Best of Montenegro pictures

Here's ~25 highlight pics from my 3 days in Montenegro last month.

Here's my previous posts on Montenegro.

Up until 3 months ago, if you'd asked me about the country of Montenegro, I would have said it was the name of a fictitious country on some TV show, like the place where Jack Bauer's enemies come from. The country popped up on my radar screen because I was aiming to visit Croatia, and Dubrovnik was definitely a must-stop. Seeing another country just 30 miles south*, I thought it might be cool to pick up one more passport stamp, and inflate my "countries visited" total by one.

(* 30 miles = about a 3 hour bus ride each way.)

But the more research I did, the more appealing Montenegro became. Dramatic mountain views. Ancient fortress cities. Fantastic beaches.

So I was intrigued to the point where I traded a few days potentially on Croatian islands for 3 days/2 nights in Montenegro. While I know the extra Croatian days would have been spectacular, I definitely made the right move in visiting Montenegro.

My base for Montenegro was the town of Budva, which is at the center of a 20-mile stretch of coast called the Budva Riviera (BR). The BR had something like 10 different beaches each connected by walking trails and regular buses. Each beach had it's own personality - crowded or not, sandy or rocky, secluded or busy, quiet or noisy - from power boats or disco music, etc.

The one constant no matter which beach I was on was that the setting was unbelievable - clear blue waters, big mountains, and interesting coves, castles, and islands to look out onto.

Also constant through my time in Montenegro was the feeling that I was an outsider. During my 3 days in country, I never heard another American or British voice, and while I could occasionally order food in English, the dominant language and culture was definitely Eastern European - mainly Serbian and Russian. (Russian investors have been buying up Montenegro properties including the entire island of Sveti Stefan. Probably half of all expensive cars that I saw had Russian license plates.) The result is that  Montenegro is now a package tour destination for well-off Muscovites, and most commercial signs have both Latin and Cyrillic characters. (I'd typically see hand-written chalk menus written firstly in Latin-ized Serbian and secondly in Cyrillic Serbian or Russian, with no English available.)

But for all of the tourism and inward investment, Montenegro still has many aspects of a 3rd world country, though I suspect this won't last long. All roads are 2-lane roads in the entire country, and journeys that look on a map like 10 minutes are actually 40. There's also a lot of reliance on buses, and they don't behave like Greyhounds here in the USA.

I took a bus trip from Budva to Kotor, a walled city at the end of a bay surrounded by fjords. Total distance was about 18 miles, but the ride took an hour, as we picked up and dropped off randomly along the way. This route went right past the airport, so I decided to take the same bus to the airport the next day, even though the airport wasn't a scheduled stop. (My cab from the airport cost 30 Euros, so the 2 Euro bus fare was a big reason to try.)

I got on the bus (a shortened bus, or mini-bus) at the scheduled time and took a seat on the left side to get some great views as we traveled northwest along the coast then inland. Each bus in Eastern Europe has a staff of 2: a driver and a person collecting fares. You meet the driver when you put your bag in the bus' cargo area, as he personally pockets 1 or 2 Euros. Neither wear any kind of uniform, so it was a surprise a few minutes later when a regularly dressed woman walked up to me and asked me to pay her.

I'd prepared for this, so I busted out my best Serbian and said "Bilini aerodromo" - "near airport." She nodded, took my 2 Euros, and we were off.

I'd ridden the route before, so I had a good idea of when the airport was coming up, so I was really surprised, and ready to go into shock when we drove right past it!

I had plenty of time for my flight, and I always had the contingency of getting to the bus' destination (Kotor) and taxiing to the airport (or even walking - it would have been about 2 miles, though no fun with a backpack), so I wasn't panic'ed so much as disappointed that my communication skills stunk.

Luckily, though, the bus skidded to a stop at the first intersection past the airport at a dirt road about a half-mile past the airport. I hopped off, and within 20 minutes was in the terminal where I saw this quintessential Eastern European scene - 5 clocks, none of which was accurate!

Clocks and transportation aside, Montenegro far exceeded my expectations and I'd recommend to anybody heading to Dubrovnik to add a multiple day visit to their agenda.

Link to my Montenegro photo gallery.

I went to Serbia so you don't have to!

Serbia highlights are up (click this).

