Montenegro - a vanishing gem
Before starting the story, a little warning. If your travel agency or tour operator offers to use the services of the VIM-AVIA airline, then refuse without hesitation. Hours of waiting at the airport do not add joy. Especially when you booked a tour with a departure at five in the morning, and two weeks before departure you find out that it will be at five in the evening. By the way, almost all flights delayed on the day of our departure from Moscow were VIM-AVIA.
Okay, at the very least, we flew away and flew to Podgorica. “Hooray, we have time for dinner, ” I rejoiced. Haha! There were NO PARKING PLACES at the capital's airport!! ! OUR PLANE HAD TO WAIT HALF AN HOUR. “It's still nothing. - said our neighbor - Last time we waited for three hours! As they say, no comment.
Our road ran past one of the sights of Montenegro, Lake Skadar. Well, what can I say, "the expanse of an old pond was covered with brown mud. " For those who have never seen large lakes, it is probably interesting. We saw Baikal, Seliger, Lake Teletskoye in Altai - we were not struck by it. The main thing is that the guidebooks write: "pelicans live here. " Shamelessly lying, although maybe they hid!!!
Finally we reached our Petrovac. Guides are here of course... I saw the hotel only in the pictures, but I immediately recognized it. The bus, for some reason, drove on, it turns out that the guide did not know where our hotel was. I had to (as in Yalykavak) stomp on foot. Half an hour remained before the end of dinner. We wanted to eat first and then check in and asked the guide to explain this to the reception. SHE STARTED EXPLAINING IT IN RUSSIAN.
Well, I learned a few phrases in Montenegrin and explained everything myself, otherwise I would not have eaten.
A little about the food in this hotel, so as not to be distracted by it later. This season, the hotel's food policy has changed. Water is given free of charge to everyone without restriction, and who is on half board, and who is on full board. And the food… For breakfast: grilled sausages; boiled sausages (as it is not strange from meat); pate; cheeses; muesli different; omelette; yogurt; what about donuts. For dinner: three types of meat + fish, a bunch of salads, at least four side dishes and two types of soup. Every day a different fruit. They bring apples, they ran out of apples, they bring them... NO, NOT APPLES, BUT PEACHES. They run out of peaches, they bring. . . WATERMELON. But they regretted that they took lunch. It's like a lottery for them. Comprehensive menu. In one day there may be three pieces of meat, of such a size that you can hardly eat it, or maybe goulash, where you won’t even see meat. There would be no this dinner - a small loss, only time was taken away.
About the hotel. We were lucky. They gave me a room on the fourth floor. Since the hotel has no elevator, the rooms on the lower floors are trying to give couples with children and the elderly. We walked around the hotel from all sides, it has five buildings. Only in our building E there were rooms with a sea view. Why the hotel has two stars, I did not understand. The room has a TV, refrigerator, bath, large balcony with clothes dryer. Someone wrote that they do not give shampoo and toilet paper (I even brought it with me). Given every day and cleaned perfectly. There are simulators in the courtyard, do it - I don’t want to. There is a small playground.
Probably due to the fact that to the sea to go 5 minutes.
It's good that our compatriots think two stars suck. The hotel mainly rests Serbs and Montenegrins, very few Poles and Czechs and a tiny number of Russians.
About the nature and beaches of Montenegro. This holiday was very active. My legs here suggest that even a bit too much. I had to go to Montenegro seven or five years ago.
I'm looking at old catalogs. Small villages, deserted beaches, pine groves, neat three-four-storey hotels. Now there is a building boom. There are two construction sites in the village of Petrovac. Two 10-storey hotels are being built. It's good that Montenegrins don't like to work; Our two stars are far from them, but the windows of four-stars (ten days 150 thousand for two) go out to the construction site. The main thing is that this situation is all over the coast. Demolish forests, houses of the 19th century and bang 8-storey apartments in a completely terrible style.
The main beaches of Montenegro are not designed for such a load. Here is the city beach of our Petrovac. It is small, the part free from hotel sunbeds is no more than 100 meters. At seven o'clock in the morning you can still swim there safely. There are practically no people, but at 10 there is no longer crowded. And the number of children per sq. meter Montenegrin beaches go off scale all conceivable limits. Montenegrins are very prolific. Sometimes it is not clear: either the kindergarten is on a walk, or the family is scratching to the sea.
