https://rhiaro.co.uk/2019/06
type: Collection
type: Container
contains: photos-hike-kotor
contains: week-in-review
contains: cooplife
contains: theory
contains: photos-herceg-novi
contains: only
contains: photos-tivat
contains: photos-perast
contains: week-in-review-2
contains: photos-budva
contains: sarajevo
contains: big
contains: photos-sarajevo
contains: photos-visocica
contains: sarajevo-flea
contains: week-in-review-3
contains: photos-sarajevo-2
contains: photos-ostrog
contains: photos-skadar
contains: photos-bar-ulcinj
contains: week-in-review-4
contains: photos-lustica
contains: photos-budva-2
contains: photos-kotor
contains: adventures-in-montenegro
contains: vegan-in-montenegro
contains: week-in-review-5
name: Posts between 2019/06 and 2019/07
total items: 27

adventures-in-montenegro
type: Article
content: I spent a month total with the Bay of Kotor as my base, broken up by a week-long jaunt to Sarajevo because I got too close to resist. I picked a perfect spot, the small town of Bijela. It has enough tourists from its handful of hotels to not feel like an alien, but not enough to crowd you out, and isn't a primary destination by any means. There are plenty of nice spots to swim, and it's well connected to the rest of the country. Typical of the whole bay, it's surrounded by moody mountains, sometimes shrouded in clouds, other times reflecting the sunset back at you like a mirror. One of the things I particularly enjoyed about Montenegro is the somewhat hectic nature of the buses. It's a tiny country, and you can get anywhere in less than 3 hours, but it usually involves standing at the side of the road to flag down long distance coaches run by a plethora of private companies and hoping they stop. busticket4.me has an approximation of most timetables, but the buses don't necessarily have scheduled stops everywhere so some maths is involved to work out when it's going to pass where you want to catch it from. I found it helpful to memorize the bus companies that were going to where I wanted at a particular time, because there are many private or chartered tour buses too which will not stop for randoms, and you can't necessarily tell these from the long distance coaches from a distance. They also don't always have all of the destinations listed in the front window, so don't necessarily refrain from waving one down just because you can't see your town written. Especially in the Bay of Kotor, or anywhere along the coast, there's only one main road, so if your destination is on it, you can persuade a bus driver to stop there. The only exception being that some buses going down the coast skip the bulk of the Bay and take the ferry across to Lepetane, so don't try to get one of those to Risan or Perast. The way they usually work is you board and take a seat (checking with the…
name: Adventures in Montenegro
published: 2019-06-28T21:00:00+02:00
tag: montenegro
tag: travel
tag: balkans
tag: hiking
tag: tourism
tag: lake

big
type: Note
content: After like 3 weeks in the Bay of Kotor, Sarajevo feels like a big city. Never thought I'd say that.
published: 2019-06-12T17:48:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: sarajevo

cooplife
type: Note
content: Co-op life is having my worker rights outrage-o-meter cranked up to Extremely Sensitive at all times, forgetting that ODSC policies are not universal or even close to normal anywhere in the world, and wanting to burn it all down every time I hear even the faintest hint of a company trying to take advantage of an employee. And the employee doesn't really think they're being take advantage of and is trying to tiptoe around the situation so the abuse dosen't get worse.
published: 2019-06-06T14:41:00+02:00
tag: ods
tag: cooperatives
tag: life
tag: opendataservices.coop
tag: worker+rights
tag: cooplife

only
type: Activity
type: Note
content: The only countries worth being in are ones where you get straight lemon juice when you order lemonade, in my opinion.
published: 2019-06-08T14:58:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: food
tag: balkans

photos-bar-ulcinj
type: Add
content: Driving up the coast with stops in Ulcinj and Bar. Ulcinj is very full and touristy and the old town is half destroyed, half new restaurants and bars. It didn't have a particularly good vibe. The Long Beach to the south has 100% coverage of sunbeds. Smaller beaches to the north seem nicer; we swam at one, but there was boat fuel in the water which did not smell good. Bar is a big port town with connections to Italy. Didn't hang around the center. Stopped by the beach at Susanj, and then went to Stari Bar, the destroyed old town, which is further up the mountain. Parking is free unless a random dude hands you a receipt for €2.50 and you just pay him because it doesn't seem worth arguing about. It's a kind of structured begging, I guess (parking scams like this are common all over Montenegro, actually). The little street full of restaurants on the way to the old town is nice, and reminds me of a bit of Sarajevo. The old town is a giant museum, costing €4 to enter and is totally worth it. I could have spent longer than the 2 or so hours I did, only leaving because the close at sunset. It's full of creepy cellars to explore and castle walls to climb. It kept taking me by surprise with how much of it there was, but of course it's a whole town. The views over to the valley on the other side are neat too; there's a waterfall.

