Srbija i Crna Gora
Serbia and Montenegro
Or to be more exact, "and Montenegro". I never made it to Serbia- I had briefly thought about visiting Nis, to see the Cela Kula, or Tower of Skulls, where 58 skulls of Serbian soldiers killed in a battle against the Turks in 1809 are displayed, initially as a warning to the defeated Serbs. Maybe it's just as well I didn't go there- more recent horrors are too much  to the fore, after all.
                                                     Kotor, Montenegro, 18th October

I am having some luck on this trip. As I entered the old town of Kotor, another middle-aged woman came up to me, spying my rucksack, and said "want room", and here I am, in a shuttered room, just off the main square, with a view of an old church clock. It's like something out of Fellini, and all for 10 Euros.

The trip down here was delayed. Either due to still-strained relations, a lack of interest, or a mixture of both, there is no real direct coach service from Croatia to Montenegro. After heading past a final breathtaking  ?view of Dubrovnik, skirting the border with Herzegovina, the bus stops near the frontier, and we walk around the corner to the next border point.

Into what exactly? The sign still says "Yugoslavia", there is a federal flag of Serbia & Montenegro, and one of Montenegro flies along the border post as Croatia becomes a hidden memory around the corner. Serbia and
A tiny chuch in Kotor, the fortifications are above
Montenegro have remained in union, although the latter may regain its independence in two years time: it uses the Euro, Serbia retains the dinar, and the two are currently semi-independent. Even the state's name has caused
                             A fjord perfect                                                                confusion. "Isn't Serbia & Montenegro a bit of a mouthfull?" My answer to that is "Well, isn't Bosnia & Herzegovina, and isn't Great Britain & Northern Ireland?" I had rather hoped that Serbia & Montenegro would call itself "Yugoyugoslavia, which would mean "land of the South South Slavs" but that didn't happen. Never mind.
There was a delay in the bus service and  at the border- I asked a local what was happening, and he told me that an unexploded mine had been found. Maybe he enjoyed worrying westerners, but I started reading The Tibetan book of living and dying and felt much karma.
                                                                    The old walled town of Kotor, viewed from above
It was another wonderful drive to Kotor in the Serbomontenegrovakian bus. A fjord that could easily have been a gift from the Norwegian government was a beautiful backdrop as we headed to our destination- two tiny islands housed churched in splendid dual isolation and dark, (and well, almost) black mountains kept a watchful eye on the place.

"Kotor" says Lonely Planet "is a big secret", and although it is  a UNESCO-listed heritage site it appears to have survived without an outpouring of grockle shops that can mushroom rather alarmingly. The old town is a real, living place-proper shops serving the community are everywhere which gives it an atmosphere that Dubrovnik, which despite its magic, does not quite possess. I made an exhausting ascent of the slopes behind the town to inspect the old fortifications above it, and the views across the fjord were truly splendid.
Wandering around Kotor, I  popped into a shop looking for a local flag. "Is this coat of arms Montenegrin?" I asked. "No, is Serbia," said a surly, podgy woman. "Oh," I muttered.

I had a wonderful fish supper at the Bastion restaurant having squid stuffed with prawns as a main course. I ordered it in Serbian, trying to impersonate Slobodan Milosevic in the process. I'm not sure I should have done that.....

Tomorrow then, the day of glory awaits...next stop...ALBANIA    
back to October
it's me in Montenegro!
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