Отдых в Черногории Holidays in Montenegro

Rested with my brother from August 30 to September 13.2011 from the tour operator "S 7 TOURS" in Montenegro in the city of Budva hotel "Alexander" 3 * +.
We took off from Vnukovo airport at 15:50 by Kavminvodyavia airline on a TU-204 plane. The arrival time is 17:00 local time, the difference with Moscow time is 2 hours. Flight time 3 hours 10 minutes. I really liked Vnukovo airport compared to Domodedovo. Much fewer flights, and, accordingly, people. Less hustle and more order. Check-in for the flight, control screening, everything went quickly and well, which is very convenient. They took off without delay. The plane is not new, the landing gear was retracted and released with a roar. After 40 minutes, lunch was offered: sausage with pasta, cold-smoked butterfish, cucumber and tomato slices each, waffle, bun and butter. And behind the porthole, landscapes changed: first forests, then fields, then clouds flew by and, when they flew out of the “milk river”, an amazing view of the mountains opened up. They looked like a slightly flattened sheet of paper that had first been crumpled. And so the pilot announced the start of the descent. We landed at Tivat airport. When landing, the mountains seemed very large, and that we were about to fly into them. Leaving the plane, I felt very high humidity. They breathed like fish, gasping for air. The temperature was + 30 + 3.0С. We were very lucky with the weather. For all 15 days of our stay there was not a single rain and the air temperature was over 3.0C. Passport control was slow, and when we did pass it, our luggage was already spinning on the conveyor.
Hotel "Alexander" is small. Several 3-storey buildings. Next to it is the hotel "Slavenskaya Plaza" or if in Russian, then "Slavyansky Beach", also three stars. By design, they are the same, without knowing you might think that this is one hotel. "Slavic beach" is larger in size. The guests of the Alexander Hotel can use some of the services of the Slavyansky Beach, which I don’t remember exactly, because I didn’t use it, but only at the travel agency they said, but I remember that you can use the pool. We actually swam in the pool of our hotel. It is small filled with sea water.

Check-in at the hotel went very quickly, as there were not many people on our arrival. At the reception, administrators speak Russian fluently. Yes, and in general there were no problems with the language for the entire period of rest, a lot of Russians rest, as well as Montenegrins and Serbs who come to work in the summer, speak Russian. And I was also very impressed that all our compatriots are very willing to communicate on vacation, share their impressions, give advice: where is it better to relax, what sights to see, what shops to buy, where the market is located and much more. So on vacation, I talked from the spirits and was very pleased with it. I want to tell you another interesting case. One day, returning from the beach, we sat down at a table on the benches near the bar, foreigners sat behind it, and who exactly my brother and I could not understand. Some of their speech was in German, English and Russian. I decided to ask where they are from. I know English within the school curriculum, separate words. So they spoke in Russian with separate English words and sign language. I found out that they are from Slovenia and live in the vicinity of Ljubljana. They understood that we were Russians, but they wanted to know where exactly. We are from Mozhaisk, but do foreigners know about our small town, albeit with a great history. They began to say "Borodino", "Napoleon", "Kutuzov". And when I heard from them: “Oh, “ War and Peace ”, ” my surprise knew no bounds. But this is a digression.
When choosing a tour, we ordered a double apartment, as the cost of a standard room differed by 500 rubles. And the advantages were the presence of a kitchenette with a refrigerator (but it is very small), an electric stove with 2 burners, a kitchen table and chairs around it. The only dishes were cups, saucers and glasses. As we were later told that the dishes should be asked at the reception. But we didn't ask, because we were on "all inclusive", but the refrigerator came in handy. I left the topic a little, so we chose a double apartment, and gave us a four-bed apartment at no extra charge. Our room was located on the 3rd floor. Two-room apartments. In one room there is a large double bed, a small table and two armchairs, and in the other, with a kitchenette, there were two small beds, TV, air conditioning. My brother took a room with a large bed, and I wandered in my room from one bed to another. On the balcony there are two plastic chairs with soft cushions and a table. Bathroom combined. It has a bathtub and a hair dryer. The furniture is not new, but quite comfortable, the springs do not come out of the mattresses and do not dig into all parts of your body. The windows of the room overlooked a small garden, so we were quiet. It was just wonderful, since the 2-hour difference had an effect, and in the evening around 22:00 local time I was already very sleepy. On the main street of the hotel in the evenings there was live music until 24:00, and, I think, it was hard for the guests whose windows overlooked here. Where the windows overlook the pool is a wonderful accommodation. Now I will explain why. The hotel has two free Internet connection points: one by the pool, and the second - on the first two tables near the bar. So you can communicate with your family, what we do and business in the evenings.
When you check in, you will be given a cardboard card to visit the restaurant, which indicates the dates of your stay. At the entrance to the restaurant, the administrator scans the barcode from the card. At first I thought that you can only enter once, but it turned out that this is not so. And it's just inconvenient that the restaurant is located in one part of the building, and the bar is in the other with a separate entrance.
We went to the nearest beach to swim, we didn’t take sun loungers and umbrellas, but rested on towels brought from home. So even better - massage. There are not many people in September. And the sun loungers were mostly empty. We were told that at the end of August there was simply nowhere for an apple to fall on the beach.

