Travels with Louise-Montenegro
By LOUISE HUGHES

The more we traveled the more I marvelled at the idiocy of the Federal Republic who forced six such diverse, geographically and topographically Republics to become one! Serbia, Croatia, BosniaHercegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Slovenia do not have enough in common except for gorgeous scenery and wonderful people.

Well, we all saw the result of that mistake but today we went down the coast to Montenegro to see Kotor and Budva and towns on route. The scenery was breathtaking, steep walls of limestone forming mountains on the left and the Blue Adriatic on the right.

The "Dinaric Alps" divide the limestone gorges of Bosnia from a glacial massif over which there is Montenegro which held out against the Turks in 1389 and retained its freedom for 500 years.

First we came to beautiful "Herceg-novi" a town of 10,000 on Topla Bay, a lovely sheltered inlet which is a popular resort in all seasons. The history of this town is exciting. We drove up the hills and saw the remnants of the awful 1979 earthquake, the view is stunning-flowers are blooming everywhere as we are in a semi-tropical area. It was hard to leave this town but Kotor was next and in all the places Jugoslavia had lived up to this reputation. We drove around the wide Bay of Kotor which looks like a Fjord in Norway with high hills on one side. A narrow passage into the bay and walls surround the town so they avoided the Turks war but were devastated by the earthquake of 1979. No vehicles are allowed in the narrow streets and the churches, palaces and massive walls are completely preserved. This amazed me as the town had been occupied in 1797 by Austrian's, then Russians, French, Austrian's again and in 1941 Italians. Then

Germans until in 1941 Yogoslavians regained! What a history but this treasure is so perfect everyone coveted it!

Goran at the desk at our hotel "Libertas" asked to see our map as I guess he got a kick out of us as we planned to see all we could. Then I showed him the road to "Cetinje," but he said it was too steep a road and didn't get many tourists. Good. I'm ready. Ginny said not to worry. The road goes up from Kotor and is breathtaking with seventeen numbered hairpin bends and grades of 8 to 10% all in a distance of 9 miles. Wow, was that fun! Better than a roller coaster and scenery is exquisite. I took lots of photos needless to say.

The little town is on a green plateau with rugged mountains all around-a very inhospitable country which was once the capital of Montenegro. There are former embassy's all around the town and a fascinating museum in which you could

spend hours. I saw on my map, the road which wound up to a mausoleum, twelve and a half miles of more curves and a truly unbelievable view of the whole world! Well, maybe not, but it surely seemed so. I did not tell Ginny that this was an extra 25 miles but she loved it.

We went back to Cetinje and saw a pretty cafe where we had a simply delish pizza and coffee ice cream. I was surprised at the great pizzas we had anywhere. Then instead of going down the dramatic road I made my one mistake and took a more traveled road to Titograd. Hmmm! Here was evidence of the old time socialist regime, a city where you see men not exactly in uniform but in plain suits, more or less alike. I pictured every one carrying a weapon. They were not smiling or friendly. Oh, well, this was probably my fertile imagination as we had just left the perfect gem of an isolated town which we loved. The buildings in

Titograd austere, plain and uninviting. Perhaps, I should have driven some back streets but I simply headed down the mountain and of course the views were glorious you could almost see Italy! Actually, you can ferry to Italy from three or more ports-one is from Dubrovnik. I prefer driving but that is fun, too.

There is a lot more to see in this area but we had seen so much beauty today that we started north and got a different view of the scenes we passed on the way down. We stopped in Kotor for coffee and pastry and a peek in a few shops before going home to Libertas our cool hotel.

Goran was still there and really was interested that we were truly enjoying his delightful country in every way. I'll never forget it. So we will return to Budva and more of the place another day. And tomorrow, the island of Korcula?