Cetinje

Yesterday it was finally nice enough for Layne and I to do a little sightseeing again. We were going to visit Monastery Ostrog, but a few of our teammates suggested that maybe we could all go together next weekend. This was actually good because from all we read online, there is no direct bus to the monastery and most people rely on locals (via hitchhiking) to get to the base of the monastery. However, we are thinking that with such a large group of girls, we may be able to convince our bus driver, Mirko, to drive us up in the team bus! Anyways, that still left us with the dilemma of what to do Sunday. Most of the things we want to see in Montenegro require the weather to be better and warm enough to swim or go to the sea. After minor research, we came across this town called Cetinje which is at the base of Mt. Lovcen. At the top of Mt. Lovcen, there is a popular mausoleum with views that supposedly allow you to see all of Montenegro! This sounded really cool and something that would not require warm weather.

Since we decided on our plan pretty late Saturday night, we could not call the bus station to find out what time a bus would be heading to Cetinje. The next best thing was to have one of our friends call in the morning and just be ready to go by 9:15 am. (This is much earlier than I have been getting up lately, so it was a little difficult!) Turns out that no buses go directly from Bar to Cetinje until the summer. This meant we had to catch a 9:45 am bus to Budva (about an hour from Bar) and from there, get a bus to Cetinje. We thought this might be the case, so we were not surprised. When we boarded the bus, we were the ONLY ones on the bus. And the driver drove sooo slow (of course, he had to slow down numerous times to light up a new cigarette). We finally made it to Budva and looked on the screen for what time the next bus to Cetinje would depart. When we looked at the bus times on the screen, it said that it was presently 9:45 and that the bus did not leave until 10:55. Although we did not want to wait for an hour, it was the only option, so we booked our ticket and decided to get some water from a grocery for the walk up the hill and some snacks. That wasted hardly anytime, so we went back to the bus station to find out what time the last bus was back to Bar. We needed to make sure that we left Cetinje early enough to catch the last bus. The lady spoke really good English, and after she told us the last bus left at 8:10, she said, "You missed the bus to Cetinje." Layne and I looked at each other and were confused. Turns out the clock on the monitor was an hour early. (If you think about it, we were not very smart because we supposedly left Bar at 9:45 and arrived in Budva at 9:45. Duh!) This is when we learned LESSON #1 of the day: Always check your own clock!

Luckily, the next bus to Cetinje was leaving in a few minutes, and she gave us a new ticket for that trip. After climbing up in the mountains and both of our ears popping numerous times, we made it to Cetinje. From a distance, I was able to spot the mausoleum at the top of Mt. Lovcen and it looked pretty far away. At the bus station, there was a map of Cetinje with all the popular spots. It said the mausoleum was less than 1 km away, which we were surprised, but excited that it was so close. We decided to tackle this first because we were not sure how long it would take. As we are climbing up these winding and steep hills, something is not sitting right with me. Like I mentioned earlier, it seemed like the mausoleum was much further away. Either way, we continued to climb. The weather in Cetinje was very different than Bar. There was lots of snow on the ground and was pretty cold. However, among all the snow were these pretty purple flowers:

When we finally reached the top, it was obvious that we were at the wrong mausoleum! From the one we were on, there was a perfect view of the one we wanted to be on! As I thought, it was pretty far away.

 This is what we saw after climbing up the steep walk ways! Not what we were expecting!!! Then we looked to our left and saw this...

 It's hard to see, but the 'real' mausoleum is on top of that mountain. (Far away right!?!?!)

Layne and I were a little upset, but needed a picture with the intended mausoleum. And while we were up here, we figured that we should at least get some pictures. 

So I got one overlooking the town of Cetinje! 

While we were up here, there were several other groups walking around. We decided to ask one of the couples how we would go about getting to the mausoleum that we really wanted to go to. The man actually spoke English and told us that it was about 21 km (15 miles) to the mausoleum and that it was CLOSED! This was the main reason we came to the town, so we were extra bummed! We knew there were not a lot of things to do in Cetinje, and we did not want to go home, so we wasted time by taking "jumping" pictures. From the many, many we took, this was the ONLY one that worked:

 Pretty good right?!?!?

We decided to head back down and see a few of the other sites the Internet mentioned. We saw a monastery, church, some statues, and another church.

 The monastery.

 The church.

 Another church with a statue in front.

At this point it was only 2 or so, and we decided to ask a few more people about the mausoleum being closed because we were a little skeptical. Also, we wanted to be 100% because it was the entire reason we came to Cetinje. We found a few English-speaking people and some said it was open and some said it was closed. They all told us how to get there, so we started walking in that direction. Now we were even more confused about what to do because of the mixed answers. After walking for what seemed forever, we ran across another couple and asked them about it. The man said that it would take 3 hours to walk there and that he thought it was open, but didn't know what time it closed. He said there were no buses to the mausoleum and that we would have to take a taxi. Now it was getting closer to 3, and we couldn't find a taxi driver to find out how much it would cost. Since it was so far away, we assumed it would be a lot and decided to finally abandon the plan and go back to Budva. Throughout this process, I learned LESSON #2: Do as thorough research as possible on destinations (although this is hard in Montenegro). I wish the sites we visited would have said something about Cetinje and Mt. Lovcen being so far apart and difficult to get to instead of grouping them together like the were close!

 This is the closest we came to Lovcen! :(

A couple of our friends were in Budva to watch their cousin play, so we decided to meet up with them in Budva, watch the match, and drive back to Bar with them. Unlike most bus stations, there is not an actual station in Cetinje. You just wait for a bus to come and hop on. We were told that buses go from Cetinje to Budva every 30 minutes or so which meant we would not have to wait long. Finally a bus came by and Layne was sure it was headed to Podgorica and not Budva. I suggested maybe we ask someone to just make sure and it turns out it was going to Budva! We kinda had to run after the bus to catch it, but we got on! Here is LESSON #3 of the day: Ask where the bus is going! 

We made it back to Budva with about 2 hours before the game, so we went to a cafe and did some shopping at this silly store. The match was not a high level, but entertaining nonetheless.  We finally made it back to Bar around 9 pm, made breakfast for dinner, and went to sleep! Despite not getting to our desired destination, we still learned 3 important lessons yesterday and had fun!

After successfully making my apartment video, we decided to chronicle the trip with video. Please read the post (I know it's long!) before viewing the video. Enjoy!