Kotor

This year's 4th of July adventure in Hong Kong got me thinking about last year's trip to Montenegro.  After my friend flew out I had the day to myself and also had the rental car for another day, so I figured that I would take advantage of the opportunity to drive into Montenegro.  When I had rented the car they told me that if I crossed the border I had to have all the paperwork to prove that the car was legally rented and not stolen, and since I had this it wasn't a problem.  The drive to Kotor was really beautiful as you maneuvered around the mountains and fjords.  The city was packed, not because of the holiday obviously, but rather because that is one of the destinations where cruise ships unload passengers (which is one of the few things that can make visiting Dubroknik, Croatia a bit of a hassle).  It was was blisteringly hot, but also a great day.

A fairly decent picture that gives a sense of how the mountains crowd the shore in Montenegro.  A little further down the dock there was a huge cruise ship unloading.

The central square in old Kotor.  Thank god for the umbrellas and misty fans because it was brutal.

A nice little clock tower giving way to a maze of old buildings and then eventually the mountains.

As is usual for me, I loved getting lost among the narrow streets. 

I would love to say that I was carrying out a close reading of the iconography, but mainly I think I was enjoying the shade.

Reflections on Things at Hand: Entering Montenegro

An odd email I sent to my friends back in Vermont as I was taking a break after entering Montenegro on the 4th of July.  I guess this would be the equivalent of a haiku from Basho in The Narrow Road to the Deep North, except written by an illiterate fool.  Either way, it's a snapshot of where I was at that moment, both geographically and intellectually (and maybe spiritually).


Reflections on the 4th:

1. Happy 4th of July!

2. Filled up my rental car today and gas was 7 dollars a gallon. Ouch.

3. Drove over to Montenegro today; as I crossed the border the B52's "Love Shack" was playing.

4. Montenegro does not have its own currency - it uses the euro although it is not part of the EU, much to the EU's chagrin.

5. Cruise ships dock at Kotor, Montenegro, where I have stopped in search of a hot dog.

6. Montenegro is small, odd, mountainous, out of the way, contrary, beautiful, not sure who it belongs to, and has a population of 600,000 - it may be Vermont.

7. America! (as my excellent friend Sanford would say)

If It's the 4th of July This Must Be . . .

Montenegro.  I just returned from an absolutely amazing trip to Croatia, which will be dominating the blog for a while.  During the trip I rented a car, which gave me a lot more freedom to get around.  I did that for the first time on my recent trip to Salalah, Oman, and I'm now completely sold on the concept.  I had somehow convinced myself that renting a car overseas would be difficult, but nothing could be further from the truth.  I've now driven in Oman, South Africa, Croatia, Montenegro and Canada (although since I live in Vermont that probably shouldn't count).  Because I had the car I also had the opportunity to partake in one of my odd traditions: spending the 4th of July off the beaten path overseas.  It certainly didn't start as a conscious decision, but has grown into something akin to a quest.  Kotor, Montenegro has now joined the ranks of Agra, India; Bruges, Belgium; Bratislava, Slovakia; and Alexandria, Egypt.  This trip also shows how much I've grown as a foreign traveller.  It wasn't that long ago that my friend Michelle Miller was patiently explaining to me the difference between a passport and a visa, and now I feel comfortable enough to rent a car and skive off into Montenegro without a map and only the vaguest idea of their currency (by the way it's the Euro, although they're not a member of the EU, but more on that later).  Everyone I met in Montenegro was really friendly, and the border guard who stamped my passport was very pleased that an American was visiting, and jokingly asked if I was there to celebrate the 4th of July (yet another example of the dominance of American culture).  The country itself was stunningly beautiful, and seemed to be completely dominated by the ocean and mountains.  Here's a picture I snapped that might as well have been taken in Vermont.

A picture I snapped on the road to Kotor.  The main road winds along the Adriatic Sea that cuts deeply into the interior and forms, for lack of a better word, fjords.