Montenegro, Part 2

 Our road trip in Montenegro continued from Zabljak to Kolasin. 

We left snowy Zabljak and headed down out of the snow and into the Tara River Canyon. The roads were good and all was well with driving, although there weren't many people out and I'm sure it's much busier in the summer. The water of the Tara Canyon was amazing!

Can you find Kotor, Zabljak, and Kolasin?

We arrived in Kolasin and were so relieved by our accommodation. It felt so luxurious compared to our last few stays! It was new, bright, clean, and had heated floors and towel racks! Also, we could throw our toilet paper in the toilet and flush, which is something we haven't done since we were in France at the beginning of November. We are still choosing to treat our tap water before drinking it, although I think we would probably be ok, but that will be a welcome treat when we return to drinking the water right from the tap.

The grocery stores in Kolasin were a big bigger and less expensive than in Kotor or Zabljak.

Kolasin is a ski resort and a nearby town. After researching many ski resorts in Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia, I picked two for our family to go to this year. Kolasin was one of them. There are two twin resorts side by side, called "1450" and "1600" with a chair lift that links them. Much of the infrastructure for the resort and town is still under construction, particularly around the 1600 area which is newer. It feels like it could be really awesome in a few years. There is a lovely looked Sheraton hotel in town, but it wasn't open while we were there. Of course, there wasn't any snow in town either. 

We went for a hike and found some ice and snow to play in.

Snack time!

Can you see apple, orange, tinsel, and candy wrappers decorating this person's Christmas tree?

The old mill next to the river in town

This traditional restaurant now occupies the old mill, but it wasn't open while we were there.

We enjoyed hiking up to a lake in the the nearby Biogradska Gora (protected park). There was some snow up around the lake and it was chilly and sleeting some. It ended up being about 4km hiking up, climbing quite a bit, and then the descent of 4km down back to our car. I bet in the summer it's lush and green and gorgeous and you can drive up to the lake in your car and then mountain bike or hike all around.

We don't go out for meals very often - we tend to buy groceries and have all of our meals and snacks in our accommodation or on the go. But we did decide to have one dinner out while we were here. We read a few reviews and tried to find a restaurant. There weren't a lot of choices - some restaurants weren't open and many, many places seem to be cafes that serve coffee and alcohol but not food. You can get a shot of whiskey or a coffee at just about any time of day, but finding a sandwhich or a plate of food seems much harder to us. But we found a lovely little cabin on the side of the highway and pulled in and ordered. We appreciated the cozy atmosphere and the wood stove as we had just been out hiking in the sleet and we were cold. The people were very friendly and our server spoke English. We used google translate for the small menu. We ordered steak and schnitzel and were given meat and french fries. I'm blown away by the amount of french fries available in every country we go to. Much harder to find vegetables or a salad as far as I can tell... but maybe we aren't looking in the right places.

Eating the 'home made cheese' as an appetizer

Jason got in a decent run with some altitude and hill climbing, and then we all drove to the ski resort. There was snow up high and we wished we had our touring stuff to give it a go. The staff said they were crossing their fingers to have enough snow to open on January 20, and everyone around seemed really disappointed at the unusually warm winter so far. 

There were still lots of people there: a DJ played music loudly, people drank coffee on the patio, and loads of families were sledding and tubing. We tried the tubing, rented sleds, and threw snowballs. A pretty fun 'Plan B' if we couldn't go downhill skiing.

We left Kolasin earlier in the morning as the forecast was for a LOT of rain over the next few days. From Kolasin south to the capital Podgorica, we paid a euro 3.50 toll and drove through a LOT of really nice modern tunnels. The kids had fun trying to hold their breath. In case you're curious, the kids can hold their breath through a 1200m tunnel, but definitely not the tunnels that were over 3km!

Me, looking under the furniture before we leave, making sure we're not leaving anything behind

Our modern tunnels - lit, 2-3 lanes in one direction, signs in English, etc

Near Podgorica, a geocaching adventure took us to the "Niagara Falls of Montenegro". We parked near this cute restaurant and then enjoyed playing beside the waterfalls and river for a little while in the light rain.

Driving south from Podgorica, it started raining pretty hard. We were grateful for another euro 2.00 toll road with awesome pavement and loads more tunnels that took us South. We drove through Skader Lake National Park toward the coastal town of Bar, but then North on the coast back to Kotor.

We stopped at this little fortification, which is now converted to a resort, called Sveti Stefan (just south of Budva), to get a geocache. Rachel and I ran across the bridge to the entrance and got hit with wind, waves and rain crashing into us. It was fun, but then we were pretty wet for the rest of the drive back to Kotor.

Sveti Stefan

Drenched from finding a geocache!

When we arrived in Kotor to return our rental car and get our next accommodation, it was POURING rain HARD and the wind was crazy. We were glad to be done the drive and settle into our next place. The forecast for the week is very wet, so we will probably stay inside more and catch up on work, school work, and trip planning. 

What's next? 3 days in Kotor and 3 days in Herceg Novi, our last place in Montenegro. Herceg Novi is a coastal town that is very close to the intersection of Montenegro / Croatia / Bosnia so we will stay there before catching our bus onward to our next country.

Thanks for following along!