Bay of Kotor - The Black Mountain

The Black Mountain

Montenegro is one of Europes smallest and youngest countries, claiming independence in 2006 and having a population just above 600.000. Not a country I know a lot who has visited, but if you ever are on these coasts, I'd say it's definately worth your time.

The already long 7 hours drive from Sarajevo to the Bay of Kotor turned out to be a lot longer, a long queue at the first of many border crossings took it's time, and so did most of everything else this day. We did however get there in the end, and got a quick guided tour through this cozy small city by the bay.

On the mountainridge behind the city there was a fortress which offered a nice hiking oppurtunity. It became dark before we had the chance on arrival day, but we were a few who planned to get up there in the morning to see the sunrise. I got up at 04:45 and left the hotel fifteen minutes later. The climb was supposed to be about half an hour according to our guide, while our main guide said it was a bit longer. It took me 22mins including several stops to take photoes as the one to the left. None of the others were to be seen on my way up, the hour I spent up there, nor on my way back, however one of my fellow travelers had been running half way up during the time I spent at the fortress without me noticing him.

A return to the hotel at still an early time meant I could steal an hour sleep before breakfast and our agreed time to go to the beach-city of Bodva which was about half an hour away by taxi.
This city was quite similar to Kotor, but had even more tourists than the cruise passengers that filled Kotor during the day. The beach was packed, but as there were three beaches next to each other we went to the farthest end of the third and got a nice spot anyway. Although not before we'd had lunch with some amazing pancakes with fresh fruit and icecream.

Slouching on towards Sarajevo

Filip met us early in the morning to take us to Sarajevo, a city that was under siege for about 4 years during the Yoguslavian war in the early 90's.
On our way there we stopped in Mostar, a small, cozy city where the main attraction is a huge bridge.
There were also divers who would stay on the brigde walking back and forth trying to get money from the tourists, and as soon as he had collected €25, he would jump.
Mostar was also bomed during the war, but the turks and other nations skipped in to help them rebuild the bridge after the war ended.

Sarajevo is, as all too many cities are described, "east meets west". Personally I don't think that term suits the city, but I would use "Christianity meets Islam". There is even a clear line in the main walking street when you cross over to the other.
The assasination of Franz Ferdinand in 1914, the many remains after the war, the old town where they still sold all kinds of copper products as they did in the old days, and the highly differentiated eating places, all made Sarajevo one of the brigthest highlights on the trip for me - as expected.
The heat wasnn't as unbearable as it could've been when we were there, still hot, but nothing a scoop of gelato or a bottle of water couldn't cope with.

As part of our guided tour (the second day we stayed there) we went out to the guides' summerhouse about half an hour out of the city for an excellent barberque in real bosnian style. Excellent meat and even better vegetables. We also bought the largest watermellon I've seen in a long time, but none were able to touch it after the massive meal.
A stop by the "tunnel of hope", or "tunnel of life" as it's also called on our way back ended the day before we had a day off in Sarajevo.
The tunnel was built during the siege on Sarajevo, underneth the airport which was controlled by UN to help bring in supplies to the city and also help some refugees leave the city.

Next stop, Bay of Kotor in Montenegro.

Plitvice & Split. Parks and reconstructions

Parks and reconstructions

The national park of Plitvice and it's 16 combined lakes was a beautiful experience. We arrived towards the evening and went out for a traditional Croatian Peka-dinner. Quite tastefull, excellenct soup followed by veal with potatoes and vegetables before dessert concisting of a pancake/crepes with jam.

Plitvice was registered as an Unesco site in 1979 and boasts a massive number of tourists every year. Apparently more than 1,2million.

There are 16 lakes arranged in cascades, there are more than 1200 different plants that can be found
as well as numerous animals, such as bears and wolves - although we only saw some mice and a squirrel.

The arrangement of the lakes makes way for the any beautiful waterfalls which comes in all sizes.

We spent one night at Plitvice, about 4 hours wandering around the park which was quite packed with tourists, before we left for Split.

On the way to Split we stopped at Nicola Teslas birthplace which also held a small museum.

Split was completely packed with tourists, and it was both easy to hear and see that the scandics has direct flights there. It remined very much of the greek islands and their touristtraps. The Diocletian palace was the main highlight. A large and well preserved roman palace, but it was barely possible to move around due to the many tourists. I would have loved to get there early next morning, but a heavy thundershower put an end to those plans.

We did however go to Trogir, a small city about 30-60mins by bus from Split. Still packed with tourists, but slightly fever and a lower pace in general made ita more pleasant place to be.

We are now leaving Croatia for this time, heading to Mostar (unofficial capital of Hercegovina) before going to Sarajevo (official capital of Bosnia & Hercegovina) for a few days.
This is what I think will be the highlight of the trip for me, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Zagreb - is Croatia just its coast?

Everyone goes to the coastal cities, but Croatia has more to offer

Well, I haven't been to the coast so far myself, so can't really say much about how that part of the city is, but Zagreb should be on the list for everyone who is backpacking through Europe.
Safe, easy to navigate, warm, cheap, packed with nice resturants on the sidewalks and the city is close to so many other exciting places to visit.

My first day was a bit of a hassle, got up early and got to the plane in good time. Had an Underberg of course, got to Amsterdam, had another Underberg there, and got to Zagreb where the airport pick-up didn't show up. After looking for him/waiting for about 25mins I called the hotel who said he had left as the plane was delayed - something it wasn't, but they should send another taxi which should be there in 2 minutes. 2 minutes never mean 2 minutes of course, but after 35mins and still nothing I called back to the hotel and met a guy who barely spoke english. Found another cab and got to the hotel where they had now changed their story to the first taxi having waited for me, but someone else had claimed to be me and taken it - and being driven somewhere else. Annoying, but in the whole story of my trip here it didn't set me back much more than an hour, and I didn't really have anything or anyone waiting for me.

Took a stoll up the mountainside which is exagerating it massively, but a least it was a small hill where the old city had been before they moved it down to the plains. Small narrow streets with resturants all over. Found "museum of broken relationships" which was a hugely positive surprise. The museum was built on things ordinary people have to remind them of some relationship they've once had, and a short - or relative short - story behind it. One being an old love letter which was never sent, a guitar return when the x moved out, an axe used to destroy all the furniture of the x who just left or the pc game football manager who remineded the girl who had donated it of the x boyfriend who had kept her awake numerous nights playing the game. I know the game all too well myself, and know how many hours one could get lost in it. Thankfully I've not played it in many years, and hopefully it'll stay like that.
By far one of the most inovative and original museums I have visited so far, and apparently it has more visitors than the larger museums in Zagreb

Finding the cathedral on my way also gave me the oppurtunity to get a nice shot of a saint on a pole.









For day 2 I had booked bicycle guiding which I'd tried in Buenos Aires back in january, and was extremely happy with. The tour I'd found here offered two different paths, old and new Zagreb. Or both combined in a longer tour, which became the obvious choice for me. There were two others along for the ride, Gordon and Carol from New Zealand, so quite the opposite side of the world than me.

The trip offered a nice overview of the city, as it was supposed to, both of historical places, information of what could be found where and some hidden gems. The national theather in the picture to the left is not among the hidden gems, but still beautiful.

Tonight I'm meeting the group for the main trip around the Balkans. So far I know we are six travellers and one guide. Looking forward to meeting them.