The water is amazing, clear and clean. She has a very beautiful color - gray-blue. A very high density, that I swam deeper in the main one and hung vertically, barely moving my legs. Maybe on other seas the water is even more beautiful, but I have nothing to compare with the black and Baltic seas. But after dinner it was very disappointing that this clear sea turned into a garbage dump. There were floating and cores, and packages and a lot of other nonsense. And the most annoying thing is that not only vacationers, but also local residents litter. I myself was a witness. There are small fish in the sea, and if you stand for a long time, they begin to pinch your legs. So everything is under control so that all vacationers swim. I didn't see sea urchins.
I strongly advise you to take a walk to the old Budva. From our hotel to the old part of the city, the distance is about 1 kilometer. The Old Town is a Mediterranean walled city. There is also a citadel. Entrance to it costs 2 euros. But I didn’t go in, so I can’t write that I’m there. In the old part is the current Catholic Church of St. John - the largest and most famous temple of Budva. Its tall, pointed bell tower with a cross towers over the entire city; the architecture features features of the Gothic style. The temple was erected in the 7th century (with subsequent restructuring). The entire temple complex consists of three buildings: a three-nave (consisting of 3 rooms) church, a bell tower, the construction of which was completed in 1867, and the bishop's courtyard. A little to the north is the current Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity, built in 1804.
Not far from Budva is the island of St. Nicholas, one of the few islands off the coast of Montenegro. It can be reached by boat for 5 euros. The boat sails first near the island of Sveti Stefan. Today Sveti Stefan is a single city-hotel. And after the island of St. Stephen swims to the island of St. Nicholas. Plants there. And later you can swim back to Budva. And no longer pay, since the payment was first.
Not far from the hotel on the main road there is a bus stop and from it you can also get to the village of Svetoj Stefan. The fare is 1.5 euros.