photos-budva
type: Add
content: An afternoon in Budva. The bus from Bijela is about €4.50-5 depending on the bus you end up on and should take a couple of hours but took about five because we sat in traffic near Tivat airport for forever. I went straight to Paradise Foods, the only vegan place in Montenegro, and ate a substantial and extremely cheap lunch. Then through the main strip to the beach, which was crowded with tourists and sun umbrellas, but not too obnoxious. I thought it might be nice to take a pedal boat around the bay. There are boat trips of varying lengths, and a water taxi to the island in the bay too. I walked through the old town, which is pleasant. I particularly like the stone archways which open directly onto the beach. I followed the cliffedge path to see the Dancing Lady statue, then continued past to Mogren beaches. The furthest beach has good shade in the afternoon, and isn't as loud and full as the first one. Some rock clambering after that to a point with local kids jumping into the sea from high rocks. Some as high as a two storey house; I watched them psyching themselves up for a while and really thought they wouldn't survive. (They did; didn't do it again though.) I swam and napped and made my way back to Paradise Foods before it closed to pick up supplies, then bussed home. There's plenty to do in Budva I think, and the surrounding area. I'll probably spend more time here.

photos-budva-2
type: Add
content: A day in Budva. Featuring two trips to Paradise Foods (and working from there a bit), a 2.5 hour walk around the coast to Sveti Stefan, sightings of mandatory-use €120 beach sets (2 chairs and an umbrella, maybe towels) and the resulting empty beaches, very swanky hotels, and swimming near the Sveti Stefan resort hotel island.
published: 2019-06-26T21:40:57+02:00
summary: Amy added 50 photos to https://i.amy.gy/20190506-me/
target: 20190506-me

photos-herceg-novi
type: Add
content: Hanging around in Herceg Novi, and a walk through Igalo and around the bay. Vegan food at Barbarella.
published: 2019-06-06T20:47:26+02:00
summary: Amy added 37 photos to https://i.amy.gy/20190506-me/
target: 20190506-me

photos-hike-kotor
type: Add
content: Working and hanging around Bijela. Hike from Lepetane to Kotor via For Vrmac, across the Vrmac mountains. It wasn't too strenuous, although we lost the trail a few times and had to double back or do some rock scrambling. The views were breathtaking in most directions. Thunder was rumbling after a few hours, but fortunately we found ourselves on a relatively flat straight trail for the duration of the rainstorm. The clouds parted and Kotor was revealed for a final trek down a never ending switchback just across the bay from the city. We limped to Ombra restaurant for vegan pizza, and took the bus home (€2.50, 40 mins).
published: 2019-06-02T21:19:40+02:00
summary: Amy added 58 photos to https://i.amy.gy/20190506-me/
target: 20190506-me

photos-kotor
type: Add
content: A day chilling (working) in Bijela by the sea. A visit to Kotor on my last day in Montenegro. I climbed the Ladder of Kotor, a switchback up the side of the mountain behind old town. On the way up there's a seemingly abandoned house, but if you stick around to take in the view for too long an old man shows up to sell you lemonade for extortionate prices. From there the trail goes up and up and into the mountains, if you have time for that. What I did was bear right, where there's a secret entrance into the top of the Fortress. Entering from the old town costs a steep €8, but there's a person-sized hole in the wall you can enter for free if you've made the climb up the Ladder. The Fortress is steps on steps; all abandoned, lots to see, and amazing views of course. I returned down all the steps and into the old town, where nobody is checking tickets on the way out.
published: 2019-06-28T19:38:21+02:00
summary: Amy added 59 photos to https://i.amy.gy/20190506-me/
target: 20190506-me

photos-lustica
type: Add
content: I'd read no end about the amazing hiking on the Lustica Peninsula, the bit of land that sticks out and around in front of Herceg Novi. I also found some blog posts from the end of last year, official announcements about the improved hiking trails there; apparently now well-marked and accessible for hikers and cyclists. Well, they may have been premature because some of the trails were definitely not well marked or maintained, and some undergrowth scrabbling was required. They were mostly marked with red dots though. I wanted to finish the hike in time to take the water taxi back from Rose at the tip, to Herceg Novi. Taking a charter boat would have been €20 or more, but the water taxi is €3; only it ran at limited times, and the last one was (as far as I knew when I started out) at 1900 (actually turned out to be 1830). I budgeted 9 hours for the hike including distractions, plus some time in Rose at the end. There's a bus from Tivat to Krasic, a good place to start hiking from, at 0730 but buses from Lepetane to Tivat don't start until about 0830, but I managed to flag down a long distance coach to Tivat in Biejla at about 6am and it all worked out. Starting early was a good idea anyway, and I was lucky with overcast weather for most of the day; it would have been far too hot otherwise, there's very little shade on Lustica. The beginning of the trail from Krasic is at the start of the village. The bus wizzed right past and I happened to see the map on the wall I recognised from my extensive googling, and when I eventually got the bus to stop we had to walk all the way back. Once the trail departs from the road, it becomes obvious but rugged, which is perfect. Better and better views as one ascends the mountainside. Then an encounter with a giant piece of machinery widening the trail; it later became apparent that this was for one of the houses being built in another village, probably, rather than anything to do with the hiking trails. We detoured from Gosic through…

