[Music] After spending a month in Lisbon, Portugal, I was off to another destination
by the sea: the town of Kotor in Montenegro. Also known as Crna Gora, meaning Black Mountain.
A small country in the Balkans, Montenegro became independent in 2006 after being part
of Yugoslavia post-World War I. It is not as well known as its neighbour Croatia but
is quickly becoming a major draw for tourists due to its incredible natural beauty.
To get to Kotor, the plan was to fly to Croatia then take a bus across the border. Except
I made a mistake as soon as I landed in Dubrovnik.
We landed at 3:20 and my bus isn't until 5:30 and so I sit myself down and I'm just like
oh I have like a whole hour to waste over here.
I waited until five o'clock to go to the desk and be like where am I supposed to wait for
this bus? And the guy's eyes like visibly widen. He's like, "Oh the bus to Kotor leaves
from Dubrovnik." And I'm like confused for a moment, "But I thought it was from the airport."
And he's like, "No it's from the centre." Which makes sense. I just was not thinking
and so I was like, "Okay well how do I get there and how long does it take?" He says,
"You could take the shuttle bus, you could take a taxi and it takes 25 minutes." And
I'm like, "That's really tight." He's like, "You can ask the lady across." So there's
the shuttle bus desk is like right across from his desk and so I walk over to her and
I'm like, "When's the next shuttle bus?" And she's like, "It's leaving right now."
So I'm like well maybe, maybe I'll make it because like maybe the bus will be like a
few minutes late.
But I quickly realized that I wouldn't make it in time as the shuttle bus needed to make
a stop in the old town before arriving at the bus terminal. I just enjoyed the views.
It was stunning and it was sunset.
I get to the bus terminal and I ask the ticket lady and I'm like, "Is there another
bus to Kotor today?" And she's like, "Nope the next one is at 7 15 a.m the next morning."
I'm like, "Okay so is there somewhere I can stay for the night that's like nearby?" And
she says, "Just wait a minute." And then she like reaches into this box over here and she
pulls out a little stack of small note papers and they all
have different numbers written on it and then she flips through and then she
calls one of them. And then she tells me, "Just wait, she's coming over now." And then
I see this older lady just kind of ambling over. She's like, "Hello, 20 euros a night,
is that okay?" I'll take it.
So then we just walk back across the street and it's her apartment and she clearly
has like she lives there and then she has like guest rooms above.
This would do just fine. After dropping off my things I headed downstairs to find some dinner.
[Music]
I bought another ticket and I made it on to the bus.
So then it's about two hours drive and it has to cross the border from Croatia into
Montenegro.
My excitement grew as I watched the Bay of Kotor
come into view. I was finally about to reach
my destination.
[Music]
I booked a month's stay at this Airbnb right in the middle of
the Old Town. It was newly renovated inside and very spacious.
The Airbnb hosts own the restaurant downstairs called Ombra.
So that's where I had my first meal in Kotor.
Black risotto is a classic dish found along the Adriatic Coastline. Also known as cuttlefish
risotto, it gets its colour from the cuttlefish ink.
Kotor is tucked away in the Bay of Kotor and fortified by walls put up during Venetian
rule from 1420 to 1797. The mountains enveloping the town make for stunning scenery, though
it also means less direct sunlight in the wintertime. Now a UNESCO world heritage site,
the number of tourists visiting Kotor have been increasing in the last 20 years, many
of whom come through by cruise ship.
So the biggest ship I've seen was a Princess ship and it was so big you couldn't even dock
at the port, it had to be in the middle of the Bay.
Strolling the winding streets of Kotor is best enjoyed in between cruise ship dockings.
Luckily, I visited during the off season and was able to have a number of quiet days to
explore the town. You'll find plenty of restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops, and churches to visit.
While the Venetians have long since left Kotor, reminders of their presence remain not only
in the architecture but in the language, as the locals often use ciao as an informal greeting.
You'll also easily find Italian menu offerings like pizza and pasta.
Now we can't talk about Kotor without talking about the cats. There are cats everywhere. It's not
clear what the origin story of the cats of Kotor is but it's possible they were useful
for pest control in the town back in the day. Nowadays these free roaming felines are a
beloved symbol of good luck and are well looked after by the locals.
