Istanbul - October 30th

As we didn’t make the Topkapi Place yesterday our resolution is to get up early and go there first today.  However as I forgot about the clocks changing (even here in Turkey there is daylight savings time) we actually woke an hour early.  But this advantage is lost as we spend far too long trying to book our Mumbai hotel, and so when we get to the palace the line is even longer than the previous day.  Still it moves fast and we get in fairly quickly, but then we find that inside are a series of even more queues.

Some of these queues are worth it, some are not.  We see a number of religious relics, including the footprint of Mohammed, the sword of David, the staff of Moses, and our second hand of John the Baptist, which unfortunately brings the rest of these artefacts into question.  Some parts of the palace are more spectacular than others, mostly the inner sanctums of the Sultans, including the Harem, for which we pay extra.  The Sultans knew how to live - as their portraits and photos show they certainly ate well.  They also gave themselves a great view for their windows as the whole city and waterways spread out before them.  We spend 4 hours in the palace, and we still don’t see everything.  The queue for the Treasury looks too long, and too slow, so I opt out of seeing the various treasures in there (Dorota had seen them before on her previous visit).

After this we have lunch, this time quite good Kofte in a famous Kofte restaurant, before we try the Grand Bazaar again.  However being a Sunday it is closed.  Dorota is suspicious that I arranged a trip for the only weekend it is closed, but actually I am genuinely disappointed it is closed.  However the Spice Bazaar (which has more than just spice) is open, so we get one Bazaar in.

In the afternoon we get the local ferry across to the Asian side of the city.  However there isn’t much to see there except mosques, so then we come back to our own side of the Bosphorous (technically our first voyage from Sultanahmet crossed the Mamara Sea).  Once back on our side Dorota takes in a Hamam, Turkish Bath, while I pamper myself with a few pints and some blogging.

Istanbul - October 29th

As today is our first full day in Istanbul we decide to get as many of the main sights in as possible.  So we take the tram to Sultanahmet, the Old City part of Istanbul.  This is where the Blue Mosque, the Aya Sofia, the Topkapi Palace, and the Grand Bazaar are, the main sights in Istanbul.  We first go to the Blue Mosque, via the Hippodrome, the old Roman section of town.  This is packed with tourists, and it doesn’t augur well for the rest of the day.  The queue for the Blue Mosque is quite long when we join, but as there is no entry fee, just shoe removal, it moves quite quick.  The interior of the Mosque is quite impressive though, if you could see through the crowds.

Next we go to Aya (Hagia) Sofia.  This is a large former Orthodox Church, that was converted to be a Mosque and also briefly a Catholic Church.  It had the largest interior of any building in the world from the 6^th century to the 16^th.  And it is really impressive.  It’s actually not as well restored as I thought it would be, but that only makes it feel more real.  When it was converted to a Mosque, rather than destroying the Christian icons, the Moslems covered them in plaster, actually preserving them, so there is a good mix of Islamic and Early Christina art, as well as some pagan influences, as the Romans built it on the site of former pagan temples.  Basically it is an amazing building, and was well worth the extra 25 euro we paid to get a guide for 45 minutes, and to skip the queue, which was also 45 minutes at least.

After that we headed for the Topkapi Palace, but when we got there the queue was so long we decided to leave it until tomorrow.  So after a quick lunch (a not very good Turkish pita pizza - pide) we go to the Basilica Cistern.  This is a large underground valut that was built by to provide water for the city.  It is pretty cool, literally as it is underground, but the lighting makes it seems quite spooky.  It really is big, and as it fell into disuse there are now loads of fish swimming around in it.  The highlight are pillars with Medusa heads on them, although the only thing that turned to stone were the tourists as we tried to take pictures around them.  Sometimes I hate my fellow tourists.

We then went to the Grand Bazaar, only to find it was closed, presumably because of the holiday.  So we walked the local streets, visiting a few mosques, and seeing how packed they were, until we got back to the Galata bridge.  Crossing this by foot we avoided the guys trying to drag us into restaurants until we got to the fish sandwich stalls.  They do a good mackerel sandwich here.

After the fish sandwich we found the Tunel, the second oldest underground railway in the world, after London, where we use it to climb back to Istiklal Cad.  We then walk along it, seeing it is even more packed than the night before, until we locate an Irish Pub to have the obligatory pint in.  I know why they call it an Irish pub, we pay Irish prices for our local beers.  Also like an Irish pub we have a kebab afterwards, although this one was better than Abrakababra, it’s not the best ever, so on that disappointing note the night ends.

(I know this is 600 words instead of my usual 400, but Aya Sofia was one of my 50 places to see before I die, so today gets a little extra).

Istanbul - October 28th

Today begins with a 03:30 call from Bulgarian border guards as we cross the border.  But in fact it had been a good evening until that.  Our travel companions in our compartment are David, an American working in Bulgaria, and Yura, a Slovenian travelling across Asia by land.  They are both interesting and we have quite a good chat before going to bed at midnight.  I am surprised by how well I sleep, not because of the train but because I have developed a cold.  Still I am asleep when the alarm call comes.

After that we are in Turkey.  But the train travels a short while before hitting Edirne station, where we all have to get off to pay a visa fee and get stamped.  It’s pretty cold but by 04:30 we are back on our way.  Again we get another 3½ hour sleep before the sun in the cabin wakes us, and we wait for Istanbul.  Despite leaving Sofia 1½ hours late we arrived at the border almost on time, but it seems we are going to be late into Istanbul.  Our conductor tells us it will be an hour, it is more like 2½.

