5. Montenegro.

Montenegro, Utejha.

July 7th - 10th

The border crossing took ages, worst so far... Sitting in the car in the baking sun with a family of beggars tapping us, not a pleasant experience, I will give to most but when they and you know you can't move on its not a good place to be. Glad to be across the border and on the road to the coast,  the GPS (google maps) said just over half hour, great we thought!! One hour later we were pretty much stuck on the 'higher' coast road which was very narrow and all of the roads taking us down were even narrower, stressful situation, anyway we took a break at a shop for an ice cream and asked a local if he thought we could get down a certain road and he said the he does it in his minibus, so we went for it and although it was single lane luckily it had a good run off on either side, we finally made it to the E851!!!

The up side is the crystal clear sea.

Looking forward to a cool off in the sea we arrived at Camp Oliva in Maslina Bay, Utejha which was just opposite the ram packed beach... towel to towel and brolly to brolly, until now we had space and freedom which had been lovely, not complaining though it is very beautiful...

Very very old olive tree.

We drove on to the site and despite emailing to book it was pretty much the same as the beach and just about managed to get squeezed in but didn't have room to get the sun canopy up, luckily we were surrounded by the most beautiful olive trees I have ever seen which offered some welcome shade.

Making good use of the stones :)

An essential cool one...

With the essentials done in the caravan; power and beds, we went off to the beach. The beach was stones so not at all comfortable but the sea was just what we needed, crystal clear and extremely refreshing closely followed by a beer, pizza and bed, an early night was in order for us.

The next day we decided to take a look around Bar and book our ferry to Italy, other than some nice restaurants along the harbour not much to see here so we headed for the old town of Bar, we parked and despite being parked in a free parking space a guy was insisting we paid and in the end we gave him a Euro. 

Coffee and homemade biscuits.

Bar old town.

Half way up the hill.

The old town of Bar.

The old towns narrow cobbled streets were lined with shops and cafes, it was very traditional and a lovely place to relax and look around. We sat and had a Turkish coffee that came with some totally divine homemade cookies, after a second helping we set of for the top of the hill to the castle, it was huge and very well preserved so we were excitedly spurred on, feeling a little like the Famous Four we looked at as much as we could, investigating as many towers, nooks and crannies and dungeons as we possibly could, the boys were bored first I shall add.

Unusual door?!

Famous Four!!

Looking around.

Pretty in Pink :)

The street below.

Lemonade place.

On the way back to the car we had a zesty chilled homemade lemonade and thought what a lovely time we were having despite what we felt was not a relaxing start but low and behold when we got back to the car a different guy was telling us that we had to pay, the area was a free parking zone (we had checked in the tourist info office) and we felt a little disappointed as these people were intimidating and very persistent, Neil at this point has had quite enough and was now telling other tourists it was a free parking zone and not to pay...




We set off back to the campsite and within a few minutes Matty said his tablet had gone from the back of the car, to cut a long story short it had and it seemed likely that the guys asking for parking money opened the window and stole it, Matty was gutted!! We decided to do the right thing and report the theft to the police and also let them know about the tricksters at the parking area, the Police in Montenegro are similar to the Police in Bulgaria, chocolate tea pot springs to mind, they were all sat around smoking and smirking at us and told us to go back in an hour - it was already quite late and to be honest thought it would be fruitless so didn't bother, unfortunately we were feeling pretty low at this point and went to bed looking forward to getting the ferry in two days time.

The next morning we felt a bit better, not much though, for some reason we were not 'feeling' Montenegro, the camp site was more than 60% occupied by permanent camping pitches, when this happens people who live in them can sometimes become a little territorial (naturally) and it kind of feels like you have pitched in someones garden without invitation, here their feelings were almost palpable.

Huge cruise ship in Kotor Bay.

City wall.

We had wanted to drive further north to the Bay of Kotor to camp but felt it was just too long of a journey to then have to back track for the ferry so we decide just to go for the day,  it was a long drive but well worth it, the harbor had the biggest cruise ship docked that I had ever seen and few luxury if not super yachts.






The old town is a UNESCO world heritage site and its clear why the Lonely Planet had awarded it the title of No 1 city 2016, the old town wall snaked to the top of the mountain, the medieval narrow streets were full of shops, eataries, museums, churches and impressive architecture, totally loved it!! We had lunch and walked along the edge of the waterfront had a swim, a nap :) and an ice cream in the mountain encircled Ria (submerged river bed) that is Kotor bay - dreamy!! 

More cool and crystal clear water.

Bay of Kotor

Time to head back but on the way back to the car I realised I had lost the camera... OMG what else can happen, my heart sank, I had now lost all of my photos, after an hour of retracing my steps I found it, a lovely young Serbian man running boat trips picked it up and put it to one side, filled with gratitude we left the spectacular Bay of Kotor.

Outside the city walls.

Lovely benches.

Kotor humor :)

Departure day! We could board the ferry from 8pm in which case our plan was to swim and leisurely pack up for 5pm, however at 3pm the site owners asked us when we were leaving and told us we were causing them a problem as we should have left at 12, this was disappointing as they had not objected when we told them we would leave in the afternoon when we paid our bill in the morning. Should have know it was all going too well, at this point there was not a lot we could do but get cracking and leave, we arrived in Bar early enough to relax and eat, the WiFi at the restaurant was great so the boys called their friends, it was lovely to see their faces when they heard the familiar voices, I shed a tear or two at this point...

Goodnight Montenegro!!

Dockside.

The plan was to get on the ferry as early as possible, get a shower in the cabin and watch the final, Portugal and France. We were instructed to park at the dock side and it was at this point panic set in with Neil as it was clear that he had to reverse the car and caravan in, the boys and I boarded and headed for the cabin. 

Not the cabin we had hoped for.

It was a couple of hours before Neil joined us and the match was already on. The boat was very dated and the dream of us cooling off in our air conditioned cabin was soon shattered, it was stuffy and hot, and the bathroom floor was soaked which was worrying as none of us at this point had showered and the WC pan was loose... To top it all the outside cabin we paid extra for had a window so old and dirty we could not see out of it!!

The match was on and off due to the poor signal but we saw the goal and the final whistle, very good result!! The boys both have Portugal tops which I actually found in second hand shops in BG last year which at the time I thought was definitely a sign that we were on the right path.

On board entertainment.

Dont let the bed bugs bite...

Neil and I took the top bunks, usually the boys would like them but we were afraid they would fall off during the night, it wasnt the cool and restful night we needed and we woke up in Italy tired and hot.

Sporting the winners.

Good morning Napoli!!

Happy traveler :)