As a refresher, here's the best of my posts from Serbia:
Belgrade: a balmy 97 degrees.
It's 1979 here in Belgrade! (or why Belgrade=Pittsburgh)
Belgrade bomb damage....
Which makes this picture understandable
Belgrade wrap-up


First stop on my tour of the Balkans was Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, the former capital of the former Yugoslavia, and center of all things Serbdom. (Just to show you how life is determined by perspective, before this trip I wouldn't have listed Serbs as a dedicated identity group when compared to groups with great scale, like the Chinese, or greater historical impact, like the Scots. But the Serbs think they're the big deal of the neighborhood, which partly explains why chunks of their city had been obliterated by airstrikes by real big deals- the USA and NATO.)


Visiting Belgrade on a trip to Europe is a bit like coming to the USA and visiting Roanoke, VA - notable, but far exceed by other destinations in interest and attraction. My time in Belgrade, Serbia was limited to ~24 hours, which was just about the right amount of time. Belgrade wasn't a bad place, but compared to my beach destinations, I wouldn't have wanted to spend more time in Serbia. 


Belgrade has 1 impressive site to see for any traveler in the area - the Kalemegdan, a large, almost 1,200 year old fortress overlooking where the Danube and Sava rivers. Not only is the fortress impressive when viewed and toured, it also provides some dramatic views. There's also some quirks - the fortress also hosts a local basketball club ("KK Partizan") and a tennis club who's clay courts are located in the fortress' now unused moats.

Besides the Kalemegdan, my other recollections of Belgrade are war damage (covered in an earlier post), and impressions of the people.


My friend Scott H has posited that the Koreans are the toughest people on Earth. He might be right, but I'd also nominate the Serbs as toughest, and they might edge the Koreans with their advantage in meanness. Perhaps it is the fact that life in Serb is hard - it's a poor country after all. Or perhaps it was the fact that most Serbs still seemed to wear the war on their faces, or perhaps because of the anti-NATO protest, I got the distinct impression that most Serbs still consider themselves superior to the other Balkan inhabitants, and that it would make most Serbs very happy to be at conflict again, against the Catholic Croatians, Bosnian Muslims, the Kosovars, the Albanians, the Bulgarians, or perhaps the Turks. (This is especially true compared to the people I saw and met in Bosnia, Croatia, and Montenegro.) The Serbs definitely all carry around a chip on their shoulder, but this isn't crazy, since the country has purportedly never, ever been at peace for 50 continuous years since the dawn of civilization.


At this point, though, Serb aggression is cultural, as is evident while tripping around town. In Belgrade, I didn't see any statues to great statesmen, but rather people with swords or guns drawn, as you can see here and here.


Click here to see the picture highlights of Belgrade, Serbia.
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Best of Bosnia pics now up!

I've collected my favorite photos from Bosnia & Hercegovina (including Sarajevo and Mostar.) You can see them in my gallery here. (And click "My Gallery" to access all of the other pictures that I have published online.)

Bosnia is a mess. There's no other way about it.

There are constant reminders of the war - damaged buildings, and damaged people. There's a lot of money being spent by the EU to return life to normal, but modern weapons can create a lot of damage with not much effort, and with something like 5,000 mortar rounds hitting Sarajevo alone, you begin to understand why the place is still a mess 14 years later. (You see "Paid for by the EU" signs on every new building, but as I mentioned before, I think this is guilt money trying to make up for the fact that the EU and its' members just sat around while Yugoslavia imploded and genocide followed.)

(Btw: one other takeaway from Sarajevo is that the city is probably the single worst place on the planet to be caught in during a siege due to the city's topography. The city is long and thin, and paralleled by mountain ranges that meet at one end enclosing the city. (Imagine a canoe. Sarajevo runs along the canoe floor, with the "bad guys" positioned above the canoe walls.) There wasn't a single point in the city that wasn't reachable by snipers, and for much of the war, there was only one source of fresh water, making daily life like living in a shooting gallery.)

But, the country has some positives that made me glad to have visited:

- the people were very friendly, both to me, and to each other. I can't tell you how many times I saw a car stop so that the driver could pop out to loudly say hello to someone walking on the sidewalk. It was amazing how these dour, gray, scruffy folks would light up when they saw a friend or acquaintance.

