Budvanski Riviera #2of2

Even if we wanted to, our passports did not permit a visit to Albania, and Albania doesn’t permit visitors, so that was an easy decision. We were south of Ulcinj, so we decided to visit Ada, at the end of the road, where there is supposed to be a campsite. Well it’s the end of the road, and there’s a campsite, but since it’s a nudist campsite, a certain member of our party decided we weren’t going to spend the night. If there had been a beauty contest in Ada that night, I insist there is no more room in Emmy’s trophy case, so why enter!

The remains of the old city of Stari Bar lie on a flat hill top that slopes gently towards the sea. Two town gates survive, and the residential architecture was quite varied. Remains of simple one-room buildings, as well as very large, multi-story buildings survived. The earthquake which struck Stari Bar on April 15, 1979, caused extensive damage. It’s easy to see how people are killed in a quake. These old stone buildings were built without steel reinforcing bars, and most had no mortar holding the stones together, so these old buildings just fell on the people who ran outside into the walkways, and into the narrow streets of Stari Bar when the quake began. Extensive architectural documentation was in existence, so it was decided that many of the damaged buildings would be fully restored.

In Bar we stopped in a very nice shopping center (department store, grocery store, bank, and many other little stores), located in an exceptionally attractive shopping center with very modern architecture. The stores in Bar had a variety of products for sale, but to take up shelf space, one each of an item (for example, boys pants), were displayed side by side. The apartment buildings are of excellent architectural design, far better than other behind-the-Iron-Curtain countries. Boats to Italy, Greece, and other coastal cities, make use of the harbor.

There are several campsites along this coast, the one where we stopped, just north of Budva, had room for over 3,000 campers, in season. As we have seen all over Europe, there is a group of about 25 trailers from the Netherlands, on a trip organized and conducted by their Auto Club. They have a couple of people who act as the tour leaders, or wagon masters. They supply information concerning things for the others to do during the day, then give directions, instructions, and make arrangements to meet in a certain campsite each night.