Thrane Of Gomez

The next day we took it easy. The last fortnight has been, if not a punishing schedule, one of long trips on coaches, walking tours, and strange new beds, which had been taking a toll on my back after a while. We had planned to take an island tour today, but have now rescheduled that for Monday. As it turned out, the day wasn’t too flash weather-wise, with thunderstorms in the afternoon, so we may have done ourselves a favour there. 

The following morning we were up with the ubiquitous swifts that swoop around everywhere we’ve been so far. To what end? To get to the Old Town before the inevitable cruise ship disgorged its masses of unruly tourists. We got there a little before 8:00am and so were able to get some photo opportunities on the steps of the Walk Of Shame, and elsewhere. 

Nicola's Walk Of Shame

At 9:30 we joined a Thrane Of Gomez tour around the city. This is extremely popular in Dubrovnik – our group (one of three setting out at the same time from the same company; other companies were also running tours) contained 25 people, which I feel is slightly unwieldy for a walking tour. We had headsets so we could hear our guide, Dražen (pronounced Dražen). He first checked who had seen GoT. I confessed to only watching the first season, which was filmed in Malta, not Croatia, so most of what he was talking about was lost on me. Nicola knew what it was all about though.

He took us through the gate, down to the water, and up to the fortress, all the while talking and illustrating the scenes that were filmed in each location with stills from the series. He also told us that he’d been an extra (Peasant 57, apparently), and can identify his two seconds of actual screen-time. He explained about the filming process as well, what it’s like to be on set on such a large production, and the difficulties they faced; particularly in later seasons when the popularity of the show had increased tourist numbers to the city dramatically.

Dražen tells it like it is

Near the end of the tour he took us to the famous steps, which were by now thronged with people, both tour groups and general tourists. The chances of getting a decent shot were slim so it was a good job we’d been there earlier. 

We finished our section of the tour after two hours (“that’s enough GoT” – Ed), but most of the group had booked the longer, three-hour version which involves a ferry ride to Lokrum Island, and a photo opportunity on the Iron Throne, which we missed. Instead we strolled around and found a location for lunch: Zurori Restaurant, where they delivered a beer, orange juice, spaghetti vongole and salmon salad for €59.80. The spaghetti was €19.90, or NZD40. To paraphrase Vincent Vega, “that’s gotta be some pretty fucking good spaghetti”. <Morgan Freeman> But, it was not pretty fucking good spaghetti. </Morgan Freeman> 

After lunch, we visited the Aquarium, where (shock!) they had a variety of local fish in tanks. No super-big enormous tank like many modern aquaria have, but a good variety...some of which looked quite tasty! We didn’t spend long there. 

When you swim in the sea, and an eel bites your knee...

I'm going to call you...dinner

We then set out on a shopping expedition. Nicola’s suitcase has become quite decrepit after many decades’ service, so we headed to a shopping centre for an upgrade. We found one, but then had to find our way back to the bus route 4, which was a 14-minute walk in the afternoon sun. We made it though (obvs!) and arrived back at the hotel to cool down with a dip in the pool.  

 

Dubrovnik

Another day, another country… 

The crossing from Montenegro into Croatia took us a little longer, as we were finally entering (gasp!) the European Union! This requires us to be fingerprinted. There is a queue of traffic waiting at the border, but only one fingerprint machine, so this is a long, slow process. Eventually we got through and sped off into Croatia.

We reached our hotel, the originally named Hotel Dubrovnik, a little after midday. We dumped our baggage, then Danijela took us on an unofficial tour of the Old Town of Dubrovnik. She enjoined us to not refer to her as a guide, as she is not officially registered as a guide in Croatia. The punishment for guiding without a licence in Croatia is a fine of up to €1,000 and deportation, apparently. Seems harsh. We walked along the town walls, which involved a lot of steps (I didn’t count them). One of our group is acrophobic, and as the walls got higher, the side walls got lower, and he was somewhat stressed. At one point we came to a junction where we could either carry on along the walls, or return to ground level, which we opted to do, as beer and pizza were calling to me. Danijela showed us the Rector’s Palace and St Blaise church, and offered us a taste of candied orange peel from the market, before releasing us on our own recognisance. (Incidentally, we've come across St Blaise before!) 