Still it means that when we hit Istanbul it is fairly easy to get to our hostel and check in.  After checking in we lie down for a minute to recover from the long journey, and wake up 2 hours later.  It seems like the good night’s sleep we thought we had, wasn’t quite as good.

We then go out to begin our sightseeing.  As we are staying in Taksim, the modern part of the European side of Istanbul, we contain ourselves to there for the afternoon.  This means a walk to Taksim Square, the centre of Istanbul, and then down Istiklal Cad, the local version of Oxford St.  Having said that it is as busy as Oxford St on the last Saturday before Christmas.  It may have something to do with the fact that tomorrow is Republic Day.  There are a few sights on the street besides theshops and kebab restaurants, but also a demonstration and some riot police.  We continue past the famous Galata Tower to the Galata bridge over the Golden Horn, where we get some shots of the Old City skyline.  Later we walk back to our hostel via a famous bean restaurant.

Sofia Istanbul Train - October 27th

Our day begins with an early morning hike to the bus/train station, to book a train to Istanbul and leave our luggage in left luggage.  Although it takes 20 minutes it’s still short enough that we decide we paid a euro or two more than we needed to for the taxi last night (although we only paid 5).

We walk back into two to pick up an 11am walking tour of the centre of Sofia.  It’s free (although tips can be given) and we saw it advertised in our hostel the night before.  As we are only in Sofia until 6pm it’s a good way of getting to see the main sights of the city.  Our worry is that we will be the only ones to turn up.  However this is soon put aside as there are 25 people joining the tour.  Our guide, Mitko, is a recent history graduate, and knows his stuff.  Even though the main sights in the city are located close together, it still takes over 2 ½ hours to go around all of them, and as well as this history we get some good local colour with stories about how the authorities didn’t even know where the city got its name from, so they put up a statue of St Sophia, instead of commemorating the Aya Sofia church (not the one in Istanbul, the original one here).

After the tour is finished about half of us join Mikto for food in a local diner.  As it is our only Bulgarian meal, Dorota and I seem to choose a lot more items than the others.  Afterwards we all go our separate ways, ours is to the main shopping streets where we pick up some supplies for the journey.  Sofia is surprisingly well stocked for shops.

In the evening we head for the train station to pick up our bags and find our train.  This is a challenge, as it is delayed due to an incoming train being delayed, and also as there is more than one platform 6, where we are due to depart from.  We find the right one (at the second attempt) and wait for the incoming train in what is turning out to be a bitterly cold evening.  When we figure out our train, we realise the Orient Express it is not, it is only two carriages long and has very basic facilities.

Sofia - 26th October

Today is a very long bus journey, from Ohrid to Sofia.  Actually it is two bus journeys, we are breaking in Skopje.  It’s not that early a start, it’s a 10.45 start from Ohrid, and a 15:00 bus from Skopje.  The day would be nothing really two write about if it weren’t for the fact that our 3 ½ hour bus journey (according to Lonely Planet) from Ohrid turned out to be almost 4 ½ hours leaving us with only a short gap in Skopje to make our connection.  Still we did, and aside from a long border entry at Bulgaria (or to be precise the EU) the second bus journey was actually quite smooth.  In fact so easy was it that we were still awake enough after checking into our hostel to go out for a pint, to you guessed it, an Irish pub.

Because this day had little else to blog about, I’m going to take this opportunity to do a more Dorota like blog entry and do my West Balkan awards, with the best in a number of categories (and maybe a few other awards – it’s not the Oscars so I can make them up as I go along).  It probably won’t mean much to anyone but it will help me remember.

Accommodation – Best: Dubrovnik Apartment; Worst: Bosnia Private Room; Best Value: Ohrid Apartment; Worst Value: Zadar Hotel (Niksic Hotel was worth it given the alternatives)

Meal – Best:  Dinner at Tiffany’s in Pristina; Worst: None really stand out, although some average Burek in Mostar wasn’t helped by bad service; Best Value: Ohrid dinner (although the free wine helped); Worst Value: Overpriced Soup overlooking Sveti Stefan

Irish Pub – Best: Dubrovnik; Worst: Budva

Town – Best: Skopje; Worst: Podgorica; Overpriced: Dubrovnik; Underrated: Zadar; Overrated: Kotor (the town)

Beauty Spot – Best: Tara Canyon; Overrated: Zlatni Rat in Bol;

Historical Site – Best: Ohrid’s Lake Churches; Overrated: Split’s Diocotlean’s Palace

Bus Journey – Best: From Dubrovnik to Kotor; Worst: From Budva to Podgorica (a short journey at less than 2 hours but a horrible bus).

And the big prize

Country– Best: Macedonia (it’s not quite a beautiful as Montenegro, but it has more history, better food, and is cheaper)

Ohrid - 25th October

As the ancient fortress (10^th century) was closed yesterday when we walked past it (and because the Kale Fortress in Skopje was similarly closed when we went to it), we decide to begin the day with a trip to the fortress.  While it is nowhere as impressive as Dubrovnik, at 50 cents to enter as opposed to 10 euro, it is a lot better value.  Also we have the place to ourselves.  We do get some good photos of the whole town and lake.

The main business of the day is a day trip to Vivceni, a nearby village.  This place has been picked by Dorota as a place to visit because it is quirky.  This quirkiness has been decided upon because it decided to declare independence from Macedonia when Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia.  One man’s quirkiness is another man’s secessionist nutcases I suppose.

