SV ICE BEAR

Kotor is worth exploring it is a walled city with fortifications extending up a large hill. At the very top is Castel St.John a Illyrian fort and not quite half way up is the Church of Our Lady of Remedy. The walled city is a maze of streets there are hostels and hotels as well as the shops and restaurants a traveler comes to expect. Outside of the wall across the street from the town dock is a outdoor market with fruit and veg during the day and at night there are clothes and souvenirs as well as food carts making grilled corn on the cob. Walk to the left of those and you come to the west gate the Sea Gate. As you enter the gate it opens up into the Trg Od Oruzja the largest square in the walled city. Most of the shops and restaurants are to be found near the front of the city and by front I mean the parts closer to water then the mountain. The buildings near the back seem to be where the accommodation for the city is whether your a local or traveler. There were several hostels in the city and judging
by the number of back packers we saw I would guess they were full. At the gate to the south the Gurdic gate there was a pond of fresh spring water that people were jumping of the walls into. The iron balls that were used to counter balance the gates were still attached to a chain leading out the wall. On the north side of the city was the River gate where the river flowed from the mountain. Behind the buildings the wall snaked up the mountain as did a couple paths for people to climb to see the top. Two of us decided to climb to the chapel almost half way up to set up a time laps to see the city transition from day into night and the the third one of us decided to climb to the top to see the transition from there The view was amazing from both locations and the pictures and time laps turned out really well. We all joined up at the chapel and hiked down in the dark. The third one of us decided that the hike wasn't to bad and figured he would do the ladder a path outside the wall that zigzaged to the top of the mountain the next morning. Just before we did the climb to the chapel a boat tied to the dock and it had doodoo dooooo Americans on it. They seemed pretty Kewl. The next morning while I stayed all snuggled in bed our hiker left for the ladder it was still very hot during the day so if he hadn't gone early in the morning the heat would have killed him. He was back around lunch time and even brought some yummy pastries with him. He said that the views from almost the beginning of the hike were amazing there was a cow and some goats a forested area and at the top a restaurant. If time had permitted him to go further he would have found a town.
Kotor had a wonderful vibe and it was easy to see why it was lonely planets top pick of places to go in Europe last year. Its definitely a place I could got back to and explore more.