photos-ostrog
type: Add
content: Road trip! Got in on a car rental and drove to Ostrog Monastery, stopping for coffee in Niksic on the way. The Monastery is cool, accessed up some windy mountain roads and free to enter. It's built into the side of the cliff, and many of the inside walls are cliff face. Some are adorned with paintings and mosaics directly onto the rocks. The views are spectacular of course. Lunch in Podgorica, the captial. It didn't seem like a very exciting town. There's probably stuff to do if you're looking for it, but there's no obvious old town or forts or anything. There's a big hill I might have climbed if it wasn't so hot. Didn't stay long.
published: 2019-06-19T15:48:18+02:00
summary: Amy added 57 photos to https://i.amy.gy/20190506-me/
target: 20190506-me

photos-perast
type: Add
content: I took the bus to Perast, around the bay from where I'm staying, towards Kotor. The main road runs behind the town, and there's no non-local traffic allowed in the town itself, so cars and coaches stop at one of the carparks on either side. This is also where you can pick up a coach to get out again, though the bus stops are not really marked and to go back in the Herceg Novi direction involves waving from the wrong side of the road because the other side has only sheer cliff face. Anyway, I did manage to negotiate the buses and spent an afternoon here. An afternoon is plenty, I think, without including time for a meal or something. I climbed steps right to the top of town, where there's an abandoned fort and amazing views of the bay. I went up the church tower for €1, which also gives a good perspective on the area. There are museums which I didn't visit. I took a boat ride to Our Lady of the Rocks, the blue-domed island church, for €5 return. There's a small museum with only artefacts and no signs inside the church, which costs €2 to enter. Nice to get out of the sun, and spend the 20-30 minutes the boat captain allows you. The other small island houses a monastary. I had thought it was closed to visitors, but when we sailed past there were definitely people swimming there who did not look like monks. Passing all the way through town to the Kotor-end yields less crowded concrete beaches, even with some shade, and really nice swimming.

photos-sarajevo
type: Add
content: Got caught in Sarajevo's gravitational pull and took a bus there. Old town is packed, there are more tourists than ever, and summer is very here. Sunsets, food, old friends and new..
published: 2019-06-14T22:53:58+02:00
summary: Amy added 50 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201906-bih/
target: 201906-bih

photos-sarajevo-2
type: Add
content: Sarajevo, the usual.
published: 2019-06-18T20:20:30+02:00
summary: Amy added 21 photos to https://i.amy.gy/201906-bih/
target: 201906-bih

photos-skadar
type: Add
content: Driving on to Skadar Lake, a giant freshwater lake that's 2/3 in Montenegro and 1/3 in Albania. The main town to stop at is Vipazar, which is populated entirely with people trying to sell you a boat ride. So we went on a boat ride of course, because going out onto the lake was kind of the whole point of going. It was beautiful, with a huge diversity of flora and fauna, from gnarly trees growing right out of the water in cool groves, to vast expanses of green waterlillies carpeting the lake's surface. I jumped right in at the first opportunity to swim. The road along the lake heading south is not well served by public transport, and dotted with many small towns and villages. The views are consistently incredible, especially as the sun starts to set. Started to figure it's a shame to be driving the majority of the length of the lake in the dark, and just be rushing all the way back to Bijela; simultaneously a series of signposts started appearing along the road for a B&B somewhere. I proposed the wild idea that we just stop at the next village and look for somewhere to stay the night, and continue on in the morning. The next village, Donji Murici, turned out to be where these signs were leading us, so we followed them all the way down the side of the hill to the very edge of the lake. Rented a room, which was a small log cabin with a shared bathroom, minutes from the lake beach. The little restaurant only served fish, but we survived on tomato and cucumber salad and bread just fine, and the same for breakfast the next day. So we spent a peaceful evening by the lake. The next morning it was hot early so I swam of course. Waking up by the lake without the faintest sound of traffic was wonderful too. The drive continued through the rest of the small towns, stopping occasionally for the view, and a detour down to the lakