Cetinje

Good weather equaled another day of exploration for me and Lauren. We have a list of cities on the bucket list while we're in the Balkans, but most of them are seaside towns. The attractions here revolve around sunny summer weather so we're holding off until the end of our season when we can go for a swim. If we eliminate those cities, there are few tourist attractions on the interior of Montenegro. The main one is Monastery Ostrog (look boys and girls, my blog's first link!!), which is considered a religious pilgrimage. Lauren and I have had our eye on it for a while, but it never seems to be the right weekend to make the trek (due to ill-timed busses, terrible connections, bad weather etc.) So, we settled for another inland town called Cetinje. This is a very historical town in the "North" of Montenegro. North warrants air-quotes because it really isn't northern at all....see?!

While brushing up on what exactly there was to see, we stumbled upon an article of a very important ruler whose dying wish was to be buried on the top of Lovcen (a mountain pronounced Love-chin) because from this mountain it is possible to see all of Montenegro. In his honor, the lovely Montenegrin people built a mausoleum honoring his wishes. Other than this, there were a few churches and a monastery to see within the town.

Ok, now back to chronological organization...

Lauren and I made sure to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the bus station. The bus for Budva left around 9:45 and then we had to catch another train to reach Cetinje. We were the only ones on the bus, so we really felt like we were riding in the lap of luxury (this could have also been due to the red plush seats and individualized ash trays on the back of the seats...a real treat!) What should have taken about 45 minutes took about an hour or longer because or grandpa driver drove SO slow. I can appreciate cautious driving, but it was not in the name of safety. Instead, it was so that he could maneuver the bus while simultaneously locating a cigarette, lighter and cracking the window for the makeshift ashtray. Lauren and I had a moment where we just looked at each other and laughed. My laugh was more at the fact that it was such a typical Balkans move.

living the life in our private bus! 

We fiiiiinally arrived in Budva, and bought our ticket from the nice lady at the counter. To my surprise, she spoke great english and helped us to find the next bus. We were feeling very proud of ourselves because we were able to locate the timetable (not all stations have one) and find the proper bus and time. Perfect! We had an hour to kill before the next bus left so we took the time to grab some water for our rigorous hike up to the mausoleum and some snacks. We then searched for an ATM to no avail, and then headed back to the station to sit for another half hour or so. When we got back in the lady at the station gave us a blank look and said "um, you missed your bus"... IDIOTS!! Come to find out, the clock on the timetable screen was off by an hour (get it together, Budva!). Anyway, we were able to catch the next bus which left in about 5 minutes. No setbacks other than our bruised egos.

just hanging out at the Budva station..

We got on the bus and within minutes we were very high above Budva. This was expected, considering that our final destination was a place where you could see the whole country!! When we got there, we promptly found a map with the highlighted route to the top and we were told by a taxi driver this was only 1 kilometer. We were mildly confused and one of Lauren's quotes was "I feel like if we stand on top of this mountain, all we'll see is more mountains!". Well, she was right. The mausoleum was an impostor, but gave us a GREAT view of the monastery we were supposed to be at!

lovcen is at the top of that snow-capped mountain. we were WAAAAY off! 

We took the time to soak in the views and take some pictures. She was very adamant we take a picture while jumping, but it was nearly IMPOSSIBLE with the self timer. Lauren's blog (which says very similar things from a slightly different perspective) has our only successful one, but I thought it would be fun to show some of the bloopers...

After we wasted a solid hour or so up there taking pictures, we came down and wandered around town. There was still a chance we could make it to the real mausoleum if we hustled, but we heard through the grapevine that Lovcen was actually closed due to bad weather. In order to confirm this we asked a few more people and got mixed reviews. Eventually, we ran into a man who said he thought it could be open because of roads, but closed because of what time it was. We chalked it up to an impossibility and changed our plans. Instead of pursuing Lovcen, we went to Budva instead to meet Maja and Marija who were there watching a volleyball match.

All in all, it definitely wasn't the day we envisioned, but we still had a lot of fun. It's always nice to get out of the apartment, navigate our way through the bewildering world of the Montenegrin transportation system and see some new things. I'm not sure Cetinje is a "must-see", but now we have a better idea of the way of life of the "Northerners". Here are a few pictures from various places in the city....

typical street in "downtown"

a picture of the monastery...but what could make this picture just a little more fun????.......

NUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case you're more of a visual learner, Lauren and I also documented our travels this time around. Fun, right? Here's just a little video we shot throughout the day...hope you like it!!