Movers and Shakers

An early morning sea swim started the day well but then ;


Rebellion! After being trailed around a jewellery outlet and refusing to buy we escaped the leather outlet and ran away to browse the hardware store opposite. Our tour guide was not pleased with us!
However, the verge-side on the way was home to lizards and numerous herbs, which we had fun trying to identify by smell. Clouded yellow butterflies flittered above the reeds in the next Lot so we didn’t feel too badly.


The visit to Budva old town earlier on was enjoyable. Although it looked as if it would be similar to the other walled towns it had its own atmosphere centred on the RC and Orthodox churches. They were in use as parish churches, not just visitor museums, and it was free to go in. The icons in the Orthodox church covered every wall and from chains in the roof hung a couple of silver incense holders making the darkness smell sweet . A young well bearded priest in black robes with his tall hat was busy behind the screen. Later we found that  today was an Orthodox celebration with a small procession, incense and chanting starting at the town gates. The buildings were all very spruce and clean and we were told that it had suffered heavy destruction from the 1979 earthquake and had largely been rebuilt. That earthquake measured 7.8 on the Richter scale so was comparable to the Christchurch earthquake in 2011. Looking at the back of the church a long ziz zag crack has been re-filled and most houses have long metal cables running through from front to back, secured by bars. In this context the huge high rise hotel accommodation blocks all round the bay look disastrously vulnerable, although they have presumably adhered to the safety regulations in their construction.


What else.
We were checked into one of the largest hotels  on the sea front as we were saying goodbye to our guide and starting a week free to do as we liked. I think there will be a lot to do, especially if we can get away from the beach side build. The back drop of mountains is awe-inspiring!