Photo Sets » Montenegro - 2007
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The newest country in the World as of June 2007. It split from Serbia as the newest member of the former Yugoslav Republic to go it on its own.
Yugoslavia must have been an interesting place. Montenegro uses the Cyrillic alphabet, so you feel like you're in some former Soviet-era resort....maybe we were.
A wrong turn...well not a wrong turn, but an assumption that "Someplace nice MUST be down this road" led us into an enormous olive grove. Enormous. I had never been in one, and I'm reminded of a scene that probably no one else remembers from James Bond's "The Spy Who Loved Me" when they race in and out of a olive groves.
As we get to the end of the road, we pass a checkpoint and it quickly becomes obvious via architecture that we ARE in a former Comrade Retreat. We find the requisite Popsicle-looking lampposts and a very strange scene. Imagine hundreds of identical tiny camper trailers. All perfectly aligned and no cars. And no people.
"Back When" you must have gotten a pass for good allegiance and been whisked off to beautiful "Nowhere" to spend a nice week basking in the sun and bathing in....olive oil. The light was odd, the feeling spooky, and it felt like we were tresspassing...which we probably were. However, if you had serveral million dollars, this would be the place to buy and build your fantasy house, resort, or mini-golf course.
We end up in Ulclinj. Yep, that's how it is spelled. And just like Dubrovnik it has a huge old town perched over looking the sea behind fortress walls. However, the similarities end there. We ask the police how to get there. They've never heard of it. We ask locals. "Stari Gradt?" (Old Town)....Nope. So we just guess. After hours of what seems like a comical series of one-way streets that lead only onto other one-way streets that go nowhere, we find a small parking lot. So we get out and start walking. And walk. Finally we find an entrance to the Old Town in the wall and go through. It hasn't been completely rebuilt, it still is in ruins some places. It is really quite beautiful. We find the two small hotels and they are booked and 4X more expensive than the Lonely Planet says. One hotel calls a lady and she allows us to stay in her house for 25 euros. Great view. Sunset, sunrise. Wow.
The newest country in the World as of June 2007. It split from Serbia as the newest member of the former Yugoslav Republic to go it on its own.
Yugoslavia must have been an interesting place. Montenegro uses the Cyrillic alphabet, so you feel like you're in some former Soviet-era resort....maybe we were.
A wrong turn...well not a wrong turn, but an assumption that "Someplace nice MUST be down this road" led us into an enormous olive grove. Enormous. I had never been in one, and I'm reminded of a scene that probably no one else remembers from James Bond's "The Spy Who Loved Me" when they race in and out of a olive groves.
As we get to the end of the road, we pass a checkpoint and it quickly becomes obvious via architecture that we ARE in a former Comrade Retreat. We find the requisite Popsicle-looking lampposts and a very strange scene. Imagine hundreds of identical tiny camper trailers. All perfectly aligned and no cars. And no people.
"Back When" you must have gotten a pass for good allegiance and been whisked off to beautiful "Nowhere" to spend a nice week basking in the sun and bathing in....olive oil. The light was odd, the feeling spooky, and it felt like we were tresspassing...which we probably were. However, if you had serveral million dollars, this would be the place to buy and build your fantasy house, resort, or mini-golf course.
We end up in Ulclinj. Yep, that's how it is spelled. And just like Dubrovnik it has a huge old town perched over looking the sea behind fortress walls. However, the similarities end there. We ask the police how to get there. They've never heard of it. We ask locals. "Stari Gradt?" (Old Town)....Nope. So we just guess. After hours of what seems like a comical series of one-way streets that lead only onto other one-way streets that go nowhere, we find a small parking lot. So we get out and start walking. And walk. Finally we find an entrance to the Old Town in the wall and go through. It hasn't been completely rebuilt, it still is in ruins some places. It is really quite beautiful. We find the two small hotels and they are booked and 4X more expensive than the Lonely Planet says. One hotel calls a lady and she allows us to stay in her house for 25 euros. Great view. Sunset, sunrise. Wow.
