Montenegro Part 3

I've had two nights here and that's long enough to enjoy the generosity of anyone's time and home.. but Blazo was just adamant that he has more of Montenegro to show me and I must stay longer.. I am so grateful and I feel guilty for him to take time off of work.. Convincing me that there is no trouble with work, I reluctantly agreed - ha!!  I get to pick, do I want to see more coast or mountains?  Mmm, I think I'm in the mood for mountains today.. ;-)

Hey Hey.. still plenty of snow!

This is cool, and so beautiful, we made the right choice added with perfect weather! Really lucky to be here.

With another hobby to his credits, Blazo is a keen skiier, and shows me his favorite weekend hangout during winter.  He tells me coming in May, every year, he takes a drive to the beach for a swim and then heads up to the mountains to ski on the same day... because HE can!

Ooooooh, is it slippery??  Not at all..

Another popular stop in the mountains is Crno Lake (Black Lake)  Just beautiful country.. again, I originally didn't know where Montenegro was so I didn't have any expectations.  But this is an amazing place and I'm surprised I don't hear more about it as a travel destination!

The rock slides are a problem on these roads.. we got stopped for a while as they bulldoze huge boulders  out of the way.. Blazo says he's been hit by a large rock in the chest while riding through here..

Also for this country of extreme sports is bungy jump from this bridge at Djurdjevica Tara.

No way, Jose.. no bungy for me.. I'm happy to look at it from here ;-)

Now time for lunch.. yay!  Always look forward to this part of the day..

Small country, he knows everybody and we stop in for a late lunch to Zlatni Papagaj (Golden Parrot in English) and were fed very well at no charge by Blazo's good friend, Vladan Zugic.  What a great guy and how lucky we are, because this meal was huge and really good!  There is no way I got through this meal.. including the soup they served prior to this big plate!  The little top left plate is cheese (I thought it was butter ;-), really good, and the right top plate is cabbage salad, the pasta has mushrooms just pulled from the forest.. Thank you Vako!

I think we've had a very fulfilling day.. time to start heading back to Podgorica.. I could never EVER expect a better host and complete tour of this country.

 Long curvy decent out of this part of the mountains.

Bummer it got dark on the way back, all too pretty.  More of Montenegro to come in the next post!

Because I Can World Tour Montenegro t.v. interview

Montenegro Part 2

The next day, a very enthusiastic Blazo has the entire day completely planned!

First stop he organized us to meet both a television and newspaper journalist.

These things make me nervous and I get embarrassed, but we got through it.. it was special for a couple reasons.  First, Montenegro really followed these boys on their http://www.theridearound2010.me so I am sure it was good for an update.. Secondly, and most surprisingly to me is that the journalist tells me that women in Montenegro don't ride motorcycles.. I thought he was kidding, but it seems to be true from what the boys tell me as well!  So in this interview, the journalist asked me if I was embarrassed to meet the guys in Vladivostok, being a "woman" rider.  ????  At the time of interview, I really didn't understand the question, but now I do. Here is the Youtube link:

(Couldn't work out why it wouldn't play the interview within this post, so it is a separate post above..)

It's funny the things I assume.. I have been told more since this interview that is rare for women to ride motorcycles in most of these Balkan countries.  So should I be embarrassed??  I'm not, but I appreciate cultural differences. ;-)

Blazo, Nino and Marko

Now we can go for a ride along the most gorgeous Lake Skadar (Shkoder) in Montenegro. Being the largest lake in the Balkan region it also borders and views across to Albania.

But wait!  First we must have lunch.. better than lunch, a real taste of Montenegro food, fresh soup from the Shkoder lake fish.  It was soooo good, I can tell ya.!

Local fisherman

Gee whiz, I love experiencing local fresh food, the best!  Sorry, now we can go!

Also sorry for the supersize photo, but I wanted to show that white bit in the middle. It is actually a fortress called Grmozur.  Built by the Turks in 1843.  Taken over by the Montenegrans and later used as a prison/dungeon. I can only imagine what it would have been like in the day..

This is really fun...

Have you ever seen a prettier road?

There's the snowy white tips of Albania!

Next we rode down the hill to the coast again to pick up Blazo's wife, who finished work a bit early so she could have fun too..!  Don't blame her! ;-)

Montenegro girls playing a dice game

We travel the coast from Bar to Budva.. with a little stop at a lovely little church along the water..

Orthodox Priest

What a bummer church donkey has to go home early.. and we only just got here!  ;-(

Central dome ceiling

Being an Orthodox church and I really notice the difference in art work after spending so much time in Italy. Although from the top tip of Russia all the way to Montenegro so far, there are masses of old churches full of history and they put a huge effort, time and money into the beauty and art of the church walls and ceilings.. do they still do this today? If so, not much..

And every country has it's way for burials.  These graves have handles to open, which I thought was odd. They explain to me as each family member passes, they collect the bones of the previous, put in a bag and move forward in the grave to make space for the next one.  Hmm.

A finish to a wonderful big day in Montenegro.. now a ride through the mountains back to Podgorica.

Thank you and Good night!