Stand proud, Montenegro!
Yay for free hostel internet, running Linux for that matter!
Upon waking up in Montenegro, I discovered that there was a reason for the raging techno concert the night before. Apparently Montenegro celebrates Karnivale, just like the Venetians across the Adriatic. In fact, I would soon discover that Montenegro mimics Italy in many ways, from appearance, to food, to even language (ciao!).
The town I was staying in is called Kotor, a small town nestled at the foot of super high mountains and squeezed in before the Bay of Kotor, a fjord looking thing that's officially classified as a "deep water bay." This allows for some awfully dramatic landscape. I should mention the oddity that a country whose native language is Serbian/Montegran would adopt a Spanish name, and that we would also call the country by the Spanish name, as opposed to the English translation (Black Mountain). Whatever, the name fits. Montenegro has to be one of the most mountainous countries in the world. Any time I wanted to go to a city I would have to spend 20 minutes descending to it from the mountain roads.
Back on point -- Kotor has a lovely old city (surprise!) that's home to the Karnivale celebrations and lots of tourists (no wonder those trains were all full). I really didn't have any plans here, except to admire the scenery, and there's a lot of that to admire.
Kotor waterfront.
In the old city.
I did, however, have a task to complete. I've lost the use of two shirts due to holes in one and a laundry accident for the other. However, I had passed the super cheap parts of my trip and was now entering the rather expensive places (15 Euros for a shirt in Montenegro, gah!). I went to the tourism office to ask where I might procure some cheap shirts. She mentioned that most of the stores here were pretty expensive, as I had already discovered, but that I could try the Chinese store. SCORE! An hour later, I left the Chinese store with three shirts for 10 Euros. First time in history a tourist has paid less than a local.
That afternoon I climbed the mountain behind Kotor in order to access the fortress at the top. The views were pretty awesome.
Slightly lower view from the fortress.
The party this night would be the 2nd of 3, with the final night being the biggest. Tonight's theme was "Prohibition," an odd theme for a party night. Also, it was a concept which only the Americans were familiar with. When I explained it to two Irish girls, they remarked, "The only thing that would drive people away from Ireland faster than a potato famine would be prohibition."
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