the entrance to the fortress in Ulcinj one of the many old Venetian towns along the Montenegrin coast
Uncinj
I didn’t know that the coast of Montenegro is a popular tourist destination, of the sun and sea variety – there is very little sand along the Adriatic coast. Ulcinj is the first of a series of coastal towns that cater for the summer vacation.
the modern part of Ulcinj, hotels and apartments stacked against the mountain, and a small beach in front
many ex-Yugoslav towns have a spomenik, a monument for one or another war-time achievement; this is the Liberty Monument in Ulcinj
and this is part of the tiny beach, already packed up for the winter
not particulerly clean, that beach, but who knows, perhaps they will prepare for next season again
the old town, on an admittedly not very appealing afternoon
although some of the stairs and arches are quieter
inside town, everything has a tourist function
some small fishing boats along the equally tiny harbour
The town is built against the mountain slopes, with hotels and apartments stacked on top of each other, and the descent to the beach, the very small pebbly beach, is along slippery stone stairs – slippery because here it has been raining just as hard as in Albania, earlier this morning. But by the time we explore the town, and especially its Fortress, which is more of a labyrinth on a hill, it is dry. The old town is totally given over to the tourist industry, I don’t think anybody is actually living here anymore. Restaurants, rooms for rent, apartments, souvenir shops, is all there is. And most of them have been closed up already, it is early October, the end of the season – the few that are still open are sadly empty, their waiters desperate to draw us in. Not very uplifting altogether, but the price to pay for traveling out of season, I guess.
next day, in the sunshine, the town looks much better
outskirts of Ulcinj, with its fabulous palatis
closed-in balconies, and satelite dishes
The next day it is sunnier, and the fortress looks a bit better, from the distance. But – for us pallati lovers – the outskirts of Ulcinj prove even more attractive, with some fabulous apartment buildings in the brilliant sunshine.
the Montenegrin country side, dominated by calcareous mountains like everywhere in the Mediterranean
the unfinished Adriatic Star hotel in Perazica Do, ruining the small beach there
and offshore, on a small island, a church, why not?
the small port of Petrovac, from above
the small town of Sveti Stefan, on an island
We cannot explore each and every town along the coast, so we skip the old town of Bar, and we just drive into Petrovac, only to turn around straight away. Not our cup of tea. We admire the never-finished Yugoslav era Adriatic Star hotel in Perazica Do, an absolute monster that dominates on its own the entire little tiny bay and associated village, forever ruined.
the outer walls of Budva, another town with Venetian roots
obviously, the whole town is a pefestrian area
once again fortified, and well defensible from the sea
the fortifications from the other side
Budva
But Budva, which was ruled for 400 years by Venice during the Middle Ages, is actually quite nice. Equally over-developed, with an attractive old town, described as mini-Dubrovnik in one of my resources, it is in fact worth a couple of hours stroll – mostly in the rain, again, but its narrow streets are quite attractive. Yet, not a place to linger too long, and definitely not one to stay the night.
the windows in real life, along one of the town squares
and what the tourist stalls make of them
and this is just a pretty picture, ferris wheel in Budva
the Serbian Orthodox Podmaine Monastery, in a Budva suburb
On the way out we do stop at the Serbian Orthodox Podmaine Monastery. The frescoes here are nothing like the ones we have seen in Serbia and in Kosovo, they are much more modern. But they are interesting in their depiction of Judgement Day, being eaten alive by fish and what appears to be a chicken. The star of the show is a communist officer with the red star on his military uniform. Ex-Yugoslavia, after all.
one of the frescoes depicting hell includes a Yugoslav uniformed official
more images of hell, with chicken eating limbs
and fish in a pond doing the same
guilty as charged
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