-the cafe culture in Bosnia is unbelievable, especially in Sarajevo. In Sarajevo, there's a street in the center of the town (Branilaca Sarajeva) that is just one cafe after another, up and down every alley, in every variety possible, full at almost every hour of the day. There were Turkish coffee cafes, Viennese cafes, small cafes, large cafes, even a cafe named after Bill Gates (see the pic in the gallery).

-there's a very relaxed attitude in Bosnia. The vibe was something combining a deep tradition of cafe culture combined with a healthy appreciation for being alive after the civil war, twisted with a lazy work ethic from the communist era.

I think that vibe was responsible for a crazy scene that I saw around a chess board.

It was about 1pm on a Wednesday in the center of Sarajevo, and aside from the wait-staff at the cafes, I don't think a single person was actually at work. I wandered into a farmer's market in a city square, whereupon I heard lots of shouting. Expecting some demonstration, or even one ethnic group screaming at another, I headed towards the crowd, and found.....a chess match.

There was a roughly 20x20 chess board painted on the concrete, with chess pieces about knee high. Two guys in their late 40's were playing by walking from piece to piece around the board.

The chess board was surrounded on all sides by between 60-75 spectators, all men and tending towards retirees, but still with 15-20 guys who you would think would ordinarily be at work. None of the participants or spectators looked anything like a Chess Master.

What was most amzing about the scene though, was the intensity of the crowd. Roughly half were intensely quiet, with a hand under their chin thinking about the last or next move.

The other half of the audience was just as engaged by the match, but much, much more vocal. I don't know exactly what they were saying, but it appeared to be a mix of criticism and suggestions for chess moves.

Either way, I'll always remember this scene from Sarajevo.

One other favorite Bosnia scene occurred back home in Charlottesville. We are fortunate to have in Charlottesville a bakery/cafe run by a Bosnian family (the "Balkan Bakery.") On Saturdays, the family sells Bosnian food at the farmer's market. (The market has similar booths for Hungarian, French, Mexican, and Salvadoran foods. I'm a HUGE fan of the taco stand, with the tortillas made right in front of you.)

In general, Yugoslavian food is pretty basic, and not something you hunger for, but after Saturday morning's 30 mile bike ride, I would have even eaten cevapcici again.

So, I walked past the Bosnian bakery stand Saturday AM and my eyes lock in on the burek (imagine the combination of a flaky pastry like philo with a pot pie and you get the idea.) Just for fun, I ordered in Bosnian "Zelim jeden burek, molim."

The woman behind the table lit up like I saw other people do all over Sarajevo, and for a few minutes, I was back in Bosnia.

Link to best of Bosnia pictures.

Best of Munich

I finished sorting and editing my pictures from Europe this weekend and cut ~160 pictures out of 700. I'll be rolling out the highlights on a stop-by-stop basis, starting today with Munich, Germany. You can see the Munich Highlights here. (Besides the regular Munich highlights, you can also see the Munich Michael Jackson memorial.)

Munich was not only a fun place to visit, but also an opportunity to catch up with my sister Kathy and her husband Dave (vacationing in southern Germany and Austria), and a fraternity brother, Tom "Woody" Day, that I hadn't seen since about 1998.

Tom is originally from Nebraska, and was tagged with the nickname Woody about 10 seconds after arriving at W&L. (Remember the Woody Harrelson character on cheers?) Woody has been living in Munich since graduating from UVA's law school, and was an outstanding tour guide, delivering all of the essentials for touring Munich: interesting sights, local culture, and the best biergartens, like where the picture below was shot, in a biergarten connected to the Bavarian parliament.

We were less than three weeks early for Oktoberfest, so we missed it, but now I've got a reason to go back. Until then, these pictures of Oktoberfest from the Boston Globe's "Big Picture" column will have to do.

Funny enough, I just caught up with Tom this weekend, making it two meetings in 3 weeks after non in 10 years. Tom and his Ukrainian girlfriend Lena flew into Virginia to watch his Nebraska Cornhuskers play Virginia Tech. The game didn't turn out well for the Huskers, but we had a very fun night in Lexington, reliving out college days, and ending up drinking cheap beer in our fraternity house at 1:30 in the morning.

First slug of picture highlights from Yugoslavia

I'm about a third of the way through evaluating and editing my pics, which isn't as fast as I thought, but 700 pics x 1 minute editing each = 11 hours of work.


