On the walls of the Old Town of Budva |
The walls of Kotor old town, and the shortest river in the country - 300m from source to sea. |
25 switchbacks, and took 3 hours to ascend in a horse-drawn carriage. That's why. |
Montenegro ("Black Mountain") is, well, mostly mountain. And a strip of Mediterranean coast. It's beautiful. It has the southernmost fjord in Europe (the Gulf of Kotor) and the tallest men, on average, in the continent (and boy are they proud of that! - the local tour guides couldn't wait to reel off the heights of their historical heroes and current politicians).
Once you get away from the coast, the landscape is Alpine.
The "city" of Zabljak (pop.1937) |
And in the high mountains, incredibly bleak:
This is where CHWD starts out! Yeeeeeees! |
It's overwhelmingly an Orthodox Christian country so I went in as many churches as I could (RESEARCH!!). I did get to see the Right Hand of St John the Baptist, but sorry no photo.
"You're from England?" said the priest. "Where's that? Somewhere near Ireland, right?" Snrrrrk. |
The cliff-face monastery of St Vasilija (Basil) at Ostrog:
The mummified body of the Blessed Ozana: visionary, shepherdess and defeater of the Ottoman Navy:
I got permission. Never piss off any saint who looks like she could get up and eat your brains. |
Of course the research wasn't all dry and ecclesiastical. I delved deep into the traditions of Montenegrin cuisine too:
And picked up this local guy who hung out with me for a couple of days...
So don't feel too sorry for me guys. It's a tough life being a writer, but I'm up to the challenges :-)
God, how utterly gorgeous. Can I come next time? What a perfect and wonderful backdrop to your story. I'm blown away. Good choice!
ReplyDeleteAlso, heh, England is a small island off the coast of Ireland, eh?
Wow! It looks like you had a totally amazing time, Janine! The pictures are fabulous, and I'm dying to hear all about your trip. And also, not nagging or anything, but hurry up and write Cover Him with Darkness!I can wait to read it!
ReplyDeleteIt's so strange ... I write this short story, pick Montenegro randomly as the setting just through a process of logical elimination (it had to be European, reasonably near the Med, mountainous, really remote) ... and two years later I'm going there, writing a novel, and learning all this stuff aout Balkan history. Life is ... unpredictable!
ReplyDeleteI must write a book about winning the lottery!
ReplyDeleteTotally! It might work, you never know ;-)
ReplyDelete