There's been a couple places where there seems to be a resident cat. Like this
one cafe that I go to, there's always a cat sitting on one of the chairs just napping.
Venturing just outside the gates of the Old Town you'll find the beautiful Bay of Kotor and a lovely
place to walk or relax at one of the many restaurant patios.
There's even a tiny aquarium along the way.
I was worreid that my visit to Kotor in November would coincide with the rainy season but I think that I got really lucky.
The weather's like very pleasant, mild. To me it felt like summer still. It
was probably not as hot as their actual summer but it was still like high 20s so it was like
that for like three-ish weeks. In the last week it's been raining the entire time and
it's been like slightly under 20 degrees but that's still like not very cold it's just wet.
There was one night that there was a thunderstorm and the lightning was like going wild outside.
Just outside Kotor Old Town's main gate is a farmer's market, busiest on Saturday mornings
as that is when the farmers from out of town come in as well. There are fruits and vegetables,
fish, cheese, meat, honey and more.
Montenegro's cuisine has been influenced by neighbouring countries and varies regionally.
Kotor, being along the coastline, offers plenty of seafood as well as dishes with Italian
influence. I don't think I've ever eaten so much prosciutto in a month. It's often served
for breakfast along with cheese. For pastries I would go to a bakery just outside
of the Old Town gates called Pekara AS, where I got some burek, a flaky pastry with fillings
like meat or cheese. Palacinke is a crepe-like pancake treat you can get at
stalls on the street. This one was just outside the old town and I got one with eurocrem,
ground peanuts, and sugar in it.[Music]
If you like meat I highly recommend BBQ Tanjga, located outside the old town and popular with
the locals. When you step inside you'll see all of these raw meats marinating at the counter
ready to be cooked.
There's also a lovely shaded patio behind the restaurant to sit at. I ordered a mixed
meat platter which included chicken, steak, sausage, and some sides.
I was like full for the entire day but it was very good. So I definitely recommend that
place. And there's also something called cevapi. It's like minced meat and then they kind of
shape it into like a little sausage shape and then they grill it. I had it like as a
pita sandwich type thing and then they put like five pieces of cevapi in there and that
was really good.
Within the old town, Cesarica was one of my favourite restaurants. There I had
thick fish soup and sea bass which was incredibly fresh. Konoba Scala Santa was another great
restaurant in the old town where I went for lunch.
I had the scampi buzara. Scampi means shrimp and buzara refers to a specific method of
cooking seafood popular in this region.
Remember how I said there was a restaurant below my Airbnb?
There was always a game of chess in progress at Ombra and it had a really
cute outdoor space that was quiet and tucked away from the busiest spots in Old Town. I
really enjoyed having the priganice there for breakfast: fried dough balls served with
honey and cheese. And of course, you can't forget the Turkish coffee.
I actually found out like my second time eating there that I get a 15 discount for staying
in one of the Airbnbs. All the Airbnb guests get a 15 discount at the restaurant which
is a really nice discount, so I've eaten there like many times. Rakija is a fruit brandy
popular in the Balkans. You can find it in many flavours, plum being one of the most
common. You might not think of Montenegro when you think of wine but you should, there
are wines made with grapes unique to Montenegro including vranac for red wines and krstač
for white wines. Apparently the largest vineyard in Europe is here in Montenegro. So it's a
small country but has a lot to offer.
Stay tuned for part two in my Montenegro series where I take a speedboat tour and go on a
hike right outside the Old Town.
I actually just want to show you what I've been doing for the water situation so here
I think the tap water is technically safe to drink but just for extra precautions, like
instead of going to buy a whole ton of bottled water, which would be a lot if I'm staying
here for like you know a month. What I brought is a Grayl bottle and it can like technically
this one's like good enough to use like in the outdoors, so it should be fine for
the sink. It's not very big, it doesn't fit a lot of water in it but what I've actually
been doing is I end up buying one bottle anyway and then when that's empty
I'll just filter water into here and then pour it into here because this is actually
kind of heavy so this is a lot lighter to like carry around with me.
It's basically like this so you fill the water into here up to this line and then this is
the filter and then you just like push it down.