Kotor & Budva, Montenegro

Wow, what a beautiful land Montenegro is! Here is the place I have been interested for months in buying property; more on that later.

My 12-hour busride, (ugh, I know, I didn't know it was that long when I boarded) finally got in at 1am at Kotor. I decided to come here first because its a bigger city and I had no accomidation booked, even though the bus stopped in Budva first. When I got into the old-town of Kotor I went to both of the hotels (no hostels in Kotor) recommended in my lonely planet. Both of their receptions were closed. Luckily Hotel Rendezvous' side door was open, so I enterered and checked if any of the rooms were unlocked so I could just sleep. Alas, one is unlocked but there are two guys already sleeping in there. There were three beds, so I just took my bags off and passed out. When I awoke at 8am I snuck out of the room and the hotel and returned 5 minutes later asking if they had any rooms for the night. Little did they know I just got a free night out of them. Twenty Euros for a double with two beds in it and breakfast included, I said "deal". I took a shower and shaved and headed straight to the mountainside ramparts behind the old town. The march up wasn't so bad, about 600 meters up, but I made it to the summitt and was rewarded with breathtaking views of the deepest fjord in Southern Europe. Words can't describe how beautiful Kotor is. With a population of 20,000+ and an old town enveloped by ancient walls the city once had its own Navy. The old stone architecture is unique to Montenegro. After running back down in about 5 minutes (1 hour to get up) I decided to go to Budva for the rest of the day to go to the beach. At the bus station I met a guy from Singapore living in London looking for a room. A great idea to sell the other bed in the room and split my hotel cost. So now I'm sleeping in a hotel, not a hostel, for 5 euros a night!

Budva was a typical beach town with a gorgeous old town. The old town was wrecked in 1979 by an earthquake and rebuilt so the buildings are newer and less rustic than Kotor, but amazing nonetheless. After walking around the old town, getting some sun on the beach and jumping in the water which looked out at a pretty little island I hopped back on the 30 minute bus to Kotor. Montenegro feels a little like Europe's Costa Rica. Rustic and Beautiful, Green Mountains and Sparkling Sea, not many tourists (well when I was in Costa Rica there weren't many). Today I popped in and out of Real Estate offices posing as a serious buyer, as I would really like to be. I dressed up nicely and looked at the properties and the conclusion is, they aren't as cheap as I thought. Granted you can buy a 2-bedroom house for $45,000 overlooking the ocean, but it needs work. Now I am waiting for my bus to Dubrovnik, Croatia to start using my ninth currency. Dubrovnik as been coined both "Paradise on Earth" and "The Pearl of the Adriatic".

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