As well as picking the location Dorota also seems to pick the transport.  OK we are getting local busses, and we are just waiting at stops for the first ones that come along, but we do get some unusual transport choices.  The first bus which takes us halfway to a town called Struga is a pretty dodgy 15 seater in which I have to stand the whole way, about 25 minutes.  However this is luxury compared to the 6 seater, and 6 benches in the back, mini-van which takes us to Vivceni.  What’s quite funny is there is a normal single decker bus about 20 seconds behind it going to the same place, but by then we have paid.  The only thing that meant I didn’t fear for my life too much is that the wife of the guy driving it was on the benches with us (hopefully they hadn’t had a row this morning).

The village itself is quite pretty, with its famous water springs set in a very nice little garden.  But there isn’t too much there, so we go to a local restaurant for lunch, and then head back to Ohrid, via Struga for a quick drink (there isn’t much to write about in Struga).  As we are a bit tired we end up self-catering from a supermarket rather than eating out, meaning I miss out on a second chance to eat Lake Ohrid cake.

Ohrid - 24th October

We leave Prilep after a big breakfast (echoing the large meals we were served yesterday).  As it is a bank holiday today we have to get an early start so that we are sure that we get a bus. But buses seem to be the only things running.

Our first stop is Bitola, a town supposedly famous for its beautiful inhabitants and their ‘fancy dress’ (I assume they mean they wear their Sunday best every day).  However we have a look at the main street and they are not that beautiful, and not that smartly dressed, although there are fewer tracksuits than in the rest of the Balkans.  There are a couple of interesting parks and buildings, but all in all only just enough to occupy us for the 3 hours of our stopover.

The destination for the day is Ohrid, a town on a lake, conveniently called Lake Ohrid, which is supposedly the oldest lake in the world, although I’m not sure how they measure that.  It has a lot of old churches as well, again supposedly 365, one for every day of the year.  After getting lodgings from the bus station, our cheapest yet, we take a walk around town.  The main sights are all closed as it is a Monday, but the views are great, particularly of one old church overlooking the lake.  The old town itself here is not as well preserved as other old towns, but then it is actually older than most.  Some of the ruins are pre-christian, and two of the ruined churches are from the 4^th and 5^th centuries.

Of course it also has a new town, and we walk up and down the main street looking at all the shops.  There is even a 1000 year old tree in one of the main squares.  All in all it is a pretty good place to spend a couple of days, even if the weather isn’t as good now.  In the evening we go to a local restaurant for a meal.  This may have been the best value meal of all, but this was mostly because the son of the restaurant owner was ‘entertaining’ a young lady and to show off we got our bottle of wine on the house.  Even with the wine it would still have been good value, mostly because of the local speciality, Lake Ohrid cake, which was yummy.

Prilep - 23rd October

We leave Skopje for Prilep, a small town in the middle of Macedonia which is not really a tourist destination.  It is more famous for being the centre of Macedonia’s tobacco industry.  The reason for this is that a friend of Dorota’s mother from Radom lives there now.  Dorota has not seen her for years, but through the magic of Facebook we have gotten in contact and we are going to meet them as we pass through.

Despite being a Sunday the bus is very full.  The trip down is pretty good, the roads out of Skopje are very good, big toll motorways.  I’m fascinated by the fact that one side of the motorway is on one side of the mountain, so looks like a normal two lane mountain road, and the other side going in the opposite direction is on the other side of the mountain kilometres away.  It’s a clever piece of engineering.  This road goes all the way to Athens and apparently one of the reasons it is so good is that it was used a lot by military traffic during the various conflicts, and they chewed it up so it had to be resurfaced recently.

We get to Prilep and walk to our hosts, taking in a few of the sights along the way.  As this is a visiting day the fact that it is our second really bad day (yesterday’s rain was short-lived but we never really saw the sun) isn’t really a factor.  However we do go out in the evening for a short tour of the town and a drink in a café.  Like Skopje, this town is not short of statues and monuments, and we discover from our hosts that these are all recently developed, and are often politically motivated.  We don’t care, it just gives us many more photo opportunities.

Skopje - 22nd October

We liked Skopje so much that we decided to stay a third night here.  But we are going to do a day trip to Lake Matka, a lake that has been created in a canyon by damming a river for electricity.  It is close enough to town that we can get a local bus to it; the only catch is that there are only a couple of buses a day, so we have to get up a 06:00 to catch the 07:00 bus.  However when we get on the bus it already has other walkers on it, and more get on as we leave town, so it looks like we won’t be the only walkers on board.

At 15k from town the lake is actually one end of a national park that ends at Mt Vodno, the site of the big cross, and this can be hiked.  And this is actually what the 15 or so other walkers are going to do.  So they all get off at the second last stop leaving us two as the only people on the bus.  As we walk to the lake we are the only two people in sight, although we are accompanied by about a dozen dogs.

Nevertheless we begin to hike up the mountain to a church but as we go up the very steep walls of the canyon, it begins to rain.  As the surface looks like it will get treacherous we decide to turn back after 20 minutes.  So it looks like we will have to wait for the bus back sitting under shelter at the one restaurant in the place.  However after half an hour the rain stops and we decide that if we do the lakeside walk with no slopes it should be safe enough.   So we have a very pleasant 10k walk.

After that when we return there are boat rides available so we take a boat ride on the lake to a cave on the other side, which we go into and which is very pretty.  We have lunch in the restaurant, and get the bus back.  So our day which started unconvincingly turns out to be pretty good.  When we get back to town we try to visit the castle overlooking the town, but it is closed on Saturday afternoons, so we spend the rest of the day hanging around cafes and local restaurants.

