Europe’s equivalent of Jordan’s Petra…

Is the Ostrog monastery. Interestingly it comes with a little mystery attached to it in the sense that nobody knows much about who or what built it. That’s quite strange to hear these days right?  I had initially accepted this wasn’t going to be a tourist attraction I could visit because the tour price would have been around 35 euros and I couldn’t justify that. Regular readers will know that I’ve managed to refrain from booking 99% of all tourist trap tours and on occasion I feel I’ve even bettered their own itinerary let alone having done it for cheaper.

However, I would end up at the Ostrog monastery courtesy of a Chinese-American we met on the bus from Shkodra to Kotor. He told us he was planning on hiring a car to visit this place. Perfecto. (I say riskily placing my life into the hands of a stranger).

Joining myself and the driver were of course Therese and the German giant Lucas. Our paths will soon deviate so this might be our last outing together after so long. C’est la via. Theresa is heading towards Bosnia, Slovenia and then into Italy before shortly heading back to her job in Holland. Lucas will be back to work early next week leaving just The Unlikely Traveller to continue his journey into the unknown. I know how tough going back will be for both of them as just like all proper travellers, travel is all they want to do. I’ve observed this in my ex Kate for the last 5 years. (Needless to say that it will be weeks not months before Therese and Lucas both decide on their next respective routes for later this year).

The journey to the monastery took under two hours and it was tolerable, largely uneventful but with spectacular scenery to admire. Temperatures had reached 34 degrees so AC was active the entire journey. We parked up and made our way to the building set into the mountain:

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Except this wasn’t the monastery (which sounds rather obvious with hindsight). This was positioned some 50 meters to the right hand side looking all glorious and heavenly. Check out how the Sun came out on camera!

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And inside the monastery there was a ceremony of sorts going on so not something I could take photos of but I did shoot some vantage point shots and some mosaics of holy figures, again sculptured into the rock face.

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And to better appreciate those thousands and thousands of single pieces, here’s a crop of the above:

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And the cost of this excursion compared to the tour-focused 30 euros? We each contributed 10 euros which was good for us and good for the driver as it paid for over half the cost of the car he was going to get on his own anyway.

Once we returned back and freshened up it was supper time and tonight it was grilled chicken and salad. A favourite of mine without doubt and a luxury for a back packer : – )

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I went to bed this evening excited that tomorrow would be the day I endeavour to climb the near 1400 steps to reach the top of the Castle Of San Giovanni (St John).


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