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| The bay in the morning - North |
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| The bay in the morning - South |
Our trip today was to go see Skadar Lake. Before leaving we stopped for some brunch. We again chose to eat at Ellas, another great choice! I ordered a Greek salad, and fried calamari…so so delicious!!
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| Greek Salad |
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| Fried Calamari |
After lunch we got in the car and drove south out of Kotor.
After driving through the tunnel in the mountain out of Kotor, we were soon
back along the water. We stopped for a
few photo opportunities along the way. Breath taking.
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| Along the bay between Kotor and Budva |
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| Along the bay between Kotor and Budva |
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| Sveti Stafan Island near Budva |
We arrived at Skadar Lake and to the town of Virpazar.
We were first greeted by a large statue on
top of a rock.
It is the remains of a
defense tower.
The statue was built to
honor the memory of the partisans; the inscription from July 13
th,
1964 reads: “to honor the memories of our sons and daughters that freed the
country during the war and revolution of 1941-1945. In 1997 another stone was
added to honor those that died in 1702 when they fought the Turks for
freedom.
The statue was the first thing
we saw, but the first thing we heard were the frogs!
The little things were so loud. One of the
locals informed us, that it was not nearly as loud as they are at night when
you are trying to sleep.
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| Virpazar statue |
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| The lake shore |
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| Noisy little frogs! |
Skadar lake is a National Park on the Montenegro side.
The lake is shared between Montenegro and
Albania. It is the largest lake in the Balkans. Several locals approached us as
we began our walk towards the lake.
They
were offering us boat tours of the lake on their boats.
I have to say I am so glad that we didn’t
take the first opportunity because we got a first rate tour from an amazing
family.
Milica the oldest daughter,
approached us and explained that for 50 Euro we could have a 2 hour tour of the
lake on their boat.
We accepted!
The boat was made of wood, and beautiful.
Once on the boat, they had a cooler of beverages for us and informational books
about the lake and its wildlife.
Our
first stop on the boat tour was an old Turkish Prison. It was used for
prisoners who could not swim.
Also on
the island were 2 guards and a woman who was a cook. The woman fell in love
with one of the prisoners and together they killed the guards and all escaped
to Albania; a love story at its finest.
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| From the boat! |
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| The prison |
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| The prison |
The next stops were two fisherman villages. During fishing season people from
the villages come and stay in the houses while they fish. There is a rule that
all buildings built along the lake must be made of stone.
You can probably see from the pictures, that
some of the roofs are caved in. This is because of the large amounts of snow
they had this past winter. It is not currently fishing season (on the
Montenegro side) so the fishers have some work in the next few months. At the
second village, Milica asked us if we wanted to stop. I think most tourists
must say “no” because when we asked, she was surprised and had to explain to
her dad that we wanted to stop. The people in the village were so welcoming
they greeted us in a traditional manner with wonderful hospitality.
Milica took us around through the buildings
for us to see. At one point she said, watch out for snakes. My heart sank…luckily
we did not meet any of the local snakes.
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| The second village |
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| Walking around...watching out for snakes! |
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| The boat from along the shore |
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| The boat and driver! |
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| At the fishing village |
We finished the loop around the lake by going towards the monestary that was
built on one of the mountain sides by a king. He built it to keep his two
daughters who were unmarried. The
daughters escaped and traveled to Italy where they were married. As we continued I took out a very special
little surprise. One of my friends back home in the US, sent me a special care
package with turtle squirters! We had a
great time squirting each other!!
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| Thanks Megan! Way too fun! |
Along the north end of the lake we got a very special treat, we were able to
see 4 pelicans! The pictures of the beautiful birds did not turn out the best,
but it was a really amazing moment! If
you ever make it to Montenegro take the time to go to Virpazar, find Milica and
take the tour!
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| The pelican |
Following our boat trip, we decided to stop for a bit of cheese and liquids
before journeying back towards Kotor. We
also stopped on a ship for a drink! It
was such a fun little restaurant/café!
We even walked the plank to get on the boat!!
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| The ship we stopped at |
Leaving Virpazar we took a bit of detour to find some local treats to take
back with us to Kotor for dinner. We
asked around for where we could find some homemade cheese. The directions were ask the woman who lives
next to the little café… we had no idea where the café was or where this woman
was. We stopped and asked an older gentleman... amongst the 4 of us in the car
we spoke with varying abilities: English, French, Polish, Macedonian, Serbian,
Croatian, Russian, and Albanian. This
man, in this Serbian village only spoke German.
This brought a good laugh! We turned around and went back, but decided
to ask this group of people sitting out on their porch. As luck would have it, one of them men their
said to follow him to his parents house, they made cheese! So we followed him over the main highway and
through some windy roads. We were in a
valley area surrounded by mountains with the sound of a waterfall in the background. We walked up to his parents porch, were
greeted with welcome open arms, and proceeded to try their cheese- OH MY WORD
it was delicious! We enjoyed their company as the sun went down…the man said he
wanted to share something with us we followed him to a shed behind the house
where he showed us the meat and fish that he smokes. It was really cool and smelled really good!
This was such an amazing experience one you could never plan for! It took spontaneity
and willingness to try new things!
It had gotten later so we decided to go back to
Virpazar and eat before driving back to Kotor.
The people of this small town/village had provided us with an amazing
day!!
Lesson: Live spontaneously…plans are
good, but sometimes the best experiences come when they are not planned!!
The next stops were two fisherman villages. During fishing season people from
the villages come and stay in the houses while they fish. There is a rule that
all buildings built along the lake must be made of stone. You can probably see from the pictures, that
some of the roofs are caved in. This is because of the large amounts of snow
they had this past winter. It is not currently fishing season (on the
Montenegro side) so the fishers have some work in the next few months. At the
second village, Milica asked us if we wanted to stop. I think most tourists
must say “no” because when we asked, she was surprised and had to explain to
her dad that we wanted to stop. The people in the village were so welcoming
they greeted us in a traditional manner with wonderful hospitality. Milica took us around through the buildings
for us to see. At one point she said, watch out for snakes. My heart sank…luckily
we did not meet any of the local snakes. 
What a great trip.... I would love to see the lake and the ship.... AAAAAAA ONE LANE DRIViNG.....
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