Skopje - 21st October

We start with some more Burek for breakfast.  We have had it in each of the countries we have visited so far, but the best has to be the Macedonian ones.  In fact we are already coming to the conclusion that the food quality and value here may be the best we have had so far.

After more photos of more statues around town, we are going to visit the one big monument in Skopje that we didn’t really get to see yesterday, the Millennium Cross.  This is a massive cross on a mountain overlooking Skopje, at 66m high, the biggest in the world.  There are two ways to get there from the city centre, a bus and then a cable car, or walk.  We choose the latter way.

The mountain is over 1000m high, and coming from the city centre at 260m high, it is quite a hike, yet it is perfectly doable inside 2 ½ hours.  There can’t be as many as good hikes directly from the city centre, as most of it is through a forest on the side of the mountain.  The views over the city are great as we go up, and when we get to the top the views over the mountains beyond the city are also spectacular.  However there is a bit of a haze from smog which means that picture taking is a bit hard.  We have a well-earned beer at the foot of the cross, and then we go down again, this time by the cable car and bus.  We also have a well-earned ice cream after we get off the bus.

In the evening we go back to the main square in search of a locally recommended kebab shop (by the nice guy who runs the hostel).  However we are treated to a great sound, light and fountain show at the Alexander the Great statue.  The lights and water are in time with various pieces of classical music.  It’s quite impressive, as are the kebabs.  However we get a Macedonian chilli with them which is far too hot to eat, making jalapeños seem like ordinary peppers.  And after that we hit a cake shop, again based on a recommendation from our host.  If it sounds like we are enjoying our food in Macedonia, the answer is that we are, it is very good, and very cheap.

Skopje - 20th October

The day begins with a quick walk to the local park which houses the last of the monuments in Pristina which we have not seen, to the former President Rugova who took Kosovo to its current state of independence.  There is a great view over the city from this park.

We can afford to take our time this morning because our next destination, Skopje, is actually fairly close by, only 2 hours away.  The border crossing is easy, although disappointingly we don’t get a stamp from the Macedonians.  They probably think they are doing us EU citizens a favour as they are looking for membership, but we want these stamps.  Finding our way from the bus station to our hostel proves to be a bit tricky, they have renamed some of the streets but not taken down the street signs.

After checking into our hostel we walk down to the centre of the city which is only 10 minutes away.  Skopje is the largest of the cities we have been in so far, but given where our base is it seems quite small.  However the main square is unbelievable, with dozens of statues all over the place, and a giant fountain/statue of Alexander the Great.  We aren’t prepared for it, mostly because these have all been erected since our edition of Lonely Planet was published in 2009.  The new government is spending a fortune of rebuilding, and there is quite a bit of scaffolding around.  When it is all finished it is going to be some city to visit and photograph, but even with the building work we go a bit snap happy with all the photo opportunities.

After that we walk over the old stone bridge (another set of photos here) into the old Turkish city.  This is the usual maze of small streets with various shops, most selling some form of tourist tat, ending up in a vast market.  It’s all very interesting, but I’m not wholly sure it is the safest place to be after dark so as the sun goes down we head back into the modern city, for a pint in the Irish pub.  We eat some local dishes in a local restaurant on our way home which is very good, not quite as good as the previous day’s meal, but is much better value.

Pristina - 19th October

Our guesthouse in Pristina is up on a hill overlooking the city.  So it would appear to be simple to walk into town.  However Pristina is one of those cities with roads going all over the place, and we take what we think is a road to the centre, but it veers off and we end up north of the town.  It is all confusing until we find our way to the city centre and get our bearings with the map in Lonely Planet.  Once that is done it is a fairly simple city to navigate around, but in truth the map in LP is not that great.

The city is not really set up for tourists.  There is a nice pedestrianized main street with cafes, but little in the way of sights.  One interesting building is the university library, while there are a few churches and mosques.  Unfortunately the placing of these are often tied up with the politics of the country.  It is also impossible to ignore the politics in the galleries and museums, the main exhibition in the gallery is one about some survivors of ethnic cleansing and their fight for justice, and in the museum it is about the NATO bombings and also a lot of archaeology trying to prove Kosovo is a legitimate state.

 After lunch we walk up to one of the main city parks, and sit on the grass while we read about any other sights we may have missed.  We also read that in this park we should not stray off the paths because of landmines.  Not the best thing to read at that point, although locals are also off the paths so we think the advice may be out of date.

The two main things we missed were the Mother Theresa and Bill Clinton statues.  Not two names that often appear together, but here they are.  Mother Theresa because she is ethnic Albanian, and Bill Clinton because he bombed the Serbs.  Finding both statues was not as easy as it could have been, as everything seems to be 200 meters away.  But we do and after we go for a great dinner (seriously one of the best I’ve ever had) in a restaurant with no menu.  They just gave us the daily menu, which was great, although slightly expensive, but it is aimed at all the EU/NATO/UN personnel in town.

Pristina - 18th October

Today we leave Montenegro and all its beauty behind and go to Kosovo.  We retrace some of our previous travels as we go up the Moraca canyon, before going over some high mountains to the border.  Needless to say it is all gorgeous.  We go so high this time we even see snow on the ground beside the roads.  I’m not sure if it is a new fall or has survived all summer.  Certainly the snow on the peaks is permanent.

