After a bumpy 7 hour bus ride (which was so much fun:) we arrived in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. This isn't high on anyone's tourist spot list, and we are not sure why so decided to come here anyway as usually every capital has something to see and do. We had read that there wasn't much to do here, and in a way that is true. but it is a great base for some beautiful Montenegrin sites to day trip to, all of which are within 2 or so hours. So our first day here was over the Bathurst weekend, so that meant staying home. Bec got up at 1 am on Sunday morning to watch all of the fun and excitement of the great race :) Nic thought she was crazy, but it was totally worth it. Sunday after that we spent relaxing and Bec spent some time napping.
 |
| The view from our Apartment in the centre of Podgorica. This is in no way a big capital city but has some great transport connections and it is nice to walk around not surrounded by a sea of tourists but locals |
When we arrived at the station we realised the fun we were in for as we looked up a mountain to where the station attendant showed us the monastery was. We couldn't see it, and the language barrier prevented us from getting detailed directions so with a point up to the hills and a zig-zag motion of his hands we set off on a hike that thousands of pilgrims undertake each year.
luckily we found a Cyrillic sign in the direction he pointed us that looked like it may be to the monastery so we followed it the mountain just hoping it went to the right place.
The hike was so much hard work and took us almost 2 hours of stairs and climbing rocks up hill but it was very worth it for the sits we walked though and the views of the Bjelopavlići plain (valley) below.
The path up to the monastery this is used in summer as the pilgrimage trail to the top
A zoomed in shot to the train station we walked from, 2 hours all up hill and mostly stairs.
The 1000 steps is nothing compared to this.
The monastery was carved in to the side of the mountain.
We were among the clouds
Becs excited we finally got to the top
the long hike down
some of the stairs
feels a bit lord of the rings walking through the forest
the half way mark was a small village
 |
| Looking back up to the Monastery, not even a quarter of the way back down yet. |
 |
| A gate to the Lower Monastery |
nic over walking down stairs
 |
| The sign about half way down |
Nic can see the train station again.
 |
| Bum slide some of the bigger stairs down |
view from the apartment in Podgorica
We spent a day walking around Podgorica to see what the city had to see (there is nothing listed in our Lonely Planet but we were certain there had to be something!) as we said, it is a pretty small city but it is definitely worth a days walk around.
On of our first stops was the oldest church in Montenegro, This church from the 11th century is the oldest in Podgorica and lies at the foot of Gorica hill. This church is one of the few buildings in the city which survived the heavy WWII bombing. The church has some nice frescoes inside, but what really drew us to see this church was the cemetery out the back. It is completely over run and pretty spooky. a great place to wander through.
After wandering through the spooky cemetery we headed next up the Gorica Hill (The name Podgorica comes from this hill, with 'pod' meaning under; Podgorica = 'under Gorica'
At the top of Gorica hill is a Partizan's Memorial to the victims of WWII. It is quite an imposing structure at the top of the hill, guarded by two soldiers.
 |
| Impersonating Nic as she always jumps in front of photos :) |
 |
| The rives is unbelievably clear and fast moving! |
Our final photograph stop was The Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, a Serbian Orthodox Church in the new town of Podgorica. WHilst it was only finished in 2003, the church has been constructed to have an older feel to it and has similar architecture to the Ostrog Monastery.
The frescos on the inside were a lot newer than those we saw in the Monastery and shone with a lot more gold than the more sober ones in Ostrog
We also spent some time walking through the city streets, but haven't really taken any photos of it as well its not really a touristy town so taking photos would be strange :) But it is a nice little city with many parks and public squares and lots of family run businesses (over big box) which have a very down to earth feel to them.
our last day trip was to Kotor, Which is a coastal town about 2 hours away by bus. This is a small town surrounded by mountains and a giant climb to the top of the walls that go up them. It is also a town where cruise ships come to port, so there are a few more tourists than Podgorica but luckily it isn't really tourist season any more and there was only 1 ship.
When we arriced we decided the first thing we would do was to tackle the town walls. The hike to the top is only a few hundred meters high, but it feels much higher as you just keep walking up.
 |
| The gate to the first part of the walls. |
 |
| Looking down over the town church |
 |
| Watching the ship come in. we were already pretty proud of ourselves as had already climbed lots of flights of stairs to get here... only the beginning... |
 |
| The lower part of the town wall |
 |
| Up we go... no stairs but rocks make it super fun :) |
so many stairs
 |
| At one point the birds began to act really strange and it seemed like there were hundreds of black birds fretting all over the town. Signs of what was to come I think as storms hit a while later |
 |
| Getting higher, further up views of the whole town |
 |
| Looking over to a village on the Bay of Kotor |
more stairs. This was a little over the half wap mark... it is deceptive though as when you get to the point at the top, it just keeps going along the peak of the mountain further up and back
 |
| Some sights from the top |
its so windy the backpack is keeping Nic on the ground :p look now she has seen some goats
 |
| Goats! At a little church behind the walls |
 |
| They were very friendly |
the streets were windy like the ones in Croatia's old towns.
 |
| They have a cat museum! It was closed for renovation but we really wanted to go in. half the proceeds go to feed the cats of the city so that's a really great thing. Whilst there haven't been as many homeless animals here in Montenegro as the last few countries it still breaks our hearts to see them treated with such disregard. |
 |
| Back on sea level (ish) out the at the entrance to the city |
we totally got this selfie thing down
So thats it for our Adventures in Montenegro, We have our last day here today it is bucketing down so we are spending it relaxing, packing and preparing for our 10 hour train ride to Belgrade in Serbia! really looking forward to spending some time there :)
Becola out :)
No comments:
Post a Comment