How about a Bud(va)?

The second day trip that Anne and Mark took while staying in Dubrovnik was to the Bay of Kotor, which is located in the nation of Montenegro.  Our understanding is that Montenegro is the Italian word for the country.  The Slavic name would be Црна Гора, and both translate to mean something to the effect of "Black Mountain" or "Black Peaks."  It is a small country, a little smaller than Connecticut, and was formerly part of Yugoslavia.

Anne and Mark boarded their chartered bus in Dubrovnik and started off.  The trip took them across the border in Montenegro to the Bay of Kotor.  They drove completely around this fairly unique natural bay until they reached the city of Kotor.  Then they went to Budva, a resort town on the Adriatic for lunch, then back to the bay.  On the return trip however, instead of re-doing the three hour drive around the bay, they took the ferry that floats cars over the narrowest part of the bay.

The Bay of Kotor (pictured immediately above as well as at the top of this post) is a natural bay which features the advantages of being flanked by steep, almost fjord-like cliffs on both sides as well as having a dramatic natural bottleneck.  These features made the bay relatively easy to fortify and, therefore, the bay has been valued as a port for hundreds of years.  The photo at the top of the post features the Our Lady of the Rocks church, which was built on an artificial island there.  The entire drive around the bay was eye candy, with picturesque views in every direction.

After circling most of the bay, Anne and Mark reached the city of Kotor.  This city is now an inviting destination that welcomes visitors, but in the past it was a well fortified entry point from the sea.

For most of its history, the water reached up to the city walls (shown above) and this small gate was the only way to enter the city.  (Now, the water is kept about 100 feet away and the area in front of the walls is a public space)  In the photo below, you can see the city walls reaching all the way to the top of the surrounding mountainside.  The Kotorians Kotorese Kotorites people of Kotor were not about to attacked from any direction with putting up a fight.

The wall was closed.  Otherwise Anne and Mark were totally going to climb to the top of it.

Despite all of this fortification, Anne and Mark entered the city with little resistance.  Once inside, they looked around and sat down for a morning cup of coffee.  The cafe was next to the water pump shown below.  When the city was on lock-down because of an invading force or whatever, this pump was the only source of water for the residents (they claim that it still works, but Anne and Mark did not have the mechanical expertise to get it pumping, and being aware of this fact, they did not make an attempt).  According to the locals, people would hang around the water pump and gossip about the barbarians (more likely, the Venetians) at the gate and whatever else.  Perhaps this gossip at the water pump was the medieval equivalent of our modern office water cooler talk.

After a little idle chit-chat around the old water pump, Anne and Mark visited the Cathedral of St. Trifon.  You may remember St. Trifon from last February's celebration of St. Trifon's Day.  Well, this cathedral was dedicated to the same guy.  

This area has experienced its share of earthquakes and the cathedral has been damaged and rebuilt a few times.  You may have noticed that the two towers are not identical.  This is a fairly odd thing for church towers.  There are several local legends to explain this abnormality, although most are probably intended to scare children.  For example, one of these legends says that the tower on the right was completed, but they ran out of money before finishing the tower on the left.  See?  Scary stuff.

Anyway, back to Trifon.  The legend is that his body was in Kotor after he died and church officials were trying to transport it to somewhere else to put it to rest.  Each time they got in a boat with the body, however, a storm rose up and threw them back to the city.  After three tries, they finally took divine intervention for an answer and instead of transporting Trifon to somewhere else, they put him to rest here and dedicated a cathedral to him.

In the Orthodox Church, religious relics are held in high regard and with stored with reverence.  According to the locals, the room pictured above is filled with relics related to St. Trifon.  The most important of these, according to those who know, are the bones of the saint located in the silver box between the two kneeling angels and the head of the saint (without his nose, presumably) located in the golden case, also located between the two angels.

Before leaving Kotor, Mark took the opportunity to add another episode in his inconsistent series entitled "Donuts Around the World."  The photo below is the "before" picture.  (Imagine an empty display case, if you want to know what the "after" picture looked like)

From there, Anne and Mark traveled to the resort town of Budva.  On the way there, they stopped on the side of the road to take a look at the island of Sveti Stefan.  This is a hideout for the rich and famous.  How rich and famous?  If you have to ask, it does not apply to you.

As close as the Sveti Stefan people would let Mark get.

After this brief stop, Anne and Mark made it to Budva for sight-seeing and lunch.  Budva is a resort town and was well stocked with restaurants.

Budva on the far bank.

Budva also has an old town with city walls and gates, but not quite as extensive as Dubrovnik or Kotor.   So, having developed a case of city wall and gate fatigue (or perhaps, after having become "city wall and gate snobs"), Anne and Mark decided against exploring the city and instead spent some time in the shallows of the Adriatic.  Even though this was November, the water was pleasantly warm.

Anne rocks the "high waters."

After leaving Budva, Anne and Mark headed back toward Dubrovnik.  Most of this trip was on the highway, but a small portion of it was on the ferry that took them across the bottleneck portion of the Bay of Kotor.  This ferry trip took place very near to sunset and it was difficult not to enjoy the views.

The sun setting over the Bay.