Godspeed to Olympos, Tue, 19 Sep 2023 | written by Simon
Simon at a Ruins/Excavation, Sea in Albania, Europe, Montenegro

Since I parked by the Rozafa Castle already, I decided to break my No-Albania rule and see it anyway. Good choice – it’s a great spot with amazing views and quite a few tunnels and passages that are open to explore. Did I mention I love the Balkan disdain for health and safety? As I was driving down, a lady passed through the road with some goats. Couldn’t be more perfect.

But the next ruin topped it five times over. The Old City of Bar is just so beautifully overgrown by vines and has such amazing views of the mountains and the sea, that it just doesn’t compare. A 4-hectare site used to be a walled city built already in Roman times and changing hands between Byzantium, the Slavs, the Venetians, the Ottomans, and finally liberated by Montenegro in the 19th century. It was during this last siege that it was bombarded mercilessly and brought to its current state. A highlight was an entire wall of the main keep that was displaced in full by a bombardment and now overgrown with vines. Honestly, humans did the destruction, but then nature brought a lot of beauty into the site.

I was meaning to get to my next destination early, but it is so hot and I just had to jump in the sea. And then I lazed around there until almost sunset. It was glorious, a nice beach of small stones and perfectly clear water, and the views of lush mountains going directly into the sea is just stunning. Honestly, makes me think of Rio de Janeiro a bit.

I got to Petrovac just about in time to see the sunset over the little castle they’ve got at the end of the harbour pier, but it was quite hazy and not much of a view. I did, however, spend a nice evening just hanging out in a bar and on the beach in the evening. Petrovac is placed in a beautiful bay with a mountain-sae-scape which again makes me think of Brazil.

I should mention here that half the pleasure of being here are the roads. I’m driving on the most picturesque, windy mountain roads amongst olive groves and with a pretty constant view of the sea. It’s so beautiful!

Annoyingly, today I dropped my phone and now it seems like the main camera can’t focus properly. I can still take wide lens and selfie camera pics, but the quality is likely to drop from here on.