Living the Lie

Montenegro is an astonishingly beautiful country that gives the appearance of wealth and prosperity. Along it's very small coastline and lining the bays of the Kotor Fjord, there are expensive hotels and tourist resorts. One of the largest marina's in the Mediterranean and one that caters for enormous super-yachts is Porto Montenegro. St Stephan's islet is a hotel created for the exclusively wealthy. All this gives the impression that Montenegro is a wealthy country with affluent citizens.

Main street of Podgorica

Interesting advertising

Montenegro is living a lie, and a trip to the capital Podgorica quickly demonstrated this to us. This image of wealth, and a place where the beautiful people go, is a chimera created to satisfy the tourist market. The reality that we saw in Podgorica was of a struggling economy, an architecture of ugly communist inspired apartment blocks and unkempt street-scapes. The economy of Montenegro is still recovering from the impact of the Yugoslav wars of 1991 and the decline of manufacturing following the breakup of the Yugoslav empire.

Interesting breakfast: fried dough balls, cheese and honey

Central park

Montenegro never really developed an industrialised infrastructure, due to the small population, difficulties establishing transport and communication routes and lack of raw materials. Perhaps this lack of development preserved the ecological beauty of Montenegro's untouched forests and lush vegetation. It is this that allows the creation of a tourist mecca.

After the breakup of Yugoslavia, all the markets for Montenegro's nascent industries disappeared, the privatisation program was abolished and UN sanctions created an economic crisis from which Montenegro has still not recovered. In 1993, two thirds of the Montenegrin population was below the poverty line, and hyper-inflation reached 3 million percent in 1994. Interestingly, the location of Montenegro was ideal to support a smuggling industry, and the smuggling of user goods became the republic's main income in this period. Even now, the average income is around 500 Euro per month, about equivalent with Greece.

Remnant of Old Podgorica

Old town, Podgorica

The capital Podgorica was extensively bombed during World War II. It was invaded by Italy in 1941 and declared a protectorate of the Kingdom of Italy. After the Italian armistice in 1943, Podgorica was occupied by Germany. It became a major staging post for German troops withdrawing from Albania and Greece. For this reason, it was extensively bombed by Allied forces. This almost completely destroyed the city. We visited the remaining remnants of the old town, and it was extremely limited. So Podgorica was rebuilt by Tito and renamed Titograd. It reminded me of what I termed 'Communist Ugly' in Albania.

Abandoned communist era sport pavilion

Small cottage in the old town

Interesting carved door

One horse-power transport

Its great for Montenegro to re-invent itself through tourism, but I wonder what the long term consequences are for economies based just on tourism. What happens to a small countries sense of identity when its economic success depends on providing to the wealthy tourist sector. Service industries are great but limit the range and demand for educated graduates.

Old fort and our first contact with Croatia

The fort to seawards.

Anyway, our time in Montenegro was over. We loved the place, particularly the little port of Morinj that felt like a secure 'home base' while we roamed around the fjord. We checked out from Porto Montenegro, stayed another night illegally in our little anchorage in Uvala Krtole, and then lit out for Croatia.

Cavtat, our port of entry to Croatia

Unbelievably cute little tourist town

We had a trouble free passage up to Cavtat, our port of entry. We were pre-warned about the Croatian's love of charging for the previously assumed free requirements for cruising life, but we were still taken aback by the 100 Kuna (about $25) charge to tie up at the mandatory customs dock just to check in. Yachts were being charged 350 Kuna just to tie up to the town dock, electricity and water not included. We beat a hasty retreat and anchored in the bay next door, Tiha.

A great little anchorage in Tiha bay.

Welcome to Croatia!

The ineffable likeness of Kotor

Kotor was amazing, unbelievable, beguiling. Whereas the medieval town of Budva was a big disappointment to us, with all its tourist trappings, Kotor threw off its blanket of tourist grockle and astonished us.

Pavlov on the dock at Morinj

We first explored out from our refuge in Morinj by bus. We caught the local to Risan, which was an ordinary town whose claim to fame was some uninspired Roman mosaics.

