Kotor, Montenegro

We arrived in Montenegro by another bus. For the first time since I'd left Prague, I was experiencing bad weather. Torrents of rain were falling as we entered the bus station at around 7am. We were knackered, and not in the best of moods. We quickly walked in the direction of town to look for a place to stay, when a taxi driver driving past on the other side of the road shouts something at us, and swiftly manoeuvres onto our side of the street. He jumps out, and accosts us in the street: 'Would like a ride? Do you need a place to stay? I can show you a place to stay for a cheap price!'
'No!', we shout at him and dive into a nearby bakery. Great. Shelter from the rain and warmth. We stumble around trying to work out what to do and eat, and we're quickly introduced to the local food on offer by a large friendly man in blue overalls, who recognises us as tourists instantly. He points out bürek (already a favourite) as well as a pretty big selection of other meat/potato/cheese filled pastry delights. The owner shows us to a table and we quickly warm up from the bakery and wait for the rain to pass while we tuck into a cheese bürek each.

We eventually stayed for 3 nights in a pension that was located and recommended us by the people at the tourist information centre. The place was cosy, but a little odd and the bathroom smelled of mould. It felt a little like we were intruding on somebodies home... which in fact we were, for a price.

Kotor is a small town by a lake surrounded by beautiful and huge dark mountains. The water was a brilliant turquoise and was a temporary home for many yachts and ships from all over. In the mountains were a couple of monasteries and other hidden secrets. On our second day there we decided to make the climb and check them out. It seemed not many people were interested in taking the same climb that day, we only passed a couple of people. We got a magnificent view of the surrounding area and got to see the monasteries and some farmhouses way high in the mountains.

After a few days we left, deciding to (unsuccessfully) hitch-hike to another town in Montenegro. We didn't do very well, and didn't get any further than Budva (terrible town), but we did manage to save four puppies that had been left by the side of the road in a cardboard box, much to Maritza's delight.