brilliant.

We walked back down eventually, found a local pub, and had a cold drink. We had earned it, that’s for sure.

Jason says he could live here, for me, its beautiful and I would like to investigate further, but less than 1 million people…

Anyway!

Another wander around the town, then it was back on the boat for a gym session (Jason’s idea) and to prepare for our next sailing. The view leaving Montenegro was just as stunning as the arrival. We stayed up on deck drinking cocktails and watching the world go by.

Eventually we had to go inside and get ready for another dinner. There is a reason we are doing so much walking and going to the gym!

This time our reservation was with Toscana – an Italian restaurant. The food was amazing (again) and we managed to pace ourselves to make it through to dessert.

Off to bed after another busy day. The next day we stay at sea as we travel around to Malta. That means two nights and two days at sea and no ports.

What will we do…