Day 135: Kotor - Nikšić

Aug 16 - Up at 6:30 and am treated to an early morning rainstorm, thunder echoing off the mountains all around. Go down to the copy shop and print out some bus tickets and school materials for Odette, then we are off to the bus station.

The bus is already there, so run the gauntlet of purchasing a ‘platform ticket’, which is just a nonsense way to waste everyone’s time. We are sent to a small ticket office, where we cram into a tiny room, everyone laden with backpacks, to pay 2 Euros and come back with a printed receipt. The driver descends into a bad mood when some travelers don’t want to pay the 1 Euro fee to put their packs in the storage compartment. He keeps up the attitude through the journey. Maybe he’s tired of so many foreigners who don’t speak Montenegrin.

We hug the shore of the bay to the western end, then a hairpin turn starts our ascent into the mountainous highlands.

Yes, its all a jumble of limestone again, we are definitely back in the Dinaric Alps. Much of this terrain is impossible for agriculture or even domesticated herds. I’d call it a ‘rockscape’. We pass very few towns on our two hour ride.

Disembark in Nikšić, which apparently is not a popular destination, as no other travelers get off the bus. The difference between here and Kotor is immediately obvious, as the bus station is empty, with stray dogs sleeping everywhere. In the streets, people are just going about their normal lives, not clogging the sidewalks in gawking hordes. A ten minute walk brings us to our apartment, which is a really slick setup for the price. Just one of the benefits to going off the tourist radar. We have a great view of the surrounding hilly ranges, devoid of towns. It has just rained, so the air is fresh and cool. We have gone up a ways, from sea level to about 640 meters.

Today’s route: (A) Kotor, (B) Nikšić.

Step out to look for what will be an early dinner. This is a threadbare, no frills town, and we get a lot of stares from the old men slouched back in chairs at the multitude of cafes along the streets. I realize we are finally getting into a part of world where staring at foreigners is an entertaining pastime.

The Cathedral of St. Basil of Ostrog, constructed in 1899, on the biggest hill in town and a point of orientation for the city. It was built as a memorial for the Montenegrin and Herzegovinian heroes who died in the wars of 1875 to 1880.

People obviously feel a lot of love for this statue of Čedomir "Ljubo" Čupić (1913-42), a Yugoslavian law student and later commissioner of the Communist resistance movement in Nikšić against the Nazi occupiers in WWII. He is known as the ‘Yugoslav Che Guevara’. In true Balkan dark humor, his pose in the statue is the same as that of the last photo taken of him, hands in shackles and smiling, moments before he was executed by firing squad.

This is something I haven’t seen in awhile. A girl, selling single candies and bags of chips. Many such impromptu vending stalls dot the city’s parks. She was very attentive to her wares, carefully smoothing out the chip bags and lining up the candy in a row.

An area of monolithic housing blocks near our apartment.

Montenegro