Behind Again

The new set came out on this yesterday while I was gone, so... I'm behind. I only got one full square and part of another done on part five. I plan on working on it tomorrow until I get part five done. Maybe tonight, too, if I recover enough from our trip.

Lots to See, Nothing to Do

We left Budva just after noon on Saturday the 25th and took the scenic route to Kotor; boy, was it scenic - right down to the two way one lane road edged on one side by the bay and on the other by walls. This first shot is from that road. It shows Kotor from a distance and it just strikes you as yet another old town by the water. Very pretty with the mountain behind it, but there are a lot like that in Montenegro.

It seems like most other towns of any size, that is, until you get close up and see these massive town defense walls rising to the summit of the mountain. I'm still stunned that people put walls all over that mammoth hillside. Definitely worth the view, but...

if you don't sail and you don't hike, what do you do in a place like Kotor? We went because we'd heard it was -the- place in Montenegro for anglophones to go, as Budva is for Russians. They must have meant anglophone fitness freaks. Truly, the only things to do in Kotor are sail and hike. No beach. It takes about half an hour to explore the old fortress.

So, we came, we looked at the magnificent fortifications from the bottom, and we drove on.

Of Gold and Time

There's some gold up to the corner and it's coming along slowly, but getting there. After Sunday I'll have a lot less time looking at the beach and traveling, which translates into a bit more stitching time. This will be especially true on Monday as I help the contractors repair the freezer ... again.

Working Toward the Center

The plaques are coming along on this; the light pink and light blue for the flower outlines in the dense ones are done. It seems the middle plaques, with the least stitching to do, are the ones falling behind. I've done some work since this picture was taken, but not much. For some reason, I haven't really stitched this week.

Budva by Day

After resting, we spent the morning walking Budva (again). Parts of it reminded me of the Jersey shore, with a boardwalk/carnival feel. That was the area behind the beach farthest from Stari Grad, which you can see in the first picture here. This is one of the churches; there were two - one Roman Catholic, one Orthodox. The whole old town is made up of the same stone. Touring every street of it takes about ten minutes. There are some fairly nice restaurants inside.

And here is part of what the crowds were about - one of the cigarette boats being taken out of the water to be transported back to the starting line. While we were there, they were still doing time trials. Noisy to hear and exciting to see.

This is a shot of some of what's normally in the harbor. Boats range from dinghys to yachts. And, as usual for around here, the sky is a lovely blue and the water is a great bluish green. The water in the boatyard wasn't as clean as what we've been seeing in Croatia, though. If you want to see more pictures of Budva, follow the link in my previous "Night in Budva" post. There's an excellent panorama there.

Head's Done

Well, it is except for the beads I put on last. I'm almost to the halfway point on this - just need to finish up the flag and the torch to get the top half done. I think it's turning out pretty well so far, and now that I've stitched on it in Kosovo, they can say when it's raffled that it was partially stitched in a war zone.

Night in Budva

We were very, very lucky when we pulled into traffic-jammed Budva after our very long day in the car. The first hotel we tried, Hotel Oaza, had a room available and we took it. Oaza is located just across the boardwalk area from the marina and about a hundred meters from Stari Grad (old town - all the towns with fortifications from medieval times are called Stari Grad in Montenegro). It turns out that there was a World Powerboat Championship race the next day, and the whole town was partying before it, along with a few thousand tourists/race enthusiasts. There was a concert bu Russian girl group (Eurovision contestants in 2007) Serebro (pictured here), a fireworks show, and a bunch of dazzle.

So we ate dinner, walked around Stari Grad, listened to the music, and my companion took a lot of pictures. This one is from Stari Grad looking back out across the bay toward the south end of Budva. If you look closely (or at the bigger version of the picture in this set), you can see the race sponsor's name in green laser in the sky by the mountains. Neat trick. After a few hours of the walking around bit, we went back to the hotel for sleep. I'd recommend this place. The room was big, even had two bathrooms (one with jacuzzi), and breakfast was included.