Day 3 - Kolašin

August 19

On Wednesday, Lexi took the day off of work and we all took the train up into the mountains to Kolašin. It's about a 2 hour train ride through the Tara River Canyon, lots of tunnels and up into the extremely welcome respite from the heat of Podgorica.

Pictures from the train

It was amazing to feel the weather cooling off as we climbed. Once we got there, around lunchtime mind you, Tim led us across the tracks to hike up the mountain to a viewpoint.

our "hike"

It turns out that Tim didn't actually know where the viewpoint was or what trail he'd taken to get there. At this point, we were still missing our suitcase which was a problem given that I didn't have any other shoes to put on. The countryside was beautiful and the weather was cool but some of us were hungry with inappropriate footwear. Lexi wisely elected to cut our hike short.

Liz and I's somewhat inappropriate footwear

We finally got lunch at 2:30. The restaurant is one of their favorites - Savardak - and serves traditional Montenegrin mountain foods. The tables were set outside under the trees next to a babbling stream - totally idyllic.

our hosts - Lexi and Tim

Now we may have been influenced by the fact that we were starving but the food was hearty and extremely tasty. There are only 4 items on the menu, only 3 of which T&L order - kačamak (potatoes and cheese), cicvara (a cheesy grit-type dish), and meat in a village way(stew like, tender and tasty). Everything comes with amazing bread! After lunch we headed into the town to look around - interesting, very Commie-chic - and visit a café.

Building once used as City Hall

When we figured out when the train was supposed to head back, it turned out to be late but no one knew when it would show up. The station wasn't exactly functional and we very nearly witnessed a train accident as the station master had forgotten to switch the tracks. When the train came, it was very full and we got in a car that said it was reserved but was empty. Turned out it was definitely reserved - by the police! So we had to stand in the hallway of the train until we got back to Podgo.

Standing on the train

After getting back to Podgo, we had a fantastic dinner at the Hotel Podgorica at around 9:30pm (which is a problem I had with Montenegrin culture). Amazingly enough, Tim got a call from the airport that our missing bag had arrived and was going to be delivered. Tim talked them into delivering it to the hotel.