Perfect stillness

WW II memorial, Risan

Shady town square, Risan

Port Authority, Risan

Unimpressed and uninterested by Risan, we hopped the bus a few miles further to Kotor.  Kotor is an old Venetian fortified port, the most protected port in the Adriatic Sea. It was first settled in Roman times, and the Emperor Justinian fortified the town in medieval times. After flirtations with the Bulgarians and Serbs, Kotor joined the suzerainty of Venice in 1420. The subsequent four centuries of Venetian domination cemented the architecture and fortifications in the Venetian style.

Venetian style city walls

The Sea Gate to the city

More wall fortifications

Pintel decoration carved in stone

Venetian clock tower

Venetian style decoration

Standing outside the city gate and staring up at the fortifications which snake their way up an almost perpendicular mountain, we were gob-smacked by Kotor. Expecting some bad weather, and thinking that we might take a bus trip to Porgociza, we booked into the marina and brought Pavlov down from Morinj. It was interesting dodging the four cruise ships littering the small fjord as we made our passage to the marina.

Prcanj, on our way to Kotor

Our first encounter of the cruise ship kind

A few of these triple the local population

Line up, line up.

We berthed Pavlov at a small but expensive dock that passed as a marina. However, since we have a failing fridge and failing batteries, we appreciated the on-line power and water. We then headed out and explored the old town for the second time.

The obligatory dock shot

Church built in 806 AD.

These buildings were Venetian palaces, now hotels.

Small shrine outside church

Architectural details.

The fortifications in Kotor include a fort built on the impossibly steep cliffs behind the town.  The walls of the town extend up these perpendicular cliffs to the fort. It is truly an impressive sight. We had to try climbing up to the fort. Being the proud possessor of surgically modified ankles and knees, I made imprecations to the god of gravity, to spare me any fall on the steep and rough cobble-stones that made up this stairway to heaven. This proved to be ironic, as time will tell.

Stairway to heaven

Megan pauses in the shade

Its really quite a climb!

As we climbed up the precipice behind the city, I stopped to take photos at different elevations. They might give you a sense of how this fort seemingly hovers at great height above the town.

Barely above roof top level 

Looking north from the old town up the fjord

Only half-way to the top, and you see the whole of the walled city

The valley to the south of Kotor

Spot Pavlov! She's the rightmost yacht mood on the city quay, not the pontoon.

We made the ascent, at least half-way to the Venetian church hugging the perpendicular mountain. We descended a different route, winding through the backs of old homes.

The washing has to dry somewhere

Parks, gardens and gorges

The wall snaking up the cliff

Another church in the old town

So, now for the irony. Ageing unfortunately seems to be the inexorable process of things breaking and falling apart. In the last few weeks, I've developed a naval hernia that will likely need surgery to repair. Then last night, I broke another tooth.  Pavlov's been feeling her age too, with batteries that have prematurely failed and a fridge that refuses to cool. Unable to handle all this decrepitude, I sought to repair at least one thing. We went hunting for a dentist in Kotor. After trips to the tourist info centre, the sage advice of a couple of waiters, false leads and a one-way taxi ride, we found ourselves at a dentist who would repair my tooth without an appointment.

Townships on the fjord

The town of Perast

Water-side church

After 45 minutes of jaw-crushingly heavy-handed dentistry by a mammoth Montenegran, I had a repaired tooth, for the very reasonable fee of 40 Euro. To avoid paying another taxi fare home, Megan and I decided to walk the 3 km home. Unfortunately, I stumbled and fell heavily, captured by a small pot hole while crossing the road. I twisted my ankle quite badly, and am now immovably trapped in the boat. We had to cancel our planned bus trip to Podgociza. I could do without the irony, thanks!

Post Script:

For any cruisers out there taking our hint to utilize the excellent, secluded, beautiful and safe dock at Morinj, we have another surprise in store. One of the best restaurants in the Mediterranean is located at Morinj, in an unbelievable spot. Its on the edge of town, built in the remains of old water mills. Water courses around in streams and ponds, the buildings and grounds are just beautiful and the food is fantastic. We paid about 60 Euro for wine and 2 main courses and a salad, but the experience was worth it. Judging by the helipad and the wine list that goes astronomical in price, some wealthy customers patronise this place. The restaurant's name is konoba Catovica Mlini, its on the righthand side just out of town going south, and is sign-posted. The coordinates are 42N29'10.58" , 18E38'57.86". Try it!