Our introduction to Kosovo is a nice “Welcome to Kosovo” from the border guard, who seems genuinely pleased to see there are two foreign tourists on board the bus.  Our bus is not going to Pristina, the capital, but to Peja, a city in the west of Kosovo.  From there we will transfer to a local bus to Pristina.  But first, importantly, we must get lunch.  After a bit of a walk around town and the overhyped bazaar, (only a short walk, we are fully loaded with backpacks), we find our destination, a place called Tiffany’s, where we have “Lunch at Tiffany’s”.  It’s very good, we had pasta which was too big to finish but only cost €2.50, and some local cheese which did cost a massive €5.  Still this town is supposed to have some of the best goat’s cheese on the planet, and it was excellent.

The transfer to Pristina was OK, with the main thing being that it was relatively straight and flat.  Unlike its neighbour, Kosovo is a much flatter country, which is good because at this stage I think we are mountained out.  As we approach Pristina we notice something else which we haven’t seen in Montenegro, traffic.  It’s actually quite bad.  But the town does look a lot livelier than Podgorica was.

We get to our lodgings, which for the first time since Zadar we have booked in advance, this being a much larger city, at about 6.30.  We check in and get ready to go out looking for somewhere local to buy some food.  This has been our longest day of travel so far, with 7.5 hours on the two buses so we are already tired.  Which is just as well as the whole neighbourhood is plunged into darkness with a power cut, so all we can do is crash, and grad a late snack when it comes back on about 9

Podgorica - 17th October

Today we left the coast to transfer to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro.  This is not too long a journey, only two hours or so, so we don’t have to rush.  Unforetunately as this is not a long journey, it means the bus company doesn’t give us their best bus, and so it’s not really a comfortable ride.  The only compensation is again some great views as we climb up away from the coast.  We also get to see some more of the fire damage up close.

When we get to Podgorica we seek lodgings.  There is a hostel close to the bus station, but when we get there they are unsure if they can take us as they have a big load of people coming later.  But they are really nice and say they will help us relocate after the others arrive if there are too many.  We have a quick walk downtown while we wait, and as it turns out they have a place for us, with one catch, we will be sharing a dorm room with 2 other guys.

Once we are settled in we begin to look around the town.  The only problem is there isn’t really much to see.  While the rest of Montenegro is beautiful, the capital is not.  We see a few statues, a few bridges, and a couple of other sights, but not much.  If anything typifies Podgorica it would be the old town.  This gets a great write up in the guidebooks, but when we go searching for it we find nothing interesting.  The most famous sight, the clock tower, famously does not have a clock.  We thought it was us who were missing something, but when we talk to our two roommates later, we discover they had exactly the same experiences.

However our half day in Podgoricia does end on a high as we have dinner in a local grill.  We have avoided the local burgers until now, but tonight we order them, as we have been told they are different from normal burgers.  And they are, however more by size than by taste.  We end up with two dinner plate sized burgers that really were far too big to finish, although I just about managed.

Budva - 16th October

Our day begins with a trip back to Kotor to return our car.  It has done a good job, almost 600km, about 100 tunnels, and 500 hairpins.  This final trip is only about 40 minutes, and the bus back is not much longer. 

Our main goal today is to walk to the island of Sveti Stefan, which is a tiny island about 8km south of Budva, on which is built a little fishing village.  It is said to be incredibly picturesque.  The walk there is not as nice though, as we have to walk past some ugly big resort hotels, which we can’t really fault the Montenegrins for building, they have to get some tourist money from somewhere, and they are better here on a fairly nondescript part of the coast than on the real beauty spots. 

When we get to Sveti Stefan however we find that it is closed for the winter, only 2 days previously.  For this we can fault the Montenegrins.  The whole island had been leased to a large international hotel chain, and it was now effectively private property which we would have to pay to get into.  We knew this before setting out though, but didn’t expect it to be closed.  I assumed if they had paid to lease such a place they would be charging customers all year around.  Still this is no way to treat a national heritage site.

After an expensive lunch in the only open restaurant with a sight of the hotel (still I’m with my travel hero, Karl Pilkington from An Idiot Abroad, sometimes is it better to live across the road from these places and look at them, than live in them and look back at a crap view), we begin to walk back.  However when we turn a corner all we can see is the entire mountainside between us and Budva on fire.  Despite our best efforts to get past this, we have to endure a 3 hour wait, some of which ironically is in one of the big ugly hotels, before we can walk through the fire (literally, some bushes within 5 metres of us were still on fire) back to Budva old town.  Our eventful day finishes with some photo taking in this mini-Dubrovnik, and a drink at the Irish bar in town (one of the worst ones I’ve ever been to).

Budva - 15th October

We start early, and see frost on our car.  The early start allows us to get in a hike before we start driving along the Tara Canyon.  This is the second longest canyon in the world, and one of the deepest.  It is Europe’s answer to the Grand Canyon, yet it is not very well known.  Our hike is short, only about 3km long, and only going up 100m from the car park to a viewing spot over the canyon at about 1625m, yet it is almost 1000m above the canyon floor.  Later we drive to a viewing point at almost 2000m, which is nearly 1500m up.

We leave Durmitor and begin the long drive back to the coast.  This involves driving up the Tara Canyon for over 50km (although this is only a third of its length) and it is an amazing drive.  At times the road seems to be touching both sides of the canyon, other times it can be quite wide.  We lunch by a famous bridge across the canyon, risking our car’s ability to get out by driving down a very steep road to get to the water’s edge.

