Today we are going to visit Ulcinj - when we came to Montenegro for the first time, we did not reach Ulcinj, although we read and heard a lot about the magnificent sandy beaches, and about the oriental bazaars and the old city, and about the special character of the city, associated with the proximity of the Albanian borders. So, today it seems that the sun sometimes comes out from behind the clouds and you can arrange the first acquaintance with Ulcinj before crowds of tourists pour in there. It is about 90 km from Kotor to Ulcinj - and this is the other end of the country, the southernmost city, and we have to travel the entire coast in this way. How I love this country for its miniature size and dense placement of the beauties of nature, culture and architecture! We left, I'm driving again! Let's go - don't rush. At the fork in Petrovac, we turned the wrong way - as it turned out, towards Lake Skadar, made a small detour to the first turnaround pocket - but we got stunning views of the coastal lagoons in the Petrovac area - the road went up again. When approaching Ulcinj, the quality of the road surface fell somewhat, to be precise, there is no half of the oncoming traffic lane 🙂 We rejoice when we see roadworks ahead. By the summer they will make candy out of the road.
We've arrived. Ulcinj, as we see it, is a fairly large city by Montenegrin standards. A lot of the private sector, mountainous terrain, the road rushes down to the sea.
We immediately notice the oriental flavor - according to the statistics of the 90% population - Albanians, all inscriptions and advertisements are duplicated in Serbian and Albanian, there are mosques. Our must-see for today is the Old Town, which we can easily find, as well as free parking, from which we are already starting to wean 🙂 And here is the fortress. The fortress is almost empty and deserted. It differs from the old town in Kotor and Budva in that it is located on a rock, but also protrudes into the sea. Somewhere below, the waves crash with noise against the foot of the cliff. We are glad that we got here not during the tourist season - the fortress almost completely belongs to us. We decided it would be nice to have a bite to eat, enjoying the view of the sea and the fortress, but almost all cafes and restaurants are closed, many buildings are simply destroyed, trees grow on the ruins, cats feel like full owners here. It seems as if a prosperous city in the past was abandoned due to some kind of disaster: household items of those who used to live here are visible behind the destroyed walls of some houses, curtains flutter in the wind ... rubbish is lying around ... museums are closed.
We found a cafe - oriental music plays from there, tables are set on the street terrace, there is a basket of fruit on the bar counter. Unfortunately, it was not possible to find a waiter, and indeed not a single living soul. It should be noted that part of the city is still inhabited, it is clear that some of the houses have been restored and put in order, garbage has been removed - we hope that a bright future awaits the rest of the residents of this majestic fortress. While walking, we met the first local residents:
Looks like a couple of restaurants are open here, women moving tables. Having succumbed to the unhurried rhythm of life and charged with a philosophical mood, we do not dare to distract them from business and endure until Mala Plazha, where there are several pizzerias and from where a stunning view of the fortress opens. As usual, the choice of the restaurant turned out to be very successful - super pizza calzone, fish soup and mixed salad to the last crumb are worth the euros paid. In general, I must say that in Montenegro the food is very tasty. I don’t remember a single cafe where we wouldn’t like the food - almost everywhere everything is cooked in front of you and especially for you, warming up is not practiced here. We enjoy the food and views of the cliff and the fortress. Time to go home. We will come here to test the sand on Velika Plaža closer to summer. They say it has a special healing effect.
