Kotor, Montenegro
Kelly at the top of the fortress which towers above the town of Kotor (set in europes deepest fjord).
Kelly enjoying the view and a well earned rest.
Evening time down at the seaside of Montenegro

The crazy zigzag road leading up the mountain side next to the fortress.
Sorry, the pic is the wrong way up! Anyway, this is the little hole we found to we could escape to the mountain side behind the fortress.

The little chapel surrounded by the remains of a village

The Fortress winding its way up the mountian behind the outer wall of Kotor, it is a little hard to see the fortress walls as they are the same colour as the mountain rock!
A more zoomed in view of the fortress showing two of the walls that lead to the main fortress building.
Kelly again on our hike up the fortress wall.

Evening all. You find me in a small internet cafe in Brasov, Transilvania. Yep that's right home of Dracula and the rather more historically real Vlad Tepes. It is a nice little town that bears little resemblance to the horror of Bucharest. Although we were only in Bucharest for about 2 hours we were there long enough to be scared by its stray dogs, dirty squat toilets and have my banana pinched by the train conductor. Well to be fair he sort of asked; he looked into our food bag and pointed quizically at the banana, I was too surprised to deny him and he was most pleased with the banana and gobbled it down then and there. We also visited another transilvanian town on the way but back to Kotor, we arrived there from glorious, meditiarian Dubrovnik and where greeted with a rather stinky and delapidated medieval town with none of the polished tourist charm of Dubrovnik. First I should mention the bus ride here, the Montenegran coast is stunning,really, the mountians literaly plunge straight into the sea. Small towns cling to small patches of flat land inbetween the towering mountians and the adriatic sea, the road itself wound along at the foot of the mountians only feet from the sea. Often it looked like the rock had been cut or blown away to make room for even this two lane road! However when we arrived in Kotor it was overcast and a bit gloomy. After our wonderful luck with the old lady who picked us up at the bus station to stay in her house in Dubrovnik we trusted another old couple who did just that in Kotor. However when we arrived at there house the price doubled and the bathroom smelled and the toilet lacked a flush. We decided to leave and set off down the road with our backpacks. We enquired at the first house advertising 'sobe' that we came to and it although it was the same price it was much cleaner (and also we wanted to put our bags down) so we took it. But then after we wondered around town our mood was not much improved, the gloomy weather accentuated the dourness of the delapitated medieval buildings and the not uncommon smell of wee did not add anything either. Still we found a nice restaurant and had a good pizza and salad and then retired hopeing for nicer weather the following day. Our wishes were forfilled and we awoke to a glorious day! We set out with the goal of climbing the vast fortress that loomed over the (itself fortified) town of Kotor. This fortress stretched over halfway up the moutianside that soared above Kotor. It comprised of three walls that zizagged their way up to the main fortress which perched ontop of a rocky outcrop. It took us about an hour to make it up there, with some exploring. Nothing was off limits and it was great to snoop up ancient staircases and in ancient rooms. I found one that was home to a colony of bats! Once at the top we were rewared with breathtaking views down the fjord that Kotor lies in, it is Europes largest fjord although it may actually technically be a submerged river valley...but be rest assured that did not detract from the panoramic view. Not satisfied with that after a quick lunch we went back down to were we had spotted a little hole in the wall which led out to the mountian side behind. There was a small chapel in the distance surrounded by ruins that I wanted to see. We then proceeded to spend a glorious day tramping around and up the mountain and were again rewarded with awesome views. We passed a little farm house halfway up the mountain which had a zigzag road leading upto it. We used that road to get down and it must have taken us about 40/50 minutes to get to the bottom. What a crazy place to live (there was no way a car could get up that road)! They seemed to farm goats and a few cows. Then again I doupt there are many places that have such a view. And now for a little bit of history; the town of Kotor has passed through so many hands I am very muddled up, it has been in Roman, Serbian, Ottoman, Bulgarnian, Austrohungarian, French and Itlanien hands, oh and also it was ruled by the city of Venice too. There are probably some more but really, enough is enough! It is now a town of the country of Montenegro (the world neswest country) and that is that! At its hight of power it was a trading city with power that rivalled Venice and venetian architecural styles are dominant. In the end we decided it was a very nice place and it didn't hurt that a young montenegran chap chatted to us as we started the hike up the fortress and was really excited about me being scottish. On that topic, tonight Romania and Scotland play rugby as part of the rugby world cup! It is quite the conicidence that I happen to be in Romania at that time with my kilt and here is the best bit....Brasov (the town we are in) has a Scottish pub! Perfect! We will be swinging on round that later!

All the best!

I will update the blog soon with detail of our trip to the Mountinous interior of Montenegro where europes (and the worlds 2nd) largest canyon is hidden.

Bye bye!

Craig and Kelly