We saw exactly why Montenegro is called Montenegro the moment our bus crossed the Albanian border into this small nation of brooding dark mountains, rugged, barren and frighteningly steep.
The modern name betrays a Venetian past when seafarers coined this land of tall impassible peaks between the lush greenery of Dalmatia and the arid rolling hills of Albania. The Slavic-speaking locals also embraced the name as Crna Gora, or Black Mountain, even though their land also encompassed arguably the most breathtaking stretch of the Adriatic coastline.
This was our homebase in Montenegro, part of our 22-day itinerary along the Balkan coast from Albania to Slovenia. Here we stopped for two days at the fjord-like Gulf of Kotor, home to the second most spectacular port city in the Adriatic in my opinion, with Venice being the lone exception.
Some readers may disagree in favor of world-famous Dubrovnik, by far the most popular tourist destination in the Western Balkans and a fellow UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated 60 km to the west. But while Dubrovnik flaunts her majestic ramparts on the sea cliffs, Kotor strings hers several kilometres up the soaring peaks guarding her back. To me Kotor is nestled in a more dramatic natural setting, costs less for food and lodging, and is less overrun with tourists -- for now.
We arrived after a grueling 7 hour bus ride from Tirana and found our rental apartment just 100m inside Kotor's southern gate. After a late lunch of cheap Cevapi we were on the move again, this time hopping on a local bus to Perast for a short sail in the sunset.
A dozen kilometres north along a winding coastline, tiny Perast enjoys worldwide fame disproportionate to its 350 residents for its iconic twin islands floating in the bay's sheltered waters, just a few hundred metres off a riviera ornamented with Baroque palaces and a quiet marina.
Several boats shuttle visitors from Perast to the farther island known as Lady of the Rocks, artificially created over the centuries by local sailers who vowed to deposit a rock at the island upon safe return from each voyage.
That medieval rite still comes alive every year on July 22 when local fishermen set sail at sunset to shore up the island by hauling rocks into the sea. In case anyone is wondering how these two flat islands manage to stay above water during high tide, the difference between high and low tide is apparently a few centimetres in the Bay of Kotor.
In stark contrast with the Baroque elegance of the Lady of the Rock, the neighbouring island of St. George features an austere, masculine abbey that once served as Perast's first line of defense agasint Ottoman threats. Historic graveyards of local citizens still surround the 12th century Benedictine monastery, giving rise to the moniker the Island of the Dead.
This 5 euros boat ride offers the best panorama of Perast as a 17th century waterfront town, dominated by the clock tower of St. Nicholas and shimmering under the setting sun with Montenegro's vertical, barren mountains as the backdrop.
Back on dry land we hiked up the steep stairs of sleepy Perast, still boasting its collection of Venetian watchtowers from a tense era when the town served as Kotor's outpost against Turkish-held Herceg Novi to the west.
Perast's twin islets -- one artificial and one natural -- glittered in the sunset while boats collected the last remaining passengers back to shore. It was time for dinner, and we decided to try out a local restaurant before heading back to Kotor.
Restaurant Review: KONOBA SKOLJI (Perast) (Location Map)
We picked this restaurant for one quintessential Dalmatian dish, the ancient culinary art of the Peka in which meat and root vegetables are seared and slow-roasted at once under a heavy cast iron lid, until all ingredients start to melt towards a delicious finish.
But first we must acclimatize to Kotor prices after several days in ultra-affordable Albania. 6 euros for this local fish soup of Riblja Corba might have been reasonable for tourist-oriented Perast or Kotor, but was at least twice the price compared with Tirana where we enjoyed possibly our best meal of the year the previous day.
My wife ordered this generous dish of grilled prawns, served with the Dalmatian classic of Swiss chard and potatoes that we would encounter a dozen times over the next two weeks. The prawns might have been Mediterranean or even Adriatic in origin judging by their depth of flavour.
Virtually every table ordered the same signature dish of Lamb and Potatoes under the Peka, patiently roasted in its own juices to achieve that legendary melt-in-the-mouth texture. It was a hearty meal that neither of us could entirely finish before catching the next hourly bus back to Kotor for the night.
