The next day we had an included excursion to Kotor. The plan was to be ready early, so I got up with everyone else and went for breakfast, but by the time I ate half my meal I'd decided I was going back to bed. Which was a shame, Kotor is meant to be beautiful. So that was what happened. I went and got back into my bed and nursed my horrible cold and even worse mood, and everyone else went on the local bus to Kotor and climbed 1300 stairs up to look out over the town. It was pretty smoggy, so I was less concerned about missing out than I normally would have been. I believe it was still a lovely view.
I did intend to take photos in Budva, but apparently I never did. Hmm. It was a very gross cold, one of those ones that make you cough like crazy before anything will move, even though your chest rattles with every breath. Thank god it passed quickly, I came completely right again in five days.
Kylie and Kat came and collected me when they got back from Kotor at about 2pm. They'd been for a walk over to the old town in Budva as well, which they said was better than most, and they'd tried to bring back some of their calamari for me but it had gone a bit manky in the meantime and been thrown out. I didn't mind, it was such a nice thought. And Kat had bought me some stamps when she got hers. I felt very well cared for. We went to the beach for the rest of the afternoon and dinner, but I didn't even go swimming because by the time we walked down there I had to have a sleep.
The setup at Budva was quite cool. You have beach, then promenade running parallel, then restaurants, then another bigger promenade with a whole lot of souvenir and food stalls. We had quite a shop there, things were cheap. I got a watch (the battery on mine went flat, I'll get it fixed when I get to Canada), a bracelet, and presents for Kim's and Sarah's birthdays. Which are still in my bag. Must post.
The following day we crowded back into our minivan. Part of the problem was that we had four people who were six foot or over, and not enough "tall" seats to go around. Some of the shortest people made a habit of getting on the bus first and taking all the single seats, where you could at least stick your legs in the aisle, which meant that those of us who were tall had to sit in seats that we literally didn't fit into. Coming off one of those rides with bruises on your knees wasn't unheard of. But we made it to Ostrog Monastery without too many bruises.
It was one of the places that I'd particularly wanted to see on this tour. The upper monastery was built into the rock right up the top of a mountain, hundreds of years ago. Even when we went up there by road, it seemed so inaccessable, and we couldn't figure out how they would have done it or where they would have found the resources. The lower monastery is I think a bit newer, but still a very pretty church.
The lower monastery on the left; and the upper monastery.
We took the minibus to the upper monastery, wandered round there for 45minutes, took the minibus to the lower monastery, wandered round there, took the minibus back to the hotel, and spent the rest of the day lying around, which was good by me. I was still sick and grumpy so sleeping and reading and lying around our cabin were about what I needed.
So really, the extent of our activites in Montenegro was sleeping, eating, and lying around. Sweeeeeeeet times.
The water pipes coming down the side of the mountains, near Ostrog Monastery.
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