Day 10: Perast

When I was chatting to the landlady last night she had made some suggestions about places we ought to go in Montenegro. Not all of them sounded like things we would enjoy, but one of her suggestions sounded promising: a trip to Perast.

Perast is a small town on the Bay of Kotor, about 15km north of Kotor itself. You can get there as a stop on the hop-on-hop-off bus tour which operates around Kotor for €20 each. Or you can do what our landlady recommended and take the public bus for €1 each. We decided to take the second approach

The bus to Perast is supposed to leave from outside the main shopping centre in Kotor at quarter past each hour, so we were there and waiting at 10.15. There's no way we would have known of the existence of the bus if they landlady hadn't told me, because while there is something approximating a bus stop outside the shopping centre, there are no timetables or signs on it about what sort of buses might be departing from there or when. I was glad when a small crowd of other people materialised at the stop, presumably waiting for the same bus, because 10.15 came and went without any sign of a bus, as did 10.20, 10.25 and 10.30. Sometime around 10.35, the bus finally arrived - phew!

The driver wasn't very communicative but the fare did indeed seem to be a Euro each, which was good. The only problem now was that the bus was already quite full and so we weren't able to get a seat. We managed to find space to stand and spent the next 20 minutes desperately hanging onto poles as the bus sped around the hairpin bends of the bay at lightning speed. There didn't really seem to be many defined bus stops along the route and so the passengers, many of whom were old ladies, just shouted loudly at the driver when they wanted to get off and he pulled over at the side of the road. Luckily there were quite a few people who wanted to get off in Perast and he stopped in a reasonable location on the edge of the town.

Perast is just a small village today but during the days of the Venetian empire it was an important harbour with a fleet of Venetian ships being stationed there. As a result, there is some beautiful architecture in the town, with numerous houses and palaces that were built by the Venetians. It's also in a beautiful natural location.

We started to walk along the main street towards the town.

The main road is literally right next to the sea, and there are no pavements, so you had to be on your guard as you walked to make sure you weren't mown down by any Montenegrin driving!

Soon we had reached Perast's main square.

St Nicholas' church is in the middle with its huge bell tower.

There were some smaller churches in the town too.

The most impressive views though are out to sea.

The reason that lots of tourists visit Perast is because of two islands in the bay not far off the coast of the town. The first is Ostrvo Sveti Đorđe (Island of St. George). This island is home to a Benedictine monastery which dates from the twelfth century and is closed to tourists.

The second is the island of Gospa od Škrpjela (Our Lady of the Rocks), which is the only artificial island in the whole of the Adriatic.

This second island is open to visits by the public and there are rows of boats on the waterfront of Perast waiting to take tourists across.

Our landlady had advised us that the going rate was €5 per person for a return fare and that we shouldn't pay more than that.

We strolled along the promenade to the far end of Perast to admire the view.

One man approached us, interrupting a conversation we were having, to ask if we wanted a boat trip. We said no to him as he thought he was a bit presumptious, but yes to another man who approached us much more politely a few minutes later. He confirmed that the price for a trip to the island was €5 and soon we were on our way.

We soon had some beautiful views of Perast as the boat pulled away from the shore...

..and got closer to the islands.

First we got a brilliant view of the monastery on the island of St George...

...and soon we had a brilliant view of Our Lady of the Rocks too.

When we arrived on the island, the captain asked how long we wanted to stay and agreed to come and pick us back up in half an hour or so.

We thought that ought to be enough time, because the island is really quite small.

The main building on the island is the church of Our Lady of the Rocks.

The landlady had told me the story of the church last night. As far as I understood it (and this may not be 100% accurate because she speaks Montenegrin quite fast!), some sailors in the fifteenth century had seen an apparition of Our Lady who had asked them to build a church on a small rock in the middle of the Bay of Kotor. The rock wasn't big enough to build a church on, so over the years the locals sailed out into the bay with boats full of rocks to build up a proper island.

Eventually a solid artificial island emerged from the sea and a church was built on it. The current church was constructed in 1632.

There is a festival in Perast every summer where locals still row out with boats full of stones to help support the island.

The church is supposed to be really interesting inside as well. Our landlady was telling me that there is a famous embroidered icon in there which was made by a local lady, waiting for her sailor husband to return from a long voyage. She sewed some of the tapestry with her own hair, which is what makes it particularly famous.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see it because we weren't able to get inside the church! Unbeknown to us, this is a "shore excursion" for some of the cruise ships which dock in Kotor and there were several large boats which arrived at the same time as us, disgorging large groups of passengers on tours who were queuing to get inside the church in organised groups. We didn't stand a chance!

Instead we made the best of the views from all around the island...

...and back across to Perast.

We located the boat we'd come out of and began our journey back to the town.

There were some more brilliant views

Once we were back in the town we strolled up and down the sea front once more, looking for a likely place for lunch.

There are some quite expensive hotels and restaurants in Perast, but eventually we managed to find a reasonably priced place from where we had a lovely view out to sea.

Later in the afternoon it was time to head back to Kotor. From what the landlady had said to me, I understood that the bus back was supposed to arrive in Perast around half past each hour, so we went to stand in the main square at the appointed time. As on the way out, we waited and waited and waited, and again about 20 minutes late a bus arrived. This time we even managed to get a seat, so we were able to enjoy the views as we sped back to Kotor