When you go on vacation, you want peace and quiet, and then a squeal, a squeak, you can get a ball on the head in the sea, otherwise the kids will start throwing pebbles. Therefore, we walked along the surrounding beaches (there are many of them) in search of peace. On the Lucice beach (we heard it for another 100 meters), we did not find silence. The bay is beautiful, but there are more people than on our city. We went further to Buljarica (950 meters). Beauty is amazing. Pines, oaks, pomegranates bloom, lizards run. We reached the top and here it is - the beach of my dreams. Huge, almost no people. Naturally, we rushed there. If you didn’t have to go so far to it - 40 minutes from the hotel, then we would go there all the time, but still we changed it. Found a personal bay.
I must say that in the days of Yugoslavia, the authorities took care of the rest of the workers. All sorts of health paths were equipped. Here's one we came up with. The views were enchanting, the aroma of fragrant pine needles teased the sense of smell, the chirping of cicadas delighted the ear. We reached the first tunnel (three tunnels are laid in the mountains to the beach). During the years of Yugoslavia, it was electrified, but now the wires have all been scrapped, and the light bulbs have been smashed.
The darkest is the first tunnel, the rest can be passed without a lantern. The seashore was disfigured by the construction of a 15-storey hotel. Bypassing the breakwaters scattered along the coast, we reached a small bay. There are no people, the water is pure, though - the entrance to the sea is not a fountain, but we had coral slippers. So we finally found the long-awaited peace.
I almost forgot. When I first swam in the sea near the beach of Petrovac, it seemed to me that an ancient column lay at the bottom (the water is the cleanest there). At first I thought that the sunstroke was enough, but then I took the mask and decided to check it out. At the bottom lie the ruins of an ancient city, as if it should be so. So my morning swims were held under the slogan: "Open your Atlantis. "
Now about excursions.
Since a beach holiday in Montenegro is problematic, we decided to compensate for it with excursions. This year, Albania made visa-free entry for Russians for the summer. Our host made excursions to this "black spot on the map of Europe. " The country is unfamiliar, I didn’t want to go from unverified local travel agencies, so we overpaid.
The tour was advertised, they promised that they would show both the fifth and the tenth, something that others do not show.
Taking your doruchak, that is, breakfast, with you, we went to wait for the bus. Our transport arrived with a delay of 10 minutes, while he collected everyone at the hotels. Our hotel guide took care of us, asked us to reserve seats at the beginning of the bus. They left us, FIRST ROW FOR THE DRIVER. We waited less than 10 minutes at the border, no bureaucracy. The first point on the map of our journey was the Rozafa fortress, built in the 3rd century BC. the ancient Illyrians. Our guide spoke about its antiquity and uniqueness, but did not say anything that in the 14th century it was first rebuilt by the Venetians, and then in the 17th century by the Turks. The main thing in the program is written that you can visit the museum there. We climbed in the heat to the entrance to the fortress for 15 minutes, and at the entrance the guide says: “In half an hour, the meeting is on the bus. ” Well, what can you see in 15 minutes? ! Other travel agencies honestly write: photopause - 30 minutes. So my wife and I took this photo break. The main historical information gives at a minimum, although according to her she is a historian.
Then they brought to the city of Shkoder, the most ancient city in Albania and one of the oldest in Europe: it is 2400 years old. I thought they would show the ancient picturesque streets. Dreamer.
Albania is shaking the past off its feet. Ancient houses of the 17th-19th centuries are demolished and remodels or something ultra-modern are being built. Of the colors in the city, only gypsy families on self-made bicycles with carts.
Brought our guide to the pedestrian street a la our Arbat to the store with silver. Again, you have 30 minutes. It's good that she said that there is an ancient Catholic church nearby. I managed to run with my wife. She was already sick from the heat and running around. She left in the chill of the temple. Why they were taken to this city, I did not understand, it would be better if they gave more time in the fortress.
Then they took me to Tirana, the capital of Albania. Personally, I think that people go to other countries for new experiences, to get acquainted with the local flavor.
The dirty hand of globalization has also reached out to Albania. Tell me, would you be very interested to know that the glass and concrete building, built a year ago, is a representative office of the Mercedes company, and exactly the same Opel or Samsung on the left? ! We have these representative offices in Moscow like dirt, why should I go to see them in Albania and pay 50 euros for it.