The Tara Canyon drive is one of the great drives in Montenegro, but we still have another one to go, the Moraca Canyon.  In any other country this would be one of the great drives, and engineering marvels, but here it plays second fiddle to Tara (actually the Zeta from yesterday would be number 1 in most places, here it it’s not even in the top 3).  I said yesterday that Montenegro may be second to New Zealand, but now I think it may be number one for beauty per square mile.  Again we stop many times for photos, and by the end of this canyon Dorota and I are both so overwhelmed by the beauty that we are beginning to get quite blasé about it.

Our beauty meter can take a rest as we drive through the outskirts of Podgorica, which is not very pretty like so many citires.  We get another hit as we rejoin the coast and drive along it at sunset.  We end up in Budva, which is a real built up Mediterranean type resort, although again it has an old walled town, and again with a bit of help from tourist information we score a nice apartment in the old town.

Zabljak - 14th October

We left our expensive hotel and of course discovered that all our driving around Niksic looking for this hotel could have been avoided had we followed the signs.  Our first stop is the Ostrog monastery which again is up a very twisty road (even some of the main roads are like this).  The reason for this is that the monastery hangs off the side of a cliff 900m high. It’s very impressive, it probably was more so before the road was built right up to it.  We parked in the lower car park and walked up, but not many others did, although most were older people there on pilgrimages rather than tourists like us.  We did go in, and see some relic, but I don’t really know what it was.  The biggest thing most people here come to see is the view over the Zeta canyon.

Then it’s time to drive north to Zabljak, the centre or Durmitor national park. The drive across the country is full of amazing scenery, so like yesterday it is taking longer because of photo stops.   Almost every scene is prettier than the previous one.  I haven’t seen anything like it since New Zealand.

We arrive at Zabljak which is the summer adventure sports centre of Montenegro, and the winter sports centre as well.  In fact it looks a lot like many Alpine towns, with the various chalets for rent.  We actually get a very nice apartment for very little, which is a benefit from arriving in the middle of the day instead of after dark.  I’d say it was near the centre of town, but then most places are.  The town is so small we have cows walking down main street (as luck would have it the one time I haven’t got my camera on me).

We spend the afternoon hiking around the Black Lake, one of the centre pieces of the national park. It’s pretty, but there are many more walks just like it in many countries.  Still it gets us some fresh air, and it is really fresh, because Zabljak is almost 1500m up, and the temperature is a lot less than it was on the coast.  So we really have to layer up for the first time on this trip.

Niksic - 13th October

Because we couldn’t find any excursions operating from Kotor (they were all closed for the winter) and because we had been misinformed about hiking to Lovcen national park, we decided to hire a car for a couple of days.  Although this is technically breaking backpacking rules, we wanted to see so much that it was the only way to achieve it in the off season.

After picking up the car we left Kotor to drive to the top of Lovcen mountain, the black mountain that gives Montenegro its name.   This involves a drive up a mountain road with 27 hairpins taking us up 1000m.  It’s a tough first drive for Dorota, but it’s handled well, our biggest problem is that we keep wanting to stop for photos.  Lovcen is actually the centre of a large park, and on the second highest peak there is a mausoleum to a former hero, which requires a 400 step climb up to it, so we do this.  The views from the top are pretty good, as is the monument itself.

Following that it was down an equally winding road to Cetinje, the former capital of Montenegro.  It’s not a particularly nice town, but it does have some interesting houses which were the former embassies.  The most interesting part is the old monastery, where they keep a fragment of Jesus’s cross and the hand of John the Baptist.  They don’t always put them on show, but enough actual pilgrims came to see them that day that a monk looking like a pirate did show them, and we got to tag along.  The cross could have been any piece of wood, and the hand is pretty old looking, but could be anyone’s.

As if we hadn’t had enough of monasteries we then proceeded to Ostrog monastery, another national monument.  However we got caught up with a nice lunch in a little village (down another winding road) and then a thunderstorm near the capital Podgorica.  So when we got near Ostrog we decided to look for lodgings and go in the morning instead.  However this was not as easy as finding accommodation at the bus stations. In fact we saw the worst bathroom in the world in one hotel, before we ended up in a slightly expensive hotel in Niksic, the second largest town in the country.  Expensive because it is the only one there.

Kotor - 12th October

Today in lieu of our boat trip on the bay, which apparently nobody would want to do at this time of year, we decide to walk along the shore of the bay.  We walk about 4km along the shore opposite to Kotor where we are able to look back on the town.  It is a quite beautiful view, although it would have been better had there not been a big cruise ship and a Russia destroyer docked in the port and obscuring our view.


After a while we got to the village of Prcanj and a tiny little beach.  Beside the beach was the Hotel Splendido, but it had closed two days earlier, and wouldn’t reopen until next May.  But it became apparent why, at this time of year the sun sets behind the mountain early, at about 2pm.  However it was hot enough and we were prepared enough to be able to lie on the beach until then.

We then walked back to Kotor, we then decided to get the bus to Perast, another little bay side village about 18k away.  When we get to the waterfront, there is a taxi boat which will take us out to a little island in the bay with a church on it.  So we finally get out boat trip on the bay, even if it is only for 10 minutes each way.  The church itself is very pretty, and the crowds of tourists were just departing as we got there so we had the place to ourselves.  The rest of Perast was the standard mix of churches and Venetian palaces (although calling them palaces in this part of the world might be too strong a word, they are not Versailles or Buckingham palace).

In the evening we again had a take away meal and sat on our apartment balcony eating it, drinking some wine, using the free Wi-Fi from the hotel across the street, watching the lights light up the walls, and listening to the sounds of the old town.  The only differences between the two nights is that while last night we ate pizza and listened to a Montenegro football match, this time it was burek and some very bad dance music.

