After breakfast and bade goodbye to Hideaki, I checked out and boarded a bus to Perast. As expected, there was no boat to the Lady of the Rock during off season. Lady of the Rock was built on an artificial island made by sinking 87 ships loaded with rocks and on 22nd July for the past 550 years, locals will sail there to drop stone overboard as a tradition. Perast is a very small and quiet village. It is like time stand still in twilight zone. Met very nice Polish couple who is travelling around in a RV home. Their RV is so comfortable..almost like a hotel inside. What a great retirement plan!
After about half hour in Perast, I took a return bus to Kotor and changed to a bus to Cetinje. Met Hideaki in the same bus! He was heading towards Podgorica. Cetinje was old capital of Montenegro. The whole town is like a textbook of Montenegro history. Guided by the Cetinje map on the wall, I walked towards Cetinje Monastery. This ancient monastery houses the hand of John the Baptist but the relic is kept and not shown in open. Inside, no photographs are allowed. From there I walked towards the Court Church and Biljarda. I visited the King Nikola's Palace and greatly disappointed with the fact there is no toilet inside the building. While the furniture and decor is not as impressive as most palaces that I have visited, I enjoyed the portrait paintings inside the palace. Montenegro still has a lot to learn about promoting tourism. All public toilets like in Croatia are closed during off season. After vising the park, there was nothing much left to do really. Walked back to the bus station but ended up waiting for more than one hour for a bus to Podgorica. The buses are not punctual. At the bus stop, one can see Mount Lovcen from far. A taxi driver was telling about the price of taxi to go up and down the mountain(about euro25). Montenegro is a very mountainous country and the view along the bus journey from Cetinje to Podgorica is beautiful. At Podgorica, I bargained with taxi driver to go to the airport as there is no airport coach. There is night bus from Podgorica at 8pm to Skopje, capital of Macedonia but I only knew because Tokiko emailed me about it. Earlier on, I was worried about bus availability and the fact that the bus might pass by Albania or Serbia. I do not have visa to enter Serbia. Hence to avoid headache, I flew to Skopje instead of taking bus...which cost me gbp76 on flight alone. Bus fare only cost about euro22 and it goes through Kosovo and arrives at 3am in Skopje ( 7 hours). Hideaki took this bus and he said that it is difficult to sleep because there are many custom checkpoints throughout the journey.
Podgorica Airport has a very scenic backdrop of mountain range. I had enough time to kill and even snap sunset photos there. No one adhere to the nonsmoking rule inside the airport. The smell of cigarette smoke almost choked me to death. The plane to Biograd (transit in Serbia) departed on time. The only problem was the propeller is way too noisy and I swore I could smell cigarette smoke somewhere at least for three times. Since I sat in front, the only person who could have smoked would be the pilot himself! There was light refreshment on both legs of the journey. Arrived in Skopje earlier than scheduled. It was very very cold and worst my taxi was not there. There was some misunderstanding about my day of arrival. A kind Macedonian man helped me to call up my taxi and it arrived within 20minutes. Paid euro13 (airport taxi is euro20 to centre). Reached the City Hostel near midnight. Had a good night sleep.
After about half hour in Perast, I took a return bus to Kotor and changed to a bus to Cetinje. Met Hideaki in the same bus! He was heading towards Podgorica. Cetinje was old capital of Montenegro. The whole town is like a textbook of Montenegro history. Guided by the Cetinje map on the wall, I walked towards Cetinje Monastery. This ancient monastery houses the hand of John the Baptist but the relic is kept and not shown in open. Inside, no photographs are allowed. From there I walked towards the Court Church and Biljarda. I visited the King Nikola's Palace and greatly disappointed with the fact there is no toilet inside the building. While the furniture and decor is not as impressive as most palaces that I have visited, I enjoyed the portrait paintings inside the palace. Montenegro still has a lot to learn about promoting tourism. All public toilets like in Croatia are closed during off season. After vising the park, there was nothing much left to do really. Walked back to the bus station but ended up waiting for more than one hour for a bus to Podgorica. The buses are not punctual. At the bus stop, one can see Mount Lovcen from far. A taxi driver was telling about the price of taxi to go up and down the mountain(about euro25). Montenegro is a very mountainous country and the view along the bus journey from Cetinje to Podgorica is beautiful. At Podgorica, I bargained with taxi driver to go to the airport as there is no airport coach. There is night bus from Podgorica at 8pm to Skopje, capital of Macedonia but I only knew because Tokiko emailed me about it. Earlier on, I was worried about bus availability and the fact that the bus might pass by Albania or Serbia. I do not have visa to enter Serbia. Hence to avoid headache, I flew to Skopje instead of taking bus...which cost me gbp76 on flight alone. Bus fare only cost about euro22 and it goes through Kosovo and arrives at 3am in Skopje ( 7 hours). Hideaki took this bus and he said that it is difficult to sleep because there are many custom checkpoints throughout the journey.
Podgorica Airport has a very scenic backdrop of mountain range. I had enough time to kill and even snap sunset photos there. No one adhere to the nonsmoking rule inside the airport. The smell of cigarette smoke almost choked me to death. The plane to Biograd (transit in Serbia) departed on time. The only problem was the propeller is way too noisy and I swore I could smell cigarette smoke somewhere at least for three times. Since I sat in front, the only person who could have smoked would be the pilot himself! There was light refreshment on both legs of the journey. Arrived in Skopje earlier than scheduled. It was very very cold and worst my taxi was not there. There was some misunderstanding about my day of arrival. A kind Macedonian man helped me to call up my taxi and it arrived within 20minutes. Paid euro13 (airport taxi is euro20 to centre). Reached the City Hostel near midnight. Had a good night sleep.
Perast with St George Monastery and Our Lady of the Rock
Cetinje Monastery that houses hand of John the Baptist
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