This is Old New Year’s Eve, January 13. Today and tomorrow I’m posting about this strange holiday from letters I wrote between 1996 and 2011, today 1996 – 2000. 1996: “Old New Year” sounds like an oxymoron, but in Macedonia … Continue reading Old New Year, Macedonia and Montenegro
Ulcinj is an ethnic Albanian town on the isthmus between Lake Skadar and the sea. It has a very long and fine sandy beach and a smaller beach near the citadel. Rivers running into the sea near Ulcinj have numerous fish traps. Continue reading Ulcinj
The border between Albania and Montenegro is a wild and beautiful place. These pictures are from the Montenegrin side, although the people are ethnic Albania. This area is north of Tuzi. Continue reading Albanian Border Lands
The Sandzak is a district between Montenegro and Serbia, bordering Kosovo and Bosnia. The pictures from Plevlja are in the northern Sandzak near Bosnia and Serbia. These pictures are mostly taken in the part of the Sandzak that borders Kosovo and Serbia. Continue reading Sandzak
Risan is at the head of another arm of Boka Kotor. It was the final redoubt of the Illyrian Queen Teuta. It has wonderful Roman mosaics. Risan was the site of the first IREX Kotor Jourmalism Summer School in June 1998. Continue reading Risan
Rijeka Crnojevica is a village on a river that flows into Lake Skadar. But to get to it you have to either take a winding road over a mountain from the lake, and then down again, or an equally winding road down to the valley from Centinje. The drive is worth it. Continue reading Rijeka Crnojevica
We loved swimming out from the beach at Przno. The water was clear an there were rocks and sea caves to explore, all an easy swim from the beach. It actually motivated us to acquire a “submersible” camera. We could also swim out for a great view of Sv. Stefan. Continue reading Przno Swimming
Przno is a former fishing town that still does a little fishing but welcomes a lot of visitors. In the summers of 2009 – 2011 we stayed, either in an apartment right on the water or in a hotel up the hill, which was run by a Canadian college as a training ground for hotel and restaurant employees. The beach is nice, the water very clean (note the fish), and it is sited for great sunsets. We had our favorite cafes on the water. Continue reading Przno
This is another village along the Boka, It was a nice walk from the Summer School at Muo. Continue reading Precanj
Plevja is in Northern Montenegro where Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro meet. It is a multi ethnic area that saw a large influx of refugees during the Bosnian war. It is part of the Sanzak region which was part of the Ottoman empire, administered by Austria, and when Austria withdrew Serbia and Montenegro split the district. The “Holy Trinity” Monastery is just outside town. The Mosque is typical of the Balkans. The clock tower is a hold over from Ottoman times. The Ottomans put up clock towers in most of their towns. Continue reading Plevja, Mosques and Monasteries.
We first drove through the Piva Valley in 1972 on our way from Sarajevo to Titograd (now called Podgorica.) It is a beautiful mountain drive north of Niksic. Continue reading Piva Valley
Muo is a town just up the fjord from Kotor. From 2000 until 2004 we held the IREX Journalism Summer School here. The building where we held the school is an old harbormaster’s house for the port of Kotor. Continue reading Muo
This Canyon runs North from Podgorica. The main road and railroad from Podgorica to Northern Montenegro, and Belgrade, runs through this canyon. We drove it once a month in a “commute” between Montenegro and Kosovo in 1999 and 2000. … Continue reading Moraca Canyon
There are lots of little Monasteries in the hills overlooking the coast. This is one of them. Continue reading Coastal Monastery
Milocer is a town built around the royal beach house on the King’s Beach. There is also a Queen’s Beach. Suzi and I stayed at the Villa Milocer many weekends while living in Podgorica. It has been taken over by a big international resort company, which remodeled the place, and increased the price beyond our poor power to afford to stay. But we can still look at it and recall wonderful memories of dinner looking out at Sveti Stefan. Continue reading Milocer
When we were teaching at the Kotor Journalism Summer School a visit to the Saturday Market was a regular event. Not only for shopping but to gather sound for radio pieces. Continue reading Kotor Saturday Market
Lovcen is the mountain area where Njegos Petrovic is buried. His tomb is in one of the pictures. It is the second highest mountain. When he was asked why he did not choose the highest mountain he said that someday a prince greater than he would come and he would take that place. It happened. TV came along and the highest mountain is dedicated to the antenna. The Njegos Valley is where he grew up. It creates wonderful cheese and ham. Continue reading Lovcen and the Njegos Valley
Lake Skadar, or Lake Scutari in Italian and Lake Shkodër in Albanian, straddles the border. It always seems fog bound even though the coast, over the mountains, is sunny. Kevin found an old Soviet hovercraft that was a gift from the Russians to Tito. Continue reading Lake Skadar
We often flew from Belgrade to Tivat, Montenegro. The plane is a prop plane that flies over Podgorica and Lake Skadar. It crosses the coast mountains over Petrovac and flies up the coast past Sveti Stefan, Przno, Budva and lands at Tivat. On the return it flies over the Boka Kator, Lovce n and Cetinje. Continue reading Flying Over the Coast
Durmator is a National Park in Montenegro with the highest mountains. The Tara Canyon is the deepest canyon in Europe. Biograd Lake is also a national park. Continue reading Durmator, the Tara Canyon and Interior Mountains
Cetinje is the old royal capital of Montenegro. It was protected by mountains from the Turks; in that way Montenegro could maintain some degree of independence. Historically the capital is not in Podgorica because in the late 1800s Cetinje had … Continue reading Cetinje
The Budva Riviera is the coastline between Budva and Sveti Stefan. It has beaches and hotels. Continue reading Budva Riviera
Budva is a walled city on the Adriatic. We first visited here in 1972, shortly after it was leveled by an Earthquake. You can see cracks in the city walls and in some of the buildings. Some of the cracks … Continue reading Budva
This is a nice beach near the entrance of the Boka. The forts from the Napoleonic wars were also used by Austria to guard the Boka Continue reading Boka Kotor Beach