Wait...There's No Mountain Too Great, Hear Their Words And Have Faith

Let’s talk Montenegro! So, after a brief “I am getting my life dream for one year and not wasting it” blog post, we resume! We left our heroine parting from some wonderful people she met in Bosnia and Herzegovina to take a bus to Montenegro.  Yet again alone, and yet again unafraid. Now let’s touch on what I mean by “unafraid.” I do not mean that I am cocky and feel like nothing can touch me, not at all. It’s the opposite rather as I have spent years studying what’s “out there” (ie serial killers, traffickers, rapists etc.)  I know what could get me, I know the fear that my body holds in it just thinking about it-and then I choose to live. I plan ahead, and read up on the area, I travel cautiously and avoid any secluded area, and I am always aware of my surroundings. I choose to not let that fear govern who I am and what I do.  Which means I hopped a bus to Podgorica Montenegro and didn’t look back. Literally, though I couldn’t look back those roads are windy ;)

One of my favorite Disney characters

I arrived pretty early in the day to Podgorica, and grabbed a taxi to my hotel. What it turned out to be was not my hotel but the place that rented the apartment I had unknowingly rented for less than the cost of a hotel room. It was fantastic because I was able to really be alone and process Bosnia. The apartment was amazing and comfy! I actually took an hour to just relax and watch the Disney channel which was my first TV in about a month really, and even at home I hadn’t had cable in 4 months so to just sit there and let my mind go for an hour helped me regroup my energy to plan my next adventure!

I reference Mary Poppins whenever possible, like right now

I had looked up the major things to see in Podgorica and after showering (because seriously my shower in Bosnia was horrible) I grabbed my camera and hit the road so to speak heading towards the city center. Slight problem with me dear readers, I am a really motivated person and that can be really great when it comes to heading a committee or writing a paper-it’s horrible when site seeing. I get everything I planned 3 days for, done in 1. So all those sites I planned on seeing were finished, chronicled by pictures, drawings and journal reflections and I had 1.5 days left in a city I’d already seen everything I wanted. This is when you’d think I’d get frustrated right? NOPE! The joy of traveling when you are young is that you are pretty open minded on the road and a lot of other travelers are your age, you easily interact and get advice on different places. For instance I put up a post in the ETA private fb group for Bulgaria that I was in Montenegro alone, was anyone there or have any advice on what to do? I got great advice from Erika to go to Kotor an climb the fort there!

Phenomenal, awesome powers, itty, bitty, living space ;)

So the next day after careful research of bus times and safety I got on a bus to Kotor which was really hard to navigate since the bus makes multiple stops and doesn’t actually stop near the center of Kotor so you have to ask around at each stop before exiting to make sure you’re actually there! But I made it and dear god it was beautiful. These is a site of ancient ruins right on the water with a beautiful view and the second you walk through those gates you hears dozens of languages in a tour group just trying to find their way around.

Kotor has palaces inside it that we would equate to being adorable Parisian apartments, each alley way leads to another mystery and there are times you think you are either in Harry Potter’s Ministry of Magic or a labrynth. Each path is prettier than the one that proceeded it, and at one point I stumbled upon a couple re-enacting Romeo and Juliet’s balcony scene. I was getting lost and with each turn I was becoming found. I didn’t want to leave and I was

Who could kill themselves living here?

on a mission to climb the fort.

Now when I saw fort you may think of the fort in New York that is not that big, and easy to climb right? That’s what I thought! Yeah, really, really wrong. I get to the top of the first part of the hike up and I think I’m done, and I find this Asian couple (I have no idea if they were Chinese, Korean, Japanese and so don’t want to generalize) and handing them my camera they take my picture standing proudly at the top. Except it wasn’t the top, no where close. So I keep going up and up and it starts to get hard because I didn’t know it would be so steep or so tall and I brought my backpack to tour around, I’m wearing old converse that I bring everywhere, and I forgot to eat breakfast. So I keep telling myself “one more level and I’ll turn back;” but I know I really won’t. Each level I say “My Nunny would want to hike this and she can’t because she’s in America, do it for Nunny.” So I do and I keep going. But right as my body gets really tired, almost as if an angel sent me a sign from above, I get assistance from two men I never planned on.

Wisdom from Feeny

There’s an Australian man in front of me who turns around and says “why are you so tired

Age is the least important part of a journey

you’re a third of my age!? Which is when he sees I have my backpack and says “oh, you weren’t prepared either? Well we keep going.” And it turns out he is 79, or just about 80 as he says. He only found out while climbing that he isn’t as young as he used to be, and when I tell him I forgot the whole eating breakfast thing he says “well you’re young, at least your are determined enough to push on.” And we did, we kept cheering each other on and taking breaks together and saying how beautiful it was. Then about 1/3^rd up (We were always 1/3^rd the way up until we were at the very top, whenever you asked someone where you were they said 1/3^rd done) we stopped at the chapel in the fort and paid our homage while admiring the beauty of the old chapel, then we picked up the second man that completed my journey-the Spaniard.

Words are words, just try to understand

A Spaniard who was about 60 was climbing behind us and didn’t speak any English. So while he needed support as well we decided to do away with the formality of understanding language and progress to understanding volume. We cheered each other on in Australian phrases, English, Czech, and Spanish (what I could remember from high school) it didn’t matter that we could understand him and he thought we were crazy, but we did it. Finally we made it to the top and in broken Spanish I offered to take the Spaniard photo and in perfect Spanish he offered to take mine. It was a beautiful moment where you are at literally the top of an ancient fort, and you got their using your own legs with no help besides words of encouragement, and you just own the world. You are Kate and Leo at the helm of the Titanic without a care in the world, you are every explorer who finally proved to themselves they could do it and you did it breaking the boundaries of language.

1/3rd of the way!

Then comes the issue of heading back down, which is scary as the boogeyman from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” These are tiny stairs that are crumbling apart that are so steep and near the edge that you are given a map that states climbing up could cause death. So it’s pretty terrifying to climb up but even scarier for someone who has a fear of barrier heights to come back down.  But I made it and the world looked a little brighter after I descended, and I felt a little bigger when I descended, and I knew that each person I passed I could tell them “you’re 1/3^rd of the way, keep going ;)”

Just don't look down

I think I found Humpty-Dumpty's burial site

So I came down, ate a small pizza which was still the best meal I could have imagined after that trek, and walked around in the sunlight enjoying my success. Leaving I made it back for an earlier bus than I even planned and was able to head back and relax while still hitting the town at night to see the millennial bridge in the moonlight. I finished up my stay in Montenegro content that I had seen a beautiful place, found some time to relax, and conquered a climb I never even imagined starting! With two men that I will never see again but that added greatly to my life in those brief moments.

I hit the grocery store to get ready for what I knew would be an annoying set of bus transfers to get to the capital of Albania, went back and watched some Disney while I packed. I went to bed dreaming of proceeding to country #4 of my backpacking trek and as I fell asleep I reflected on the rain hitting my window, I realized it was the first rain that I had fallen asleep to in a month and it reminded me of home, the nice way the rain helps me drift to sleep and I knew then, tomorrow would be a good day to start another adventure.

I always have a start, the rest I can make up!

Tonight’s song is: “He Lives In You” from the Lion King 2, its very reflective of all the people you carry with you who support and motivate you as my Nunny motivated me!

 Anna