Kotor, Dubrovnik, and a road in Bosnia

Montenegro

Char saw this lovely picture on a travel thing. It was a beautiful bay, surrounded by mountains. She said ‘I want to go there. So, we did. It was called Kotor, and it was in Montenegro. All pics of it looked great, and it was the same when we got there.

Same old, Ryanair/EasyJet, Uber, AirBnB. Bosh. Airbnb was difficult to find. The taxi driver had to call the AirBnB dude to find out where it was. It was right on the bay, there is one road that goes all round it, but couldn’t find it. We did in the end.

Dropped bags off and went for a walk to the shops. Not much there on the normal side. Café and couple of touristy shops. The main draw is over the other side, but we’ll get to that later.

After being here for a day, we thought there isn’t much to see, and we felt quite cut off from things, which is nice sometimes, but not here. Other places there are things to see, and parks to explore, but Kotor is just a road around a bay. This road is well dangerous too! No pavement one side, and water the other, with no barrier or anything! Cars whizz by, and it’s not great with two daydreaming kids!

Car Hire

Anyway, we decided to hire a car, and do some exploring. We hadn’t done this before, for a couple of reasons. One being, we normally use public transport, and everything is in easy reach. The other is cost. Not that they are expensive to hire, it’s the way most need a deposit, and then try everything to keep it! Lots need a credit card to hold a fee – we don’t have a credit card! Luckily, in Montenegro, we found one where they just took cash money, and let us get on with it!

We planned a route and had to pay a bit more as we were leaving the country! Had to get a certificate to say we could take hire car out of the country. Getting the car was a bit of a faff. I asked for a small manual car, with 2 kid’s seats. The gave me an automatic with one kids seat. They did eventually bring another seat, which look liked it had been taken out of one his mates’ cars, with crisps in the side and all sorts. I’d never driven an automatic before. Luckily the guy gave me some tips. ‘This pedal go, this pedal stop. Good bye.’ Thanks.

Croatia

Drove to Dubrovnik in Croatia. About and hour and half drive. Had to get on a ferry as well, so had a proper day out! Dubrovnik was nice you know. People had said it was well busy but wasn’t too bad. The roads were busy around the old town mind. Found a car park where I could work out how to pay and that, and went for a walk. Loads of steps! Like stairs. Loads of cats too! The old town is lovely, buildings are pretty, all touristy now like, but nice. I think it’s another cruise stop destination, so loads of Chinese tourists together, or Americans. After a few hours there, went back to the car, and set off to our next stop. Bosnia.

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Bosnia

Ha Bosnia. I still think of it as a war zone place. I won’t lie, what we saw of it didn’t help my preconceptions! Took a while to get in.Had to stop at a customs check point, and get passport stamped and that. They were a bit grumpy and didn’t seem like they wanted visitors. There wasn’t anywhere big enough to visit on the route to make it a worthwhile visit. Went to a couple of towns, got lost driving along a canal, and ended up getting a nice picture on the side of a road. Stan did a wee there too.

Got back to Kotor and had a well-deserved sleep. I think Europeans are so lucky to be able to drive an hour north and be in a different country, then drive half hour East and be in a completely different country, each with their own language and customs and history. I know we are like that in the UK, but this is different. It’s also the same, but different also. You know.

Old City

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The AirBnB overlooked the bay, nice balcony and that. It’s a stop on the cruise line trips, so saw quite a few ships come and go. They come for the amazing views, and the Old City. This is a fortified area, which is bloody lovely. All enclosed behind walls, with churches and shops and buildings. There is a walk up the mountain where lookouts and that were. This is all now a tourist trap, but a nice one. Lovely little alleyways and bits and bibs to see. Had a nice pizza there, saw some cats, had some ice cream, a great day out! On the way back, we stopped at the post office which was cool, and sent our postcard. Flew back next morning. Nice little trip, but so glad we hired a car and did something different on the second day. Another nice tick,to a weird sounding country. Didn’t see any Black Mountains really, must be some somewhere though.