Montenegro

A glorious, long, relaxing week in the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro.  The Bay is said by some to be Europe's most southern fjord, others say it's not a fjord, it's a drowned river canyon.  Whatever it is, it is fjord-like... deep, deep water, towering mountains, deep folds and inlets.  Lord Byron said:

"At the moment of the creation of our planet,

the most beautiful merging of land and sea occurred

at the Montenegrin seaside....where the pearls of

nature were sworn, an abundance of them

were strewn all over this area...."

 

Really, we couldn't agree with him more.  The mountains, the water...it's all so spectacular.

We stayed a week in Njivice, a small bay community of only a couple of hundred homes.  We rented the top floor apartment of Gordana and Zoran's three-story family villa that stands right on the waters-edge, with terraces on each level and their own beach and boat jetty below.  A few minutes walk is a lovely restaurant, and a small market.  Directly across the bay is Hercig Novi, or party-town, as we christened it.   Most nights, depending on the wind direction,  we could hear music from the discos and bars across the water in Hercig Novi, at precisely 1.30am the music stopped!

The drive around the Bay is so spectacular we did it a few times during the week.  To old town Kotor twice, and swimming days at Mirinj and beautiful Perast.  There is also a car ferry that plies across the bay at certain points.  We took a day trip over the border to Dubrovnik - such a beautiful walled city - one of our favourites.

Sveti Stefan, Montenegro

Perast on the Bay of Kotor was once owned by the Republic of
Venice. This tiny village has 16 baroque palaces, as well as 19 churches.
It also has beautiful waterside restaurants and swimming off the rocks
here is so deliciously refreshing.  For 3 euros one of the locals will
take you in his  boat to one of the two little islands in the middle of the Bay,
Our Lady of the Rocks.  There's a romantic story attached to this little
island that dates back to the 1400s.

Perast.....lovely casual restaurants like these.  

UNESCO world heritage listed Perast.

Mirinj on the Bay of Kotor.  We loved this café and went back a couple of times
for breakfast and a swim, or lunch and a swim. Now why don't we have
 cafes with sun beds like these at home?

Early each morning Zoran would go out fishing, and
Gordana surprised us one evening with a knock at the door.  She'd
cooked some of the morning's catch for us.  Such lovely, hospitable friends.



The Bay of Kotor is just a short drive from the Croatian border.
From the border it's 30 mins drive to the beautiful walled city
of Dubrovnik. It's a stunner, and we loved the opportunity to re-visit.

We walked the ancient walls.  This is the little café on
the rocks, through a hole in the walls.

Jumpers!

Em.....where are you?

Next Monday, July 1 - Croatia joins the EU.

Dubrovnik harbour.  We had a swim under the walls, just as
we did in 2011. 

Montenegro is a very new country, independent since 2006 only, and while I don't think I'll ever understand the history of the Balkan neighbours, there was a little problem with Montenegro and two of its neighbours that affected us directly.  You see, in the coastal area around Hercig Novi, turn on a tap....no water comes out!  Except for about 15 minutes around 7.00pm each (well, most) evenings when there is a low-pressure flow.  It seems that the water supply for this part of the coast comes from Bosnia and Herzegovina, via Croatia, and there has been a problem for a couple of weeks with the pipeline.  We heard varying stories about what the problem actually was, how long it's been occurring and when it would be rectified.  If we were home at 'water o'clock' we'd hear the pipes hiss and spit and splatter, and there'd be excitement outside as Zoran and Gordana busily filled large water containers on each terrace of their villa for use the next day - to flush toilets using a smaller bucket of water, fill jugs, coffee machines, and sinks for washing up.  We noticed that many of the resorts and hotels in the area advertised 'own water supply' which indicates that the water problem was not just this single occurrence.  Our poor hosts were terribly apologetic and embarrassed about this problem, for us it was only a minor inconvenience - we swam numerous times each day, and if we were out exploring and didn't arrive 'home' in time, well, a shower was a bucket of water tipped over ourselves in the bathroom to wash off the Adriatic salt.  Lucky it's summer!  We hope that our Montenegrin friends have their reliable water source soon.

