Thursday, September 17, 2015
Breakfast buffet started at 6:30am and bags out by 8:15am
and the bus left at 9am. We drove just about one hour before our first stop
along the road at a truck stop kind of place. They had about 2-4 toilet/bidet
stalls if you can call them that. They were squatters. A ceramic hole in the floor
with ridged foot wells. Clay said the men’s room was clean and dry. Not so the
women’s. There was no soap or paper products and the Gate One bus with a large
group that is either always just ahead of us or passing us and gotten there
first. There was solid stuff protruding out of the floor hole along with paper
and the paper bin was overflowing and there was toilet paper in the bidet bowl.
The floor ridges of the squatter were filled with urine. The most horrifying
thing was that Gabriella had told us she would only stop at nice bathrooms! As
Clay pointed out to me, the men’s room would have qualified as nice. He blamed
the Gate One passengers when I described the women’s room condition. About
11:15am, we stopped in the town of Shkodra. We had 2 hours of free time here.
The bus dropped us near a couple of pedestrian streets that had banks, jewelry
stores, cell phone stores and bars and restaurants. She advised that service was
very slow in this town and prices were low so it was a good place to get Euros
(the Montenegrin currency) and have lunch. She advised us to look for the San
Francisco or the Colosseo Hotel. We went to the San Francisco. It was indeed
slow and inexpensive. We sat on the upstairs terrace in the shade with a view
of the street. That was nice. It took about 20 minutes for a draft beer and a
Coke Zero to come. Then he confirmed what we had ordered so he could give it to
the kitchen! He told us when we ordered that Clay’s oven broiled lake carp would
take about a half hour to prepare and we said ok because we figured we still
had an hour and 45 minutes. My pizza came about 12:30pm and Clay’s fish cam
about 15 minutes later. The bus was leaving at 1:15pm. When he brought Clay’s
fish, I asked for the check. Clay’s dish was carp from the local Lake Skodra.
It was cut into large cubes and covered in a chunky spicy tomato sauce and
baked. It was full of bones. The tab totaled $17.64USD or 14.92 Euros or
1940.00 in whatever the local currency really ought to be. The waiter worried
that we tried to eat too fast to enjoy it. He may have been right, but he let
us sit there for a half hour before he put the order into the kitchen, so whose
fault was that. At least they all spoke English there. We found few other
people in Montenegro today that spoke English, unlike Albania! Other than
lunch, we had no other time here. Clay did get an ice cream cone for 30 Euro
cents while I dashed up and down the block looking for a souvenir shop since I had
lost my Albanian patch. There were none.
We drove for some time in view of or alongside Lake Skodra today. It is very low now so did not seem too impressive. It is the largest lake on the Balkan peninsula. We crossed the border from Albania into Montenegro alongside the lake. It took a while to get out and then get through the herd of free range goats that live between the 2 border checkpoints. The good news was that unlike clearing a tour bus into the USA, they let us stay aboard the bus and Gabriella took our passports in on each side. We have stamps from Albania and Montenegro now that have no meaningful information on them other than the dates. Very disappointing!
We drove about another 2 hours before another potty stop.
This one was inside the Moraca Canyon. It was a wide spot along the cliffside and
consisted of a row of quite nice toilets lined up along the cliff rim. It was a
little scary to think about that in there! I will say that so far all toilets
have been free and that cannot be said of the northern former Soviet bloc
states we visited earlier this summer. We had 30 minutes there as there was a café
and a snack stall. Clay bought a bunch of locally produced dried figs. He thinks
he gave himself the runs. They were 6 Euros. His big fish lunch was probably the
same amount. We drove about another hour before our final stop before the hotel
for the night. We had less than 30 minutes to tour the Moraca Orthodox
Monastery. There has probably been a church there for over 800 years. It is not
clear how old the present structures are but the style is from the Ottoman
Empire occupation. It was interesting and impressive. The real impression of the
day for me though was not mentioned in the tour literature for today and that was
the road, E65. It ranks up there with the Amalfi Coast, the coastal road to
Hana in Hawaii or a couple of the roads we drove last year in Utah and Wyoming.
It was even more exciting than the mountain road we zigzagged up yesterday! It
was crazy scenic with a blue and green river at the bottom. This is the Balkan
Alps or the end of them. I think Gabriella said we are at over 3000 feet
elevation at Bianca Resort & Spa in Kolasin.
We arrived again just behind the Gate One bus with its giant
group. (We will be sad when we go from 16 to the big group we’ll have when we
add 22 people in Dubrovnik!) After they got cleared out of the lobby, Gabriella
was still on her phone and having a dire discussion with a bunch of folks now
behind the desk. She came over and updated us that the Kompas Tour company had
sent 2 emails regarding our reservation and they had only opened the attachment
on one of them so they did not have our guest list and had not assigned us
rooms. She was more unhappy than us right now. She came back and said that everyone
in our group would be upgraded to a suite from a standard room for the 2 nights
at no charge. It is nice to have the space. The town of Kolasin and the
exterior of the hotel seem a bit bleak. The inside of the hotel is very
National Park style raw wood and it is huge or seems like it rambles forever.
We are on the 4th floor and I don’t actually know how many floors there
are. There is no air conditioning! It is still hot here even at the higher elevation.
I think it has been hovering around a high of 90F since we arrived. Clay is
glad he decided to leave home in shorts!
Dinner tonight was included as are all 3 meals tomorrow. I
don’t expect there is anywhere else to eat here in Kolasin so that is probably
why. Dinner tonight was a buffet. It was varied but I didn’t really like
anything I picked. I don’t think Clay did either but we each ate a plate of
cold and hot food, some fried breads and some desserts with a liter bottle of
water. I did some hand laundry since we have 2 nights and a free standing
shower and a tub where I can string my laundry line. (The last 2 nights’ hotel
had a laundry line in the shower stall! Go figure.) We have an earlier start
with a full day tour of the Durmitor National Park tomorrow, so it is bed time!
One last note. Our group has luggage porterage included but
Gate One does not for those keeping score.
