Quick Stop In Albania

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Albania was only a one night stop and quite a journey, it took us over 4 hours to drive 200kms. It is clear that we are no longer in the EU as the roads are very narrow , there is rubbish everywhere and the life style looks  very different.  

There were many abandoned or incomplete buildings in Croatia and Montenegro but Albania is full of desolate half finished buildings, we decided for every completed house or industrial building there were at least 5 or 6 abandoned ones. We also literally saw thousands of houses half finished with people living in them, it was very interesting.

The countryside is full of small farms with little stalls selling food or homemade goods on the side of the highway.  There was large construction of a new highway taking place, it was heart breaking as we could see that many of the little villages would be completely by passed and imagine that when it opens many families will lose their income.

We saw heaps of goats, donkeys, horses and cart and people generally living a much more simple life than what we are used to.  The food we are eating seems to be changing again as well.  Everything is severed with large chunks of goats cheese and bread, regardless if it is breakfast, lunch or dinner.  

Only a short stay, but we were glad that we were convinced to come this way. 

Budva, Tivat and Kotor Bay

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While staying in Montenegro we also visited and explored some small towns like Budva and Tivat not far from where we were staying. There was also a ferry across the bay to another town which was a nice day trip.

Life here is very family orientated and relaxed.  Allan needed to be very careful driving as children are everywhere and just walk across the road at any time.  We loved our stay and enjoyed the friendly locals.

There was a heat wave while we were staying, with the coolest temperature at 36° and the hottest days at about 41°.  

We were lucky enough to see beautiful sun sets each evening and would sit on our deck and watch bats catching insects around the lampposts at night. 

The Beautiful Bay Of Kotor, Montenegro

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Kotor is a remote coastal town situated in a large bay; our neighbour explained that it is actually a fiord. Italian is spoken in Monenegro, however we also find many people speaking Croatian. There is no or limited internet access in the towns and no mobile phone coverage, so we truly had some down time.

The township of Kotor is also surrounded by a fortified wall with cute streets and markets.  There is a fort at the top of the cliffs above the city (not quite double the height of the Mount).  Corban and Leo did really well walking to the top, climbing the slippery stone steps in the hot temperature of about 36°.  We stopped in the shade every so often for a drink of water.

We don’t plan on having any hospital visits this summer, but Corban did develop an abscess on her gum.  Thankfully we drove past an open dental clinic and managed to make her an appointment; the dentist even spoke some English.  Much to her delight the best way to fix the abscess was to extract her front tooth.  She is very pleased to finally have a missing tooth; it’s likely she’ll have a gap for quite some time as her adult teeth are not ready to come down yet.  

Life in Montenegro is very relaxed and the more east we come the less modern conveniences seem available.  Most noticeable are western fast food chains like McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks etc they are simply not here. Even the supermarkets are smaller with less available, buying food from market stalls and side road vendors seem more normal.

We enjoyed our stay in Kotor. Swimming everyday at the beach was wonderful, even swimming some mornings early before breakfast. It was neat seeing Corban get more confident at snorkelling and finding treasure, getting excited about the fish and crabs she found. Leo also became more water confident, always wanting us to watch him go under the water and swim with flippers. Taylor collected mussels and Allan become so tan, that Leo said he “wasn’t from our family”. 

Road Trip To Montenegro Via Split and Dubrovnik

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We hit the road nice and early for our drive from Zadar to Kotor, Montenegro so that we could stop along the way.

Our first stop was in Split, Croatia.  Split is a wonderful city spread along the Adriatic Coast with the old fortified wall still standing.  We weaved our way through the streets and alley ways enjoying the old buildings, cathedrals and market stalls.  Leo and I especially liked the fish market, looking at all the unusual fish and trying to decide if some on them were snakes. We dropped Filip off here to catch a plane back to Prague.

We passed lots of wonderful scenery.  In the photo of the blue border crossing was the Bosnia border control.  We only had a 20 minute drive through this part which was luscious and cultivated with lots of fruit and vegetable orchards.

Next was Dubrovink, another amazing city that has a very distinctive Old Town with massive stone walls that encircle the city with a castle down on the waters edge.  We’ve never seen Game of Thrones, but this is where much of the filming is done (we even saw the ‘throne’).

Our GSP also took us along some very narrow coastal roads once we arrived in Montenegro.  We had to find our way back to the main road, so we could reach our Airbnb apartment which is along a very narrow, scary road that takes some driving still!  

Kornati National Park

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Croatia is famous for its beautiful islands and coastline so we did a boat trip to the Kornati National Park.

It was a 2 hour ride out to Lojena Island where we swam and snorkelled in the warm clear water.  There were lots of fish, kina and orange sea coral. The rocks were scattered with interesting things to look at. The water was so clear it was like swimming in a pool.

From here we went to Tureta.  Here there is a small chapel built in the 6^th century and some ruins at the top of a rocky hill which only Leo and I dared to climb in the heat.  We had some pictures at the top before heading back down where I fell down on the rocks and injuring almost every part of myself other than my face and the camera (good save)!

Lunch was in a 1000 year old fisherman’s village.  We were served a Croatian meal with a whole fish, pork and a pickled cabbage salad. We met a couple from South Africa who Corban and Leo befriended their daughter.  We enjoyed a short walk and another swim before the boat trip home.