But HERE is the fruits of the effort to date - my best 20 shots out of about 300 pictures examined at that point. The pics look good so far. 


Also....it's not quite travel oriented, since I live in this town, but here's 16 Things to Love about Charlottesville in Fall. All I have to say is "Amen!"

Finally, here's one more picture from he Yugoslavia/Germany trip......(click for larger image)

Thanks! (and more to come)

I'm back from my rambles, with more stories and >700 pictures. I'll be sorting through the best over the weekend and will post a gallery of these with stories as soon as I can, as well as some thoughts from the trip, and personal takeaways.

(I'll also be spending this weekend fighting jet lag, watching UVA get their butt kicked by TCU on the football field, as well as some biking and prepping for the last triathlon of the year in what should be perfect weather.)

In the meantime, I'd like to thank you for following my adventures and keeping me company with emails and blog comments.

Cheers,

Tim

Almost home: Philly!

So, you're in Philadelphia, just off of a 9 hour transatlantic flight across 6 times zones, you've got a raging head cold, and are sluggish from the time change. You have a 4 hour layover before finally making it home, 22 hours after waking up, so what would you do?

A) straggle to your connecting gate and rest
B) mindlessly wander the terminal looking for a legit cheesesteak.
C) do a 2-hour power-tour of the City of Brotherly Love.

I went with option "C" of course, and capped my mini-visit with a trip up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum, Rocky-style. The film recap is below.

Surfing in Munich!?!

Munich, Germany is >500 miles away from the ocean, but that doesn't mean you can't go surfing, right in the heart of the city.

Check out this vid of surfers on a river running thru the Englischer
Gartens, Munich's version of Central Park.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1wHO2d0NP0

Munich street music

Here's the first of 2 vids of Munich street performers I saw on my
way back to my hotel from the bier halle. Both groups drew about 40
spectators, played some great, and made we wonder if this is street
music, how good is the club music?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi5TTAi6F1o

Pan of Munich skyline from top of St. Peter church at the Marienplatz

Back in the USA, home of the brave and the free bandwidth, it's time
to post some vids from the last few days....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZS0WCMqkW8

Greetings from Munich!

Here's an appearance In the Augustiner Bier Halle in the Munich Alstadt with my sister Kathy and her husband Dave DeWitt.

I also had the good fortune while in Munich to reconnect with Tom Day, a college buddy living in Munich (and Garmisch-Partikirchen, and Jersey City, and NYC, and Nebraska....)

Munich Marienplatz

Ground level view.....outstanding city

"Cold Drinks" in Dubrovnik

Here's a view into the legendary cafe/bar "Cold Drinks," in Dubrovnik.
Cold Drinks is cool and memorable for several reasons:
-it is located on a cliff OUTSIDE the city wall on the SEA side.
-it has the most unbelievable views
-it is low key and relaxed
-it has no advertising in any city maps or handouts. The only thing
distinguishing the business is the small wooden sign "Cold Drinks"
that you see in the firs few seconds of the vid
-it is literally a hole in the wall!
You may not appreciate it from the video, but the seating area
literally drops off into the sea. I guess they have different
liability laws for bars in Croatia!
I wouldn't have known about it unless told by a friend (thx, Dana!)
and some Chicagoans that I met in Korcula 2 days earlier.
You have to see the place to believe it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeowrMA1pgU

One last view of Dubrovnik

Amazing city.......(click to enlarge)

Better version of a prior picture

Another Kodak moment!

View of island of Lokrum from high above Dubrovnik's walls.

Stuck in rain in DBV

In the midst of walking the city walls, the rain that has been
threatening all day has arrived. The weather canceled sea kayaking
this morning as well, which was a bummer, but once I saw the sea
today, completely the right call.
Walking the walls of the city is the highlight of the trip so far (and
that's saying alot.) I snapped the shot below at the beginning of the
walk, pre-rain. It's a view into the city from the high walls, down
the main street of the city, or Stradun.
Am hoping the weather breaks soon....

Quick pan of Dubrovnik from above at Sunset

Panoramic view of Dubrovnik on YouTube shot yesterday at sunset......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOnaSkb-dNc

Inside Dubrovnik

View of cafe-lined Stradun

Quick scene inside Dubrovnik

While waiting for my tour to start in 20 minutes.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ-LB6YoptA