As it is so often when a place finds its way onto your travel bucket list, I was inspired to visit Kotor in Montenegro after seeing a friend’s pictures of the incredible views waiting there. I was staying in Dubrovnik for several days and after learning the bus ride took only a couple of hours, decided I would do a day trip across the border to this picturesque town nestled in the Bay of Kotor, surrounded by striking, rocky massifs that form part of the Dinaric Alps.
I looked at the bus schedule and after talking to fellow travellers, who had been casually travelling via the intercity and country bus services with tickets bought on a whim, decided I could buy mine at the station. Waking up in a pitch dark, windowless room at 5:45am (something only the prospect of travel can entice me to do) to allow myself plenty of time, I hastily got ready and went to catch the local bus to the main terminal from where the long-distance coaches left – and immediately encountered my first obstacle.
When the bus arrived I soon learned the notes I had were too big for the driver to make change, and my crestfallen face did nothing to convince him to allow me on board despite that, as might have happened with a kinder soul – or perhaps one that hadn’t had to start work at 5am. Stepping out of the bus I felt a small bubble of first-world related panic as I realised if I didn’t get to the station quickly I might miss the 7am bus to Kotor, and the next, according to the schedule, was not until a couple of hours later which would delay the entire day.
No shops were open nearby so I had no option but to hurry to the nearby taxi stand and pay a lot more than I had intended for that part of the journey. Not a great start.
When I arrived at the station I encountered obstacle number two: the 7am bus was totally full. Though I cursed myself for not booking ahead as I normally might, I could at least be grateful that the schedule I had viewed was incorrect and the next bus departed in just over an hour. I bought the ticket and wandered around the rather uninteresting area near the port and bus terminal, buying a pastry for breakfast and sitting at a café where I was the sole female amid a crowd of cigarette-smoking men.
The bus journey was beautiful. Driving out of Dubrovnik offered amazing views of the coastline before we headed inland, crossed the border – complete with Montenegro stamp in passport! – and continued through landscapes of mountains and lakes. Arriving in Kotor I found myself walking along the water’s edge in the sunshine to immediately encounter a fresh fruit and vegetable market where I purchased some olives and peaches, then explored the town for a little before an unexpected downpour forced me into a café.
When the sky cleared I paid the small fee and began to climb to the top of the fortress, which offered increasingly spectacular views that had me stopping to take picture after picture. Directly below lay the red roofs of the tiny town, while the bay stretched out in one direction protected by mountains rising in a ‘U’ shape. Boats were coming and going, but apart from that the landscape was largely untouched save for the picturesque town.
By the time I had savoured the view, with the delicious peaches and olives, for long enough, I had only a couple of hours before the return bus. I climbed down and re-entered the old town, exploring and visiting shops in the hope of finding some worthy souvenirs.
The bus took a different route back toward the main road to the border, offering a completely different view of the bay and surrounding towns that I enjoyed immensely until we found ourselves stuck in a long line of traffic due to some sort of blockage on the narrow road. Sitting still in the heat of summer with the bus turned off quickly became rather less enjoyable, but we were soon trundling along again.
The delay did little to harm my laidback plans to eat cevapi and perhaps find an ice cream that evening, but there was one passenger on board who had booked a flight out of Dubrovnik that was leaving in a few short hours. According to the schedule (and her loud conversation with fellow passengers impossible not to overhear), she should have had plenty of time to make her way from Dubrovnik’s bus terminal to the airport, but as we sat behind standstill cars the time ticked down rather menacingly.
We arrived at the border to be greeted by a long line of buses and cars, but it was our fellow buses that caused the biggest issue as each passengers’ passport had to be checked – and as this was a border to enter the European Union, they were quite vigilant. After taking at least another hour to make our way through, we continued to Dubrovnik and by now I was also mildly panicked on behalf of this woman who had clearly tried to plan her travel carefully (a moment that reminded me why I usually like to arrive in the city I’m flying out of at least the day before).
Our route happened to take us past the airport however, and the bus driver was kind enough to stop and point vaguely in the direction she should walk so she could make it to her flight on time. Continuing on to Dubrovnik just as the sun was setting provided yet another amazing view of the city and coast, and I even managed to successfully catch the local bus back to my hostel.
Courtney Gahan is a serial expat, traveller and freelance writer who has bartered with Moroccan marketeers, seen the sun rise at Angkor Wat and elbowed her way through crowds on NYE in NYC