Kotor - 11th October

Kotor, like other places along the Adriatic, has an old walled city, thanks to the Venetians and their shall we say aggressive forms of commerce in the past.  What makes Kotor’s walls different though are the way the snake up the side of the mountain to a point over 260m above the town.  And of course you can go up to the top (for a small fee).  So after a late breakfast we set off.

The walk up itself does not take too long, about 50 minutes, over 1350 steps up, most of which are in fairly decent condition, although there are a few tricky spots.  However it isn’t as hard as we had been led to believe (from the Lonely Planet) and we reach the top just after midday.  Although it is quite hot, our packed lunch which we had, planned as a picnic for the top, stays put.  Instead we just have a cold drink as we take in the views which are, as always, impressive.

However from the description of the walls in various guides, we had expected it to take a bit longer and be a bit more of a challenge.  So instead we head back down and go for a trek up the canyon behind the fortifications to see if we can reach a church we could see from up there.  This trek turns out to be more of a challenge but we get to eat our lunch at the church.

However two things confuse us about this trek.  We see a couple of the people we saw coming up to the walls, coming down from the church.  It turns out there is a way to get from one of the walls to the church, which we actually saw but didn’t think was navigable.  So we did the climb twice, which wasn’t really necessary but was better for our waistlines.  The other confusing thing is that we keep seeing signs for Mt Lovcen.  This is the so called “Black Mountain” that gives Montenegro its name.  We wanted to hike in the national park, but all the information points kept saying it wasn’t possible from Kotor.  Well it was, and maybe we shouldn’t always believe what the tourist information people tell us.  Had we known we might have organised our trekking day slightly differently.

Kotor - 10th October

As we already said Croatia is breaking our budget, so it is time to move onto the cheaper countries in the region.  First stop Montenegro.  The bus journey to get there is pretty standard, the only three items of note are the great views of Dubrovnik as we leave, the border crossing which actually stamps our passports (and therefore is much longer than the Bosnian borders) and the amazing views as we go around Kotor Bay to get to our first stop, Kotor.

The Bay of Kotor is incorrectly said to be the only fjord on the Mediterranean but in fact is it just a drowned river valley.  Well actually it doesn’t really matter, it is still one of the most unusual bays in Europe.  A drive that is about 15km as the crow flies is over 50km and an hour as we weave in and out of all of these little coves with massive mountains looming over us.  It is quite simply breath-taking.

We arrive in Kotor and for the first time our policy of viewing rooms from the bus terminal fails us.  We are shown two pretty poor pieces of accommodation outside the old town, with no real facilities.  So after a not very helpful chat with the tourist advice people we are sitting down considering our options when a passing couple see us and ask are we looking for somewhere to stay.  After a brief conversation they show us this place in the old town, and while it is a bit more expensive than the places we had seen, when you subtract the laundry and Wi-Fi costs (this place has both) it is almost as cheap. So we take it.

After that we try to sort out what we will be doing during our stay.  Again this proves tricky.  The official tourist information is no help, the local agencies are not much better.  Our plans to hire bikes are thwarted by the fact that there only seems to be one rental place in town, and they have 7 of their 8 bikes out on hire.  And nobody is running excursions on the bay.  In fact our requests are greeted with looks of people thinking “why would you want to do that?”  The season here is well and truly over, and we may struggle to fill our 3 days here.

Dubrovnik - 9th October

The morning brings with it another trip to the bus station.  Although this time we are organised enough to wander back down to the centre of town for breakfast, and then buy some fruit for the trip to Dubrovnik.  This is actually a short trip made long by the fact that we go through the Bosnia Croatia border three times, due to Bosnia having been given a little bit of the coast in some peace negotiations.  The one good thing about the journey is it gives us a chance to see the Neretva River valley which we missed in the dark on Friday.  It is actually quite spectacular, as is all the coastal scenery as usual.

We perform our usual trick of getting accommodation at the bus terminal, and this time is pays off very well.  We get a beautiful apartment which is a two minute walk from the main gate of the old town of Dubrovnik.  As Dubrovnik is supposed to be expensive even for Croatia, our deal of £32 for two for one night looks very good.

The rest of the day is spent looking around the old town of Dubrovnik.  Like all the other old towns this is a mixture of narrow streets, old churches, palaces, restaurants and a lot of places selling junk.  Even more so than anywhere else we have been it is full of tourists, most of whom look to have come from the big cruise ship docked in the port.  It feels a bit crowded, and getting good photos s hard.  The one good thing is that there is better selection of ice creams as the ones we have are very good.

We then set off to walk around the walls of the old town.  Once we get over the shock of the 10 euro entry fee, we begin to enjoy it as they are pretty amazing walls.  The views, both out to see and back in over the town are pretty good from the sea side, but from the inland walls you get the sea and the town in one shot and these views are even better.  We finish the day with a trip to an Irish pub (my first of the trip) and a nice meal in a restaurant on the little harbour, fish of course.

Mostar - 8th October

As expected the rain from overnight has cleared to the point where you would hardly know it has been raining the next morning.  Nevertheless it is still pretty chilly as we being our walk around Mostar.  Our lodgings were quite close to the bus station to save us from the rain, but it means we are a few minutes away from the centre of town.  Also we discover that maps can be deceptive, as what look like streets on the Lonely Planet map are little more than alley ways.

