You Probably Haven't Heard of Budva Either

Of course, neither had I. But it is a lovely city on the Adriatic with archeological evidence indicating it was colonized in 500 B.C.  You'll see below a warrior's helmet dating from that time. An artist in 1614 drew this picture of old Budva.

This is our view of old Budva.

We stayed in a lovely hotel in a new part of the city.  It was the off season, fortunately.  In high season we probably couldn't have gotten in.  Our view of our bay.



There is an island in Budva called Sveti Stefan.  Legend has it that it was first inhabited in 1442 by the Pastrovic clan, with one house for each of the 12 members.  It is currently under a 3-year renovation project.  The whole island will be one hotel with exteriors remaining old but interiors lavishly updated.  It's the perfect vacation spot for those who want to drop a lot of Euros.

Daytime view:

Our view when we finally found it in the dark!

 The old town is a lovely place -- as you can see from outside the city walls.

It would be quite a task to climb that fortress wall if you were an invader from the sea.  Here's the view looking down.

We walked the walls of the fortress and saw a little greenery outside someone's very old house.

The guard towers, as you can see, were for the shorter soldier.

This is a rectangle hole in the floor of the wall right over the entryway gate.   The shot is looking down  about 30 feet at people walking by the gate.  I wonder how many bolders, hot oil, or boiling water were dumped on invaders through this hole.

From inside the old city, it seems strange to look out and see a slew of modern hotels.

But not all modern life is outside of the city.  Old town Budva-ites don't want for modern stuff -- which just seems a bit incongruous.

Here's OMIB (Our Man in Bulgaria) enjoying the view from the fortress.

You may think the picture below is from a postcard.  Nope!  My camera.  Gorgeous day!  Beautiful city.

In the bay there is a lovely bronze statute of a ballerina.

The museum in the old city displayed Roman coins discovered in Budva -- the first on this chart was from 1 A.D., (the time of Jesus),  the second from the Reign of Caesar Agustus - A.D. 69-79.  The last is from the year 117-137 A.D.  And here is a iron warrior's helmet from B.C. 400.

And these are not the oldest remnants of civilization we've seen in Bulgaria and now Montenegro.  Is there anything in the U.S. that is as old as this helmet?  I guess the LaBrea tarpits might qualify.  But remnants of civilization? 

That's it from Bulgaria!  Tomorrow we go to the opera "The Barber of Seville."  Don't count on pictures.  We have seats on the fourth row ($15) which is good, but very bad for taking any bootlegged shots of the action!