a random update, I wonder who is even on here any more?
Hey hey everyone
Just got back to London from a lovely relaxing week in Montenegro, staying in an old stone house in the UNESCO heritage listed town of Perast with the family of a friend from Oxford. The town was an important trading place during Venetian rule when it was regularly attacked by pirates (ARR!) 300-400 years ago and has 17 'palaces' (big stone houses now divided into private apartments) and over 20 old churches! It's situated on the shores of Southern Europe's largest (if not only) fjord so we were swimming every day in deep blue waters surrounded by steep rocky mountains, with everything glowing in the mediterranean light - just beautiful. Didn't do very much during the week, one day a sailing trip around the bay (we got as far as the Adriatic sea which was a bit choppy so I promptly threw up everywhere - lady of charm, that's me!), the next day we drove all the way along the length of the coast to the border with Albania (which took all of 2.5 hours! it's a SMALL country). There is masses of building expansion happening everywhere as tourism is one of Montenegro's biggest industries - although this year the numbers of visitors were apparently really down as the credit crunch begins to bite Western Europe. It was really sad to see so many old people sitting out in the sun by the side of the road, holding out little paper signs saying 'SOBE' (Rooms - basically private apartments that are part of their homes) as they tried to make their annual income - most of which is generated in these 3 summer months and has to sustain them the rest of the year. I wonder what will happen to them as the bigger places compete for customers and prices have to drop as fewer people come... The people I stayed with were lovely and gracious although the parents didn't really speak English, and there was lots of fresh fish and vegetables and bread every day - I may now be totally fished out lol :)
On the way to Montenegro I stayed one night in Dubrovnik with my friend at a cool little hostel/apartment place in the old town and walked round and round lots of narrow cobbled streets and twisted steep stairways as well as along the tops of the city walls which were built as fortifications aroudn the old town several hundred years ago. It's the largest walled city of it's kind and is known as the 'Pearl of the Adriatic' because the marble and other stones used just glow in the brilliant Mediterranean sun, standing out against the deep blue water. A number of areas are in ruins and you can see the pockmarks the bullets etc dug into the houses durign the recent war with Serbia/Montenegro. We tried to be fair and visit a church, mosque and synagogue but the last two were museums only as the place is overwhelmingly christian - mainly catholic and eastern orthodox. Definitely worth a visit if you are in Europe - I really wished I had more time there.
I had an 'interesting' trip to the airport in Dubrovnik today from Kotor (near Perast) that started with both the driver and co-driver lighting up in the front of the bus as we drove off - right under the no-smoking sign! I remembered what you said about never telling a Montenegran to put their cigarette out but I was sitting RIGHT behind then and when it was clear this was going to be a chain smoking journey I pointed to the sign and said 'no-smoking?' - and was promptly told to move to the back of the bus if it bothered me!
So I did, and spent the next 3 plus hours suffocating in the heat and smoky 'aircon', trying to sleep to make it go faster :) We got to Herceg Novi and it was time for a 25 minute smoke break apparently, although we were already running late. At this point I was told there was no way I would make it to the airport in time if I went all the way to Dubrovnik, and they couldn't take me as it was illegal to stop there, so I would be dropped at the border crossing and take a taxi from there, along with another guy in the same situation. When we got to the border we jumped out and stumbled around with our luggage in circles looking for this mythical taxi we were told would be easy to find - but none materialized. Meanwhile the line of cars and buses inched past us, and soon enough the bus we'd been on drew up and we were told to get back on - all of this, by the way, with much gesticulating and repetition as there wasn't much language in common! Once on the bus the other guy going to the airport surreptitiosly beckoned me over and with much whispering and pointing I was told that if we paid 10 Euros each the bus would be our taxi and drop us near the airport - talk about a dodgy adventure! lol :) They ended up literally dropping us - I thought I'd have to make a running leap and roll, bags and all, from the bus and under some barbed wire! Instead they paused for 2 seconds at a petrol station nearby, taking off in a cloud of smoke, and we had to walk from there...
So that was my little adventure! :) I hung out in the airport for a while as the flight was delayed but we were so late getting there it wasnt as much as I'd thought. Met a couple of nice girls from NZ on the plane and chatted the whole way back and we may catch up tomorrow and go see the London Dungeons or something. I have masses of stuff to do in the next week before flying out to Thailand on the 28th!
Hope you are doing well, it would be great to hear from you and all about your universe :)
Lots of love
Qudsia
xx