Eventually we make it to the centre of town, and after a quick Burek breakfast, we continue down the main shopping street towards the main goal, the old bridge.  To get there we must walk past rows of shops selling what can be called junk, tat, or souvenirs if you fall for that sort of thing.  It really is amazing that the same Chinese produced rubbish gets everywhere.  However we can see why, the place is actually quite full of tourists.  In fact they seem to come in waves as each tour bus turns up, unloads 20-50 tourists (mostly Italian) and they swarm the shops, and the old bridge.

We of course only want to see the old bridge (well Dorota would buy some trinkets if she could find them, but even this junk is too much for her).  After we see the old bridge from all angles, we go to a museum where we see a video showing how it was rebuilt after the war.  To get away from the tourists we have a wander through the war damaged parts of the town.  Some reconstruction has occurred, but there is some shocking damage still visible.  Other than seeing the old bridge, the war damage, and one or two old preserved Turkish houses, there isn’t really much more to do in Mostar, so a full day is long enough for us.

In the evening we go to one of the touristy restaurants.  It’s a bit more expensive than eating locally, but it is our only meal in Bosnia and they have a platter for two that covers all local specialities.  I have to say it was very good, and very filling, and it was all washed down with Bosnian wine and beer.  A very good meal to end our Bosnian stay.

Mostar - 7th October

Today we move on from Croatia to Bosnia.  Croatia has been great, but it is too expensive for backpackers.  We need to get away from countries that are proper EU candidates, and into ones that use the Euro to pretend they are.


However today also sees the first dent in our travel plans.  The plan had been to get a taxi to Sumartin at one end of the island, from there get the 11 O’clock ferry to Makarska on the mainland, a bus to Ploce, and then the train to Mostar.  However after sitting on the ferry for almost an hour, they inform us there is a mechanical problem, and not only is our ferry cancelled, but they cannot guarantee the 3.30 sailing either.


So our only option is to get a bus back to Supetar, where we can catch a ferry to Split, and then a bus to Mostar.  This all works fine, although it leaves us a lot less time to relax between stages (especially as the bus back across the island takes twice as long, and is twice as bendy, as the first one), less photo opportunities as we are backtracking to places we have been, and leaves us arriving later in Mostar than planned, maybe affecting chances of finding accommodation.


Having said that the bus ride from Split to Makarska which we would have missed is actually quite a dramatic one.  Unlike the last coastal ride to Split, which was all calm water and nice pine tree lined beaches, this is all dramatic with mountains on one side, and cliffs on the other.  After that we enter one of the biggest thunderstorms I’ve ever seen, which adds to the drama greatly.  As it is now dark we are getting flashes lighting up the sky every few seconds.  Seeing this illuminate the silhouette of the mountains is cool, although once the rain starts, just after we cross into Bosnia, this becomes useless, as we can no longer see anything.  Still luckily it stops just as we get to Mostar, making our search for lodgings easier, as the first woman we talk to has a place only two minutes away, which is quite suitable.

Bol - 6th October

We like Bol so much we decided to stay an extra day. Our host has no problems with this as it is the end of the season and there is nobody else filling his rooms. The extra day means that we can leave going to Bol's most famous beach, the Zlatni Rat, or the Golden Cape, until today.  Otherwise we would have had to do the hike to it after our hike up the mountain yesterday.

This beach is a triangle shaped beach that sticks out into the sea and has a spine of pine trees down the middle.  It is pretty spectacular, but with fame comes fortune, and in this case the fortune is the price we pay for a diet coke and a small water.  Still as the beach is about 4km from where we are staying (we are in the quiet end of town, it is near all the hotel chains) we stay there until lunch.  Lying on the beach is not as pleasant as it sounds, in this part of Croatia all beaches (even the golden one) are very stony, and lying on them is like some sort of new age massage treatment.  Dorota thinks this is very nice, I think it is torture.

After about 3 hours on the beach we walk back to the town, get a quick lunch (a very nice sandwich) and then we go back to the beach that is nearer where we are staying.  However in the afternoon there is a bit of a drop in the temperature, and it is no longer as nice on the beach, so we finish early.

In the evening we go back to the restaurant we went to on the first night in Bol, where the meal is even better, and cheaper than the previous one. 

Bol - 5th October

This morning we get up early, but for the first time it is not to travel.  Instead we are climbing Mt Vidova, which at 778m is the highest peak not only on Brac, but on all the Dalmatian islands.  Once we buy a few supplies in town, and get pointed in the right way (it’s up that street – just keep going up and up and up) we set off.


Our early start is to avoid the sun, but given that getting supplies in town took about an hour, it is actually 8.50 when we set off.  The guide books tell us it will take about 2 hours to get up, and they are pretty much accurate.  Although it never seems like it is until we reach the top, mostly because we aren’t actually sure which peak is the one we are heading to.  We do have a couple of stops for photos, and it is 11.00 when we get to the top.  There is a road up the other side of the mountain, so we are met by a number of tourists who have taken the easy way up.  As we sit and eat our picnic (and avoid the restaurant at the top which looks to charge excessive prices) we feel we have deserved our view which is very impressive (and stretches all the way to Italy).


On our way up we never saw another soul, but as we start down we see one other man arriving at the top.  So it looks like only three people made the climb this day.  The trip down is, as always, easier on the muscles but harder on the joints.  But we are back in the town before 1.  After a very nice and well deserved lunch in what we thought was a pizzeria, but turns out to be the poshest restaurant in town (and we are its scruffiest patrons) we head back to the beach to relax our tired legs.


After staying on the beach for sunset, we finish the evening with a nice fish meal in a restaurant overlooking the harbour.