In the capital of Albania, I understood the meaning of the saying "sip jelly for seven miles. " I thought: they will give us a walking tour, and then they will feed us. Fig-you - the national dwelling of the Indians. A group of 50 people was taken to a restaurant, naturally we got stuck there. And the food... (it would be better if we took a tour without lunch for 35 euros).
After dinner, in the very sunshine, they led us around the city. It was necessary to contrive so that all the main sights of Tirana were left aside, even the monument to their national hero of the 15th century, Skanderbeg. And they wrote in the program: You can visit the Historical Museum. What kind of museum, if I hadn’t asked about the modern church where the unique icon of Mother Teresa made of shells is located, we would hardly have been led there.
We were given half an hour of free time, somewhere on the outskirts of the city. My wife fell out from the heat, after such a full-fledged excursion I was overwhelmed with bad passions, I didn’t want to go to change euros for their tugriks and run around the shops. After sitting for a few minutes in the park, we moved to the bus. “Better with air conditioning on the bus than under the sun in Tirana, ” we decided. Surprisingly, more than half of the bus thought so. Ten minutes before the scheduled time, everyone was on the bus except the guide. When she came and saw it, she was in shock. It turns out that this was the FIRST TIME in her 20-year excursion practice.
Well, what is Albania without the famous bunkers. They were built at one time, wherever you spit. Now they are either breaking it down or equipping it for household needs.
Summarizing. Albania is modernizing at a frantic pace. Tirana and Shkodra are reminiscent of Moscow, where the old quarters are crumbling, a terrible modern monster is being built next to the old church, and so on and so forth. I don’t know, maybe the flavor of ancient life has been preserved somewhere, but they didn’t show it to us. Other travel agencies for a smaller fee, even in the ancient city of Durres - the former capital of Albania, now the main Albanian port and resort are imported. But Albania was a spontaneous trip for us, if I had prepared: I had stocked up with maps, I would have gained more information, maybe we would have seen more. A pleasant ending to the trip was that we had time for dinner.
Our next voyage was a cruise to Budva. A boat runs from a small pier in Petrovac three times a week to Budva. Two hours of parking in Budva and an hour of swimming in Hawaii (that's what they call the island of St. Nicholas). It cost crazy money TEN EUROS. Having decided that skiing on the Moscow River is more expensive for us, we went on a cruise. The views are beautiful, but, unfortunately, more and more of them are disfigured by hotels. We sailed to Budva. It took about 15 minutes to stomp to the old town. The town is very pretty, medieval streets, ancient houses, churches. Museums cost INCREDIBLE MONEY… A WHOLE TWO EUROS. It's very expensive so we were the only guests.
Muzeified, they went to Hawaii, throwing the bodies exhausted by the heat into the cool waters of the Adriatic. I found a very colorful place for swimming, next to an abandoned excavator. For 10 euros we enjoyed for body and soul.
Our next excursion was the result of our greed. A tour of the southernmost fjord in Europe - the Bay of Kotor cost 25 euros per person. I said, no, that Kotor is a very beautiful medieval city and maybe there you can somehow board a ship. The bus station was not far from our hotel, and the saleswoman was learning Russian and told us everything. We took a ticket for 4.5 and went to Kotor. The city is very pretty, retaining the charm of antiquity. Church of St. Trypun built in 809, there is now a museum. ENTRANCE AGAIN TWO EUROS. The museum's collection is amazing, what is there: from ancient icons to music books. And there are preserved frescoes of the 12th century.
Then we went into the chambers of the 16th century, there is an art gallery, it costs incredible money in general - FREE OF CHARGE and there is also a toilet. There was an exhibition of a local artist, if I correctly translated from Montenegrin "Dreams of Java". We remembered our trip to this amazing island.
After visiting the museums, we went to the fortress walls. The views are interesting. Then we visited two Orthodox and one Catholic church. The sun began to bake, and the wife said that if we hurry, we will have time for lunch. On the way back we found the maritime museum, the entrance is 4 euros. I didn’t want to look at the models of the ships, especially in Budva we looked at them for 2.
Then, returning to Petrovac, I decided that 50 euros is not that much money, we only live once and it is unlikely that we will come to Montenegro again, and the fjord will remain uncovered. Moreover, the street travel agency took only an advance payment of 10 euros, the rest on the bus. The girl who sells tickets did everything so quickly. Before we had time to ask: are there any places for tomorrow? She had already written out vouchers for us, we had to pay 10 euros. Yes, the organization of street travel agencies in Montenegro is an order of magnitude higher than that of our tour operators. They brought it, put it on a neat ship, who wanted to sit on the lower deck with tables, some on the upper deck, on mattresses. We chose the bottom.
Then they said: "You will be offered free drinks: wine, brandy and cola for children. " Immediately the mood rose, and the red wine turned out to be very good. The guide on the ship led the tour in three languages. He spoke very well, we liked it.
We sailed to Duke Novi. The city was founded as a fortress in 1382 by the Bosnian king Tvrtko I under the name of Sveti Stefan. After the death of King Tvrtko I, the fortress came under the rule of Prince Sandal Hranich from the Kosach dynasty. From Sandal Hranich, the fortress was inherited by his nephew, Duke Stefan Vuksic. Under him, the settlement received the rights of the city and its modern name. The most famous sights of the city are the Sea Fortress, built by the Bosnian king Tvrtko I in 1382, the Clock Tower, built by the Austrians in the 19th century, the Bloody Tower (tur. Kanli-Kula), built during the Turkish occupation, and the Orthodox Church of St. Michael Archangel on Belavista Square.
In Duke Novi, they gave 40 minutes of free time, but the town is small, everyone managed to get around, even the citadel was visited for one euro (one thing is bad - there are a lot of stairs).
The next item on our program was swimming, we were taken to the beach. Whoever wanted to, swam, and those who wished for three euros were taken to some blue grotto. Something seasicked me, incl. remained on solid ground. We swam, but the water is colder than in our Petrovac.
Then they took me to a unique place: the man-made island of Gospa od Shkrpela. The event that led to the appearance of the island occurred in 1452. The brothers Morteshichi, sailors from nearby Perast, discovered an icon depicting the Mother of God on a small reef a hundred meters from the island of St. George. Perhaps she got there after the shipwreck of one of the ships, but for the sailors who found her, she brought good luck - one of the brothers got rid of a long-standing illness. The rumor about this miraculous event quickly spread throughout the neighborhood and the icon became very revered.
The church on this site did not appear immediately. Initially, the reef barely protruded from the surface of the water, and it took almost 200 years to build the island. All this time, old, obsolete ships, as well as captured pirate ships, were flooding near the rock. In addition, the city authorities passed a law ordering every passing ship to throw a stone into the sea at this place. Gradually, in place of a small rock, an artificial plateau with an area of .3030 m² appeared.
By the way, the ancient custom of throwing stones into the water near the island has been preserved to this day. In Perasta, every year on July 22, the city festival of Fasinada is held - all the men of the city sit in brightly decorated boats and carry stones to the foot of the island. The folklore holiday also has a purely practical purpose - it helps to stop the destruction of the island. The holiday ends with a sailing regatta, in which boats from all over the Bay of Kotor take part.
The built island was named Gospa od Shkrpela, which means "Our Lady on the Reef (or on the rock)" and comes from the Latin word "scropulus" - "reef". On the island in 1630, the Church of the Mother of God was built so that she would patronize the local sailors in their dangerous voyages. True, after the well-known earthquake in 1667, it had to be restored. The church acquired its final appearance in 1722. The temple is 11 meters high and built in the classical Byzantine style.
The temple has a museum, the standard price is 2 euros. There is a unique icon embroidered from hair. The wife of one captain who had gone on a voyage waited for him for twenty years, but he never returned, and this icon remained as a memory of her love.
At the end of the cruise, they brought us to Kotor and we realized that we had done well, that we had moved here on our own. It was about six o'clock and all the museums were already closed. However, inquisitive researchers always have room for discovery. We found an unexplored fortress wall, except for us, no one found an exit to it. While walking, we did not meet a single tourist.
On the way back to Petrovac, we got stuck in a traffic jam, we were afraid that we would be left without dinner, but everything worked out.
Summing up the story about Montenegro, I will say: the country is beautiful, but with such a rapid development of the hotel business, there will soon be nothing left of its natural beauties (at least on the seashore). And paying a lot of money to be on a crowded beach, as in the movie "Be My Husband", is a pleasure for a big fan.