Meal for Two Persons
| Riblja Corba | 6 Euros |
| Grilled Prawns | 20 Euros |
| Lamb Peka | 14 Euros |
| Bottled Beer x 2 | 6 Euros |
| Large Water | 3 Euros |
| TOTAL | 49 Euros (CAD$73.5) |
Back in town the one unmissible attraction is Kotor's mini-Great Wall featuring kilometres of knee-busting stairs, a two-to-three-hour hike with world class panoramas to be reviewed in the next post. The medieval walled city itself also boasts a number of impressive monuments including the pictured 12th century Romanesque church of St. Luke's.
Having endured countless earthquakes including one of 6.9 magnitude in 1979, the chapel's priceless 800-year-old frescoes and two altars -- one Orthodox and one Roman Catholic -- still serve as a symbol of unity and religious tolerance in Orthodox-dominant Montenegro.
On this day we had a cheap takeout lunch (see next post) for the hike, which left us with a generous budget for dinner at what is rumoured to be Montenegro's finest restaurant.
Restaurant Review: GALION (Kotor) (Location Map)
We normally don't splurge on so-called fine dining establishments on our travels. First we don't have the budget, but more importantly we have learned over the years that the most expensive restaurants, in efforts to differentiate and justify their higher prices, tend to drift away from the most authentic, time-honoured recipes of their region.
But at Kotor the price disparity between middle-of-the-road and the finest restaurants is curiously nonexistent, as revealed by the 6 euros Riblja Corba at Konoba Skolji last night. The same dish cost 5.9 euros here at Galion, served by a crew of impeccably dressed waiters at a classy dining terrace on stilts above the crashing waves, with romantic sunset views of the Bay of Kotor.
As expected the food trended towards modern Pan-Mediterranean rather than traditional, unfaultable to the point of unremarkable as typified by our pot of Mussels Buzaru which almost passed for Provencal with its liberal usage of tomatoes, white wine and thyme.
My wife had the intuition to order this green salad topped with an expertly pan-fried sea bass fillet, absolutely fresh with a deliciously crispy skin. Again this might not be traditional Montenegrin fare, but it was so perfectly executed that it was by far the best dish of the evening.
With the phenomenal Linguine con Gamberetti at Tirana's Markata e Peshkut still fresh in memory, my wife took a chance on the local interpretation of Spageti sa Gamborima that turned out mildly anticlimactic. The pasta was actually decent and the shrimps fresh, but the expectation was simply too high when the gold standard was an unparalleled dish in Tirana that cost a third of the price here.
With a creamy seafood risotto we wrapped up this dinner of two large appetizers and one soup to share, pasta and rice for mains and a couple glasses of local Krstac, with water level panoramas of the Bay of Kotor and a guitarist performing Elvis and Sting classics in the background. I didn't realize at the time, but our final bill of 33 euros per person would be a steal compared with the exorbitant prices at our next stop of Dubrovnik.
Meal for Two Persons
| Musulje na buzari | 10.9 Euros |
| Brancin salata | 11.9 Euros |
| Riblja corba | 5.6 Euros |
| Spageti sa gamborima | 13.9 Euros |
| Rizoto sa plodovima mora | 13.8 Euros |
| Glass of Krstac x 2 | 10 Euros |
| TOTAL | 66.1 Euros (CAD$99.2) |
Our after dinner stroll took us through the medieval alleys of Kotor to the Pima Palace, a 17th century Renaissance mansion presiding over a little square to the side of the cathedral. The hordes of day-trippers would not return until the morning, affording a few hours of peace and authenticity for the former Venetian citadel of Cattaro.
Even the main square appeared uncrowded for once after the multi-national flocks of tourists sailed off on their Mediterranean cruises, predictably en route to Dubrovnik or perhaps Bari. It was this charming atmosphere on evenings and early mornings that made our two night stay in the medieval town worthwhile.
Thankfully our rental apartment -- realistically a glorified bedroom suite with a tiny kitchen counter -- was just a five minute walk from the bus station where our early morning bus to Dubrovnik would depart. We left Kotor with wonderful memories especially of the amazing hike, as tiring as it was, that will be the dedicated subject of the next post.
IF YOU GO
Kotor is easily accessible via the nearby airport of Tivat which is served by EasyJet and a number of cheaper airlines. Those on a cross-country backpacking trip like ourselves can connnect with long distance buses to Dubrovnik (3.5 hours), Tirana (7 hours), Podgorica (2 hours) or even Mostar (5 hours via privately run minibuses).
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