Escape to Cetinje: Mountain Passes, Devout Disciples & Cultural Gems on Gundula's Great Eurasian Roam 🚐💨

Next, I thought I would spend a night in Budva, another slightly larger town along the coast. It promised to host local town festivals featuring performances by KUD ensembles – traditional folk music and dance organisations (Kulturno-Umetničko Društvo), a wonderful cultural legacy from Yugoslavian times that remains vibrant and thriving in many towns and cities today. 💃🎶

Now, if you think London is full of cars and heavy traffic, think again and double it! 🚘 Whilst Kotor was already bursting at the seams, Budva was sooooo crowded that I couldn’t even find a place to stop. In the end, I skipped it entirely and headed straight for my next destination – Cetinje, the historical medieval capital of Montenegro, tucked away in the mountains far from the sea. 🏔️

The word ‘mountain’, combined with the squiggly, winding shapes of the road on Google Maps, immediately triggered my driving anxieties! 🗺️🫣 You have to understand that Montenegro is essentially one huge, dramatic accumulation of mountains, rivers, and gorges, with valleys that look like tiny creases in between. Imagine the kind of roads you encounter navigating between places like that! Driving into Kotor had already served up its fair share of challenging moments, and the routes on the map looked downright scary. But I soon realised that even if I had decided to skip Cetinje, there was simply no way out of this country that didn't involve crossing a mountain range – so, onwards and upwards! 🚐💨

To my absolute delight, I discovered that Montenegro has built some beautiful mountain roads! 🛣️ They were wide enough, occasionally opened into dual carriageways, and even the steep ascents, descents, and hairpin turns were surprisingly manageable. On top of that, Montenegrin drivers were total gentlemen/women – no aggressive driving here! They stayed patiently behind me, keeping a safe distance.

At one point, as I wound around a curve, I looked in my side mirror and saw around an erray of white cars neatly lined up behind my white Ludvig VAN. It looked just like a humongous caterpillar with us leading the head! 🐛 Another time, when the cars behind us were a bit more varied, I had this hilarious image of Ludvig VAN Beethoven (and me, of course!) as prophets leading our devout disciples through the pass… 🎼✨

Cetinje turned out to be utterly lovely. There were very few day tourists and the locals were wonderfully friendly. I loved the seamless blend of old and new, alongside such a relaxed pace of life.

 It was just the right place to unwind for a few days and catch up on things. ☕🌿

Watch my summary video of Cetinje here: 👇

https://youtube.com/shorts/IsJZwiP89mg?feature=share