My brother and I took a regular bus to the city of Herceg Novi. The bus station in Budva is a thirty minute walk from our hotel. But even with the guidebook, we did not immediately find it. The entrance to the station is all green from planted climbing plants, I thought it was grapes and only at home, looking through photos of other travelers on the Internet, I saw that it was not only grapes, but also kiwi. When we went to Herceg Novi, we crossed the Bay of Kotor by ferry, and on the way back we went around the entire Bay of Kotor. The city of Perast and the island of the Virgin on the reef are especially beautiful. Of course, one could have made a special trip to Perast, but it did not work out. Maybe someday I will visit these places again. The landscape of Budva and the Bay of Kotor are very different. In the bay, it seems that the mountains approached and surrounded the sea, and it turned into just a lake.
The next day, after lunch, my brother and I went to the city of Cetinje, also by public transport. At the bus stop in Cetinje, a taxi driver approached us and offered to take us to the Lovcen National Park and the mausoleum of Peter Petrovich Njegosh (ruler of Montenegro). At first I wanted to refuse, thinking that everything could be walked around (judging by the map in the guidebook, it was real), but then I agreed. We paid 23 euros for the trip. The path turned out to be not close and you definitely won’t get to these places on foot. The road to Lovcen is very picturesque. Entrance to the territory of the national park is paid, if my memory serves me right, it costs 2 euros per person. On the way we stopped to look at the mountains, pine trees. The silence made my ears buzz. What air!! ! The mausoleum itself is located on the mountain. There you still need to climb about 600 steps through the tunnel. And at the top there is a path to the mausoleum. It is not fenced in, and there are cliffs on both sides. Due to the height, the path seems narrow and the head begins to spin, and the legs give way. Entrance to the mausoleum costs 3 euros. Behind it there is an observation deck and in good weather you can see Skadar Lake. To be honest, I didn’t go to the mausoleum and to the observation deck either. And well, as I later looked at photos on the Internet at home, the path to the observation deck was even narrower than to the mausoleum. So decide for yourself whether it is worth going there or not. On the way back, the taxi driver drove us along the old road and we stopped at the observation deck. It opened a beautiful view of the Bay of Kotor, the city of Tivat and the airport. In a roadside cafe, they gave us binoculars and we were able to see the surroundings closer. There were tables and benches on the observation deck, so you can sit and enjoy the views. The cafe sold homemade cheese, prosciutto (dried meat). We were given a taste of cheese, meat, and we bought prosciutto for our family as a gift. On the way back we stopped at the Tsetinsky Monastery. It was built in 1484 by Ivan Chernoevich. In 1714 the monastery was burnt down and was rebuilt in 1743 by the Montenegrin metropolitan Savva Ivanovich Negosh. It was rebuilt several times, the last time in 1927. The relics of St. Peter of Tsetinsky are kept in the monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin. They could only put candles in the Cetinje Monastery, but they could not venerate the relics of the founder of the monastery. And I decided that I definitely need to go again.
I bought an excursion to the Tsetinsky Monastery and the Ostrog Monastery. This time I went alone, my brother refused. I bought a tour on the street, since tour operators are much more expensive, but everything is the same. We arrived in Cetinje early in the morning and were able to venerate the relics. Then our path lay to the Ostrog Monastery. We passed the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica. The city owes its name to several low hills that rise in its historical center, the largest of which is called Goritsa. I didn’t see anything particularly attractive, maybe we were driving on the outskirts. The last 3 kilometers to the monastery are the most dangerous and scary. Mountain serpentine and no restrictions, bumpers on the road. Before going on an excursion, I talked with people who had already visited Ostrog. I was advised to sit on the driver's side of the bus, as the road would not be so clearly visible and not so scary. Yes, on the way to the monastery it was not scary, but the way back, when the bus went down a little, then slowed down, reversed, turned around a bit and went down again, to be honest, it was scary. The road is still so narrow that drivers have to pull over to the side of the road or stop at corners to let each other pass. The woman told me that the driver secretly crossed himself before each turn. Buses do not reach the monastery itself. Then you can take a minibus or go up the stairs. Ostrog Monastery is very beautiful and unusual. Very nice views from the top. It is very interesting to put candles in the monastery. In a special separate room. There are no candlesticks, and on three sides there are shelves (containers) with sand and water is poured on top. The room is all black inside from soot and soot.
We bought another excursion - a boat trip along the Bay of Kotor on a pleasure boat. Highly recommend to everyone. A lot of impressions. They reached the city of Tivat by bus, where they transferred to the ship. At the beginning we sailed to some bay, I don’t remember the name, on the border with Croatia. Further, our path lay in the city of Herceg Novi. We were on a short tour. You can say "gallop across Europe. " Then we sailed to the island of the Virgin on the reef. There we visited the temple, where the sailors prayed before long trips, and the museum. The most interesting exhibit is an icon embroidered by a local woman from her own hair. You can see how the color changes, reaching gray. From the island you can see the island of St. George, closed to the public, and the city of Perast, the beauties of which I was able to admire once again. And then our path lay in the city of Kotor. We visited the old part of the city. Kotor has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. After some free time, we boarded the bus and drove back to the hotel. So another day was coming to an end in this wonderful country. It's sad, but everything has a beginning and an end.

So the day of parting came. Room keys must be handed over to the reception at 11:00. Our plane took off at 18:00. There was plenty of time. The suitcases were left at the reception. And they sat in the park. Since we arrived and settled in the evening, we were fed lunch on the day of departure. And we did not hand over bracelets for "all inclusive" at the reception desk.
The bus that took us to the airport was a little late, but we managed to check in. Customs clearance went through quickly. We were not given a mark in the passport that we were flying out of Tivat. We flew back with the same Kavminvodyavia airline and the same plane. We flew to Moscow, and here it is autumn, it is pouring dank rain. But the heart will be warmed by warm memories of holidays in Montenegro.