We were picked up at 7:45. We quickly realized that of the 18 people on our tour bus, we were the youngest. There were 2 other "younger" couples, but the majority of our group were seniors...and not very chatter or friendly either. One couple was from Australia and were actually rather grumpy. I've never met any Australians that did not want to instantly be friends.
As we made our way south, our guide, Ivanka, gave us a detailed history lesson of the area...but again leaving out what actually caused the war to start. She had been raised in Bosina and was in first grade when the war started. 10 years ago she moved to Dubrovnik and has been working as a tour guide. She said, "The war was very difficult on everybody. Everybody has a family member that died. It was only 19 years ago that war stopped. But we try to move on little by little and put it in the past and move forward. Montenegro might someday be an EU country, but Bosnia & Herzinkova never will."
When we reached the Croatian border, we had a long wait. Apparently only one of the passport scanners was working. Ivanka went over to the guard and sweet talked him into letting our shuttle van move to the front of the line ahead of all the 2 big tour buses. Our passports were collected and given to the guard for scanning. While waiting, we watched cars entering from Montenegro get THOROUGHLY searched. Finally, we were back on the move again, but not quite sure where our passports were. No one else in the van seemed too worried. The 5km of road between the Croatian and Montenegro borders is called NoMan's Land. It is dotted with abandoned duty free shops. In 2008, Montenegro decided to close all the duty free shops. Now they are all just creepy buildings falling into ruin.
The border crossing into Montenegro went rather smooth as Ivanka handed off the stack of passports to be checked again. She also managed to move us to the front of the line again. The girl sure new how to work it with a smile and a flip of her long blonde hair, she had the border guards doing anything she asked of them.
Once firmly on Montenegro soil, Ivanka gave us the history of the country. In 2006, the broke away from Bosnia & Herzinkova and Serbia to be an independent country. There was an instant boom in building, but then the 2008 recession hit. Many of the building projects were completely abandoned resulting in half built hotels looming over sleeping little towns. Currently, the country is receiving a substantial amount of investment dollars from Russia and Saudi Arabia / Emerites.
When the bay first came into view, it was clear why it was voted to be 1 of the top 20 bays in the world. It was absolutely beautiful, even on a day with threatening storm clouds overhead. Our group drove the entire coastline of the bay, stopping in some picturesque location to explain the scenery or local folklore.
We then stopped in the town of Kotor that sits right on the bay. The old town is still surrounded by its city wall which dates back to 1510. Ivanka handed our group off to a local tour guide. We were given maps of the village and told that after the tour, we would have 1 hour of time on our own. I was already thinking that I could not handle a 1 hour formal tour. High above the city was a small chapel and I really wanted to hike up there. However, I figured I'd give the group thing a try. Well, that lasted all of 5 minutes after our guide pointed to a long balcony and said, "Dat over there is the longest balcony east of the Adriatic." I looked at Matt and we instantly knew we had to ditch the group. Who knows how many other balconies she might feel the need to point out. Once the group started moving, we hung back and then struck out on our own.
Kotor could be a really charming place if it weren't for the bus loads of tourists coming off the large cruise ships in droves. They were like swarming bees, taking over everything. We made our way out of the chaos and found the little back alleys of the city to explore and then made our way up the mountain via 800 steps to the little chapel. The view was great and we met a fellow traveller at the top who was also from San Mateo.
By 1:00 everyone had met back at our tour van on time. We were now off to Budva. On the way there, we had one quick stop to look at village which had once been deserted. A wealthy investor bought the village and turned it into a high end resort. All the village buildings were kept intake. Now guests pay a minimum of 1000euro per night to sleep in a room in one of the old houses. I was still confused as to why this was an important stop.
We arrived in Budva by 2pm and had 2 hours of free time. Budva is home to a small old village next to a port with giant yachts moored in each boat stall. We had a nice lunch in Budva of grilled chicken toasted sandwhiches on homemade bread. We searched for some interesting sites but only managed to find that most every shop felt the need to sell magnets and postcards.
By 4:00 we were all back in the van heading back towards Croatia. Since we had already driven around the bay, we took a car ferry across the bay and saved about an hour of driving time. The stops that we made in Montenegro were interesting, but the best part was just driving through the country and seeing the landscape while learning about the country's history. The bay was truly something special to see. Overall, it was a good day trip and Matt enjoyed leaving the driving to someone else. We were back in Dubrovnik by 6:30...it was a good day.
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