PS:  We met our first Montenegrin about half an hour after crossing the border from Albania.   I had taken over the driving for the second half of our day's journey and a policeman who noticed that I crossed an unbroken white line just outside Budva, attracted our attention with his flashing lights.  Ooops.  Off to sit in the police car I went.  For Montenegrins this is a very serious offence, he explained with just a few words of English.  It attracts an on-the-spot penalty of 2 months confiscation of a driver's licence.  With his notebook he sketched what he had observed, then it was my turn to use his pen and try and  sketch what I thought  I'd done.  That is, overtake a truck at the beginning of an overtaking lane (which turned out to be a left hand turn lane...not an overtaking lane). Oh dear, I didn't think I was doing too well with my explanation....his turn again...his options were to take me to the local Magistrate's court where a fine would be determined by the Magistrate (this would only about 40 minutes), or to give me a warning. 

Thank you Montenegrin policeman friend - for the warning : )

 

Shqipëria

On an overnight ferryboat from Bari to Durres we tried to remember why we had decided to travel to Albania.  By morning we still couldn't think of a reason and when we drove Sophia off the ferry boat to the port's passport control booth we had to stifle a chuckle when the Albanian immigration officer inspected our passports asked with a puzzled expression, "why you come to Albania?". 

The very first Albanian word we learned was Shqiperia - that's Albanian for....Albania!

I guess we thought Shqiperia would be a good place to begin our Balkan adventure.  And it certainly was.  Just three days in the capital Tirana was enough to glimpse a vibrant city full of contrasts, colour, history and progress.  It is said that Albania is the poorest country in Europe, and certainly the poverty is visible - more so in the rural area we drove through - but it has a lively democracy, construction, and growth in the city - it's a very interesting country to visit.

Tirana centre has wide, tree-lined boulevards, shady parks, and a thriving cafe culture. A fascinating aspect of Albanian life we saw during these two days was the fever of electioneering for Albania's upcoming national election.  Seems we arrived in Tirana on the final two days of electioneering - Sunday 23 June is election day.  Every few meters were banners flying above roads, hung on buildings and billboards. On Saturday night the city streets were crowded with noisy, flag-waving party supporters - both for current Prime Minister, Democrat leader Sali Berisha and opposition leader, Edi Rama who leads the Socialist coalition.  This will be only the eighth election since the fall of communism just 23 years ago.  Thousands of people were on the streets, whole families with children walking up the main boulevard that passes the Parliament building and the Presidenca - the presidential palace.  Hundreds more, mostly young people, hanging out of car windows waving banners and flags, cheering, shouting, blaring horns and banging drums as they drove up the boulevards. 

In Europe, summer begins on summer solstice, this year it is 21 June, and summer kicked off in Albania with gusto.  Both days in Tirana were 40 degrees (felt like 45!).  I love a hot day, but this seemed so, so hot!  After arriving in Tirana, we headed out for an orientation walk.  We made it to a nearby café, sat in the air-conditioning and ordered a salad and cold water, then we crossed the road and stood in the park under some shady trees.....then we turned around and retreated to the air conditioned hotel room for a few hours!  It was scorching-ly hot!  Fortunately Tirana has shady parks and cafes...and lovely cafes in those shady parks.  In Tirana we spent  a fair amount of time in one or the other, cooling off between our sight-seeing wanderings.

Driving in Albania is quite something. Not only are we sharing the road with jalopies, tractors and the odd cow or two, there are crater-like potholes to avoid, chaotic roundabouts, a distinct lack of lane markings, and if there are actually road rules, well then it seems it's acceptable to ignore them!

At night we wandered around Blloku, a somewhat stylish residential area of boutiques, bars, more lovely cafes, and young people enjoying the summer nightlife.  Apparently it hasn't always been that way.  During the communist era, the whole area was reserved for Government officials, it was heavily guarded and members of the public were not allowed to enter.  We ate at a popular old restaurant Piceri Era in Blloku and, without exaggeration (and somewhat surprisingly) it was one of the best meals we've had over the past travelling weeks.  Delicious Albanian cuisine, Albanian Kallmet wine, beautiful service, fresh, tender meat dishes, delicious grilled vegetables, pispili and a selection of other traditional Albanian starters.  Albanian coffee is good - strong and thick like Turkish coffee.  The bill came to 3,000 Lek - not even EUR25.00.

Postscript:  The Albanian election result was a landslide for opposition leader, Edi Rama. At the same time as the Albanian Prime Minister Berisha was being overthrown so too was Australia's first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard (though not by the Opposition!).  Seems we found political excitement in Albania just when we thought we were missing it in Australia.  Interestingly, Tony Blair will be adviser to Albania's new Prime Minister. I'll be watching with interest.

Welcome to Albania.....

..which in Albanian is Shqiperia.

11.00am, it's 40 degrees...um, summer's arrived!

Shady Sarajet café, Tirana

Another shady café in a central Tirana park, and the building is
the lovely Millenium Cinema, which if I understood correctly
was previously the residence of Albania's King Zog 1.

National Theatre of Opera and Ballet (and Et'ham Bay Mosque
in the background).  At the far end of the Opera building is a
wonderful bookstore - with a large English language section.

The National Historical Museum...the mosaic is called ...
"The Albanians"!  The museum contains The Beauty of Durres,
a floor mosaic from the 4th century BC.

Early morning Tirana.  It's already hot and locals
gathered in shady parks and gardens for chess, a read of the paper..

Tirana's central square, Skanderbeg Square - and that's their
national hero on his horse.  Skanderbeg defended Albania
against the Ottomans in the mid-1400s.  And in the background,
that Tirana's tallest building (with electioneering banner).

Tirana has a bike hire system (#practicallyfrench)

Fortress of Justinian

Tirana daily markets

It was certainly not a quiet Saturday night in Albania.

The two-headed eagle on a field of red.  Albania's national flag.

Candidate advertising everywhere.  I've never seen so much.

Tirana's newest skyscraper

Façade of Et'ham Bey Mosque.

Et'ham Bey Mosque was closed during the communist era, and
only in 1991 did it reopen after thousands of Albanians entered
it carrying flags in defiance of the regime - the fall of communism
in Albania had begun.

This strange structure is call the Hoxha Pyramid.  It was designed
by the daughter of the communist leader Enver Hoxha after his death,
it's graffiti-ed, partly boarded up and doesn't know if it wants
to be demolished or conserved.

Tirana has many colourfully decorated buildings. 

Street cafes on a warm evening in Tirana

Youth Park

We drove north through rural Albania and had a short coffee stop at
Shengjin beach resort.  We sat in a café on a pier and
as far as the eye could see in both directions the beach was
lined with umbrellas - the grey sand wasn't inviting but it didn't
seems to matter to thousands of families enjoying it.

Falemnderit, Shqiperia!  Thank you Albania! 

 

Yours trulli

From Etna we crossed the straits of Messina and drove the Calabrian mountains along the Autostrada del Sol across the toe and then followed the coast of Basilicata until we reached the heel of Italy and Puglia.  We had decided to stay a night in the beautiful Apulia countryside, in an old trulli house.

These limestone dwellings with conical stone roofs intrigued us.  They can be found all over rural Apulia, like little party hats peeping above the orchards and almond groves.  Just a single building, or a cluster of three, four, five or a whole village of trulli that are UNESCO World Heritage listed, like Alberobello.  They are amazing.  They were built in the 1600s-1800s using no mortar. 

We stayed in a masseria - a country house - along the winding, dusty provincial road that links Pugnano to Conversano. Claudia and Diego have renovated their collection of trulli around their farm.  We stayed in one, and another has been renovated as the beautiful breakfast room. Originally it was the stable and the animal troughs can still be seen.  It was 40 degrees the day we stayed in the masseria, however the thick stone walls and the soaring, whitewashed conical ceiling kept the trullo cool and lovely. They are so charming and unique.  Have a look....

Alberobello - a whole village of trulli

40 degrees today (not sure why nonno's still wearing long underwear?)

Soaring conical peaks often with a different shape pinnacle.
They're called the pinnacoli dei trulli - they might be a ball, a
star, a cross, a disc or any other special symbol that the
stonemason designs - his signature really.

Sunset in Apulia and a deserted trullo.

This is a section of Claudia and Diego's masseria,
surrounded by almond and olive groves and a cherry orchard.

Inside our charming whitewashed trullo.

At breakfast Claudia warned us that the forecast was 40 degrees,
so we visited the cherry orchard early to harvest a bag of what
must be the world's finest cherries.

Dark, fat, luscious cherries, warmed by the morning sun.
These will forever be the benchmark upon which all future
cherries will be compared!

Old town Pugnano

Trulli bride!  Many of the trulli have a whitewashed
symbol on the cone roof.

A cool Conversano balcony

I just love these trulli homes dotted all over the countryside.

Castel at Conversano, and a welcomed shady café under the castle walls.

......Paddy in Puglia

....trulli it is!