We headed straight to the nearest hostelry for some lunch. The first beer made a hissing sound as it disappeared down the hatch, so I promptly ordered another. Turns out the place we’d picked wasn’t actually a pizzeria, so I had a burger instead.

Danijela had issued us with bus tickets and a Dubrovnik Pass (Multipass!), both valid for 24 hours from activation, which allowed unlimited access to buses, and free entrance to various museums, once only. We’d already used them to climb the walls, as we went to see the Rector’s Palace after lunch. The Rector was the head of state of the Republic of Rugosa, of which Dubrovnik was the capital, between the 14^th and 19^th centuries. It was then conquered by Napoleon, subsumed into Napoleonic Italy, before being amalgamated into the Austro-Hungarian Empire until World War 1.

By this time I was getting museum fatigue, so we headed back to the bus stop, bumping into two of our group along the way. The bus ride back was less comfortable than arriving as we had to stand, but it was at most 15 minutes so we were OK.

In the evening Danijela had organised for us all to go out to Madonna, a local restaurant a couple of minutes’ walk from our hotel. The area we’re in is all pedestrianised and populated by hotels, bars and restaurants. As usual, the two other New Zealanders in our group cried off. (They’ve been a bit weird: they’ve attended most of the daytime tours and included activities, but in the evening we’ve not seen hide nor hair of them. We strongly suspect they’re sitting in their room drinking gin & tonic.) 

Most of our group enjoying dinner

The restaurant had a seafood emphasis so I had the tuna steak, which was cooked properly (seared but not overdone) whilst Nicola had chicken prosciutto. After the dinner I was elected to give a speech for Danijela, thanking her for all her work in keeping us informed and looked after. We then promised undying love and to keep in touch with each other. As you do. We repaired to the hotel bar for a nightcap. Some were leaving early the next morning, either home or onwards in their journeys, so we farewelled them. 

The next morning we packed up, breakfasted, and then headed back to the Old Town to extract further value from our Multipass before it expired. We visited the house of Marin Držić, a Croatian playwright who shares many ideas and plots with Shakespeare – largely because they were referencing the same source material, either from classical Greece and Rome, or around Italy (think how many of Shakespeare’s plays are set in the Mediterranean. It's not like he was from there.) Nicola bought one of his plays and will provide a book report in due course.

 We then went up the cable car. There was quite a queue for this so it took us a little while to get to the front. The cable car was built in 1969 and wasn’t really designed for its current purpose as a tourist attraction – there are only two cars, each on a separate track, going back and forth up the hill. Nevertheless, the views over the Old Town, and wider Dubrovnik area, were spectacular as we ascended. At the top there’s some viewing platforms and a café, but it was a little early for lunch, so after exploring all the photo opportunities we joined the queue for the descent. When we reached the bottom and emerged…no queue! A case of bad timing as we’d hit the mid-morning rush. 

One day I'll learn how to hold a camera straight

We also located the gate we should have taken to get to the cable car, and returned to the Old Town. There, we chanced upon a restaurant that sold pizza! Who’d'a thought it? We lunched on pizza and salad, the inevitable beer, and then wandered the streets a bit. When we tired of that we caught the bus back to Hotel Dubrovnik. Our 24-hour tickets had expired by then so we had to negotiate the vagaries of Dubrovnik’s public transportation system. They’re quite simple, really: you can buy a ticket for cash on the bus for €2.50, or get an advance ticket for a mere €1.73, which lasts an hour from when you first activate it. We’d just missed a bus, which was packed to the rafters, but by the time we’d sorted out our tickets another one came along, and we became true Croatians by jostling to the front (“use your elbows!” as Danijela had advised us) to secure a seat for the, yes, 15 minute journey back.

We were waylaid by an ice cream parlour for a few minutes, then collected our suitcases, ordered an Uber, and took ourselves off to the Hotel Dubrovnik Palace, which is substantially more palatial than our previous accommodation.

Kotor

There’s not much in Tivat, so today we took an excursion into Kotor, which is just around the corner and along the coast. To get there we needed to take public transport, which required us to walk 15 minutes up the road. W eassembled at 0830 and walked to the bus station, where the bus was, remarkably, on time. It’s a small bus, which is why Danijela didn’t want to catch it a couple of stops down the road, as it may hav been full by then. As it was it accommodated us comfortably.

One of the things that appears regularly in our blurbs about what to do in the day is “swap stories with locals”, maybe over a rakia or a coffee. The likelihood of this happening is remote but, lo and behold, Tim was engaged in conversation with the woman sat next to him for most of the journey! OK, turned out she wasn’t quite local, she was visiting from Turkey, but even so! We can’t wait to swap stories with someone who has swapped stories with a local!

The bus journey took an hour and by the time we got to Kotor the bus was packed with standing passengers. The road along the coast is very narrow and at some points there had to be some negotiation with oncoming traffic. When we got there, Danijela told us where and when to get the bus back to the hotel.

We had a few minutes before meeting our local guide, so we had a look around the market by the main entrance to the Old Town, the Marine Gate. We also found someone to sell us a gelato, which usefully broke a €50 note for us.

Sculptor: "Yes, of course I know what a lion looks like!"

We met our guide, Boyan, who showed us around the Old Town, stopping at various churches, the cathedral, school, clock tower leaning over because of earthquake, cat museum, etc. I’m sure it’s all very interesting but he didn’t fill us with enthusiasm and passion in the way that Clint had in Tirana. The town was quite crowded as there were not one, but two cruise ships moored at the dock, so there were tour groups a-plenty walking around the town. At the end of the tour, We went for gelato (again) with the rest of the group, before we all split up, as we had different plans for the day. Ours wasn’t too energetic: the temperature was climbing past 30°, so we stopped in a restaurant and had a simple lunch of brusketi (you’ll never guess what they are) and mussels.

The leaning clock tower

Narrow, winding streets

Cathedral of St Tryphon

Narrowest street in Kotor...about a metre wide

The cats museum. Contains cats

After lunch we toured the maritime museum, home to many models and paintings of old Montenegrin vessels. 

A very ornate timepiece

Model Montenegrin sailing ship

Globe, containing Nouvelle Hollande and Nouvelle Zelande, but no sign of Antarctica

We looked in a number of souvenir shops, but couldn’t find one that had t-shirts! Have t-shirts gone out of fashion? Eventually we found one that had a unique system: You selected your design from those shown, and they printed it on the spot for you. So now I have a Montenegro t-shirt, to prove I’ve been here.

It was approaching 2pm, so we decided to get the bus home. We waited at the stop…and waited. Danijela had said that they may not always be on time, but around 15 minutes late it show up…packed to the rafters! Well, not quite to the rafters, as many of the locals who’d been waiting squeezed on, but we didn’t fancy an hour of that. As we walked back to the Marine Gate we bumped into fellow Intrepideer Maureen, explained our failings, and between the three of us decided to get a taxi back to the hotel. This we did, and the driver took us by a different route, on a road that worked, and took less than 20 minutes. I feel there’s some work to be done by Intrepid to make this part of the trip a bit more tourist-friendly.

Tonight we’ll take the short walk down to the waterfront to find a suitable venue for dinner.

 

Fishte and Tivat

We left our hotel on time and headed to our last stop in Albania, an agrotourism farm, Mrizi i Zanave. They’ve taken a number of different concepts and combined them into one enterprise. There are ostriches, geese, and goats; they take milk from local producers and turn it into cheese; they make wine and rakia; they take all kinds of vegetable and fruit produce and pickle, dry or jam it; and they take pork and turn it into charcuterie. 

Mariella demonstrates wine

The wine cellar

Oo-er, missus! Look at all that sausage!

Jam, jam, jam jam...

The cheese room

Our guide, Mariella, took us around the factory rooms, showing us cheeses in various stages of maturation, as well as sausages and hams, and the smoking rooms. No, not for cigars. 

Afterwards we had a little bit of time as they waited for the lunch service, which started promptly at 12 noon. The lunch was a lavish production of just about everything that they had to offer. We started with a  taste of rose water – exactly what it sounds like, rose petals infused into water. Fortunately without adding sugar, which would have made it too sickly, but instead like Turkish Delight without the sweetness. We had charcuteries and cheese, pickled vegetables, other vegetables including stuffed courgette flowers; mystery meat (may have been goat), beef, and pork skewers. Just as we were saying “we’re stuffed”, they cleared it all away and brought puddings – cheesecake, fruit, chocolate fondant and gelato. The gelato included one made with pine syrup – made by adding a load of sugar to pine cones, then letting it infuse. Not one I’ll be trying at home, tbh. 

We left Albania behind us and crossed the border into Montenegro. Danijela told us on the way that we would be leaving behind “funny money” and entering the Euro zone. Montenegro is not officially a member of the euro, but has universally adopted it anyway. What we were also leaving behind, she told us, was the cheap prices we’d got used to in Macedonia and Albania. Montenegro and Croatia would be exhibiting more “modern” pricing.

We arrived at Hotel Helada at around 6:00pm, so after a quick check-in and moving in to our room, reassembled downstairs for an orientation walk in Tivat. This basically involved taking us down to the waterfront and walking along, pointing out an ATM for those all-important euros, and then some of us had a light dinner at a waterside restaurant, Bokka whilst the rest continued their perambulations. There isn’t much else to Tivat, so tomorrow we’ll be exploring the much larger settlement along the road, Kotor. Why aren’t we staying there then? Danijela explained that the two hotels they’d used in previous seasons had received negative feedback – being too far from the centre, or being too old-fashioned (lack of lifts etc.) and noisy for the one in the Old Quarter. There’s no pleasing some people! Now they’ve decided it’s better to stay in a more modern establishment along the coast instead.

We then headed back to the hotel, taking careful note of where to turn to get back and forth from the waterfront. There’s very little beach as such, and most of it seems to belong to one hotel, so we won’t be doing much beaching here.

 

Leaves And Pyramids

We have a free day in Tirana today. We are away from home for about a month and it may surprise you to learn that we do not travel with a month’s worth of clothing. Today was laundry day. Fortunately there’s a brand new 24 hour laundromat just 200m from our hotel, so after breakfast we took our washing. Unlike in Italy where we faced a similar challenge, this one has helpful instructions in English. The money change machine was unfortunately not working, but we found a grumpy exchange office that gave us 5 ALL100 coins in exchange for a note.

Objective achieved, we then planned an itinerary. First stop was Bunk’Art2, a former bunker which has been converted to a museum showing the history of Albania in the 20^th century. Itt all started out fine and dandy, but then took a turn for the worse under King Ahmet Zogu, before being invaded by the Italians (again!) in World War 2. Where it got really dark was the communist regime under Hoxha from 1945 to 1991. Albanians don’t shy away from their history; only by showing what it was like can they then move on from it.

Inside the bunker

We took a break for lunch at the same place we went yesterday – Café Botanica. Yes, unadventurous, I know, but it was handy. We then took ourselves to the House Of Leaves, the former centre for the Sigurimi, the Albanian secret police; they spied on everyone, with bugs, cameras, films, and intimidation. It’s quite remarkable the lengths they took to spy on their own people. According to Hoxha, private conversations were the property of the state. In what I can only assume is an overload of irony, photography is forbidden inside the museum. There were lists and statistics produced by the Sigurimi, but more importantly there were films of survivors of the prison and torture camps, giving testimony to the conditions they suffered; as well as from ordinary citizens, telling what life was like without being in prison (not much better, in case you hadn’t guessed).

We cheered ourselves up afterwards with a visit to the Orthodox Cathedral of Resurrection, which was much nicer than the American church we visited yesterday (the one with the dodgy window).

A much nicer church

Our final stop for the afternoon was the Pyramid. This was originally a memorial for Hoxha and family, but has since been remodelled and now serves an entirely different purpose. There are 120 steps to get to the top as you literally stomp down on communism. The view from the top, unfortunately, is of Tirana, which is not the most edifying of spectacles.

View from the base: 114 steps to go!

Zero steps to go!

 

Namazgah mosque

Tirana skyline

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at the park we'd passed yesterday, to take pictures of statues of Stalin and Lenin.

Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov

Tonight we’re going up the Sky Tower, a revolving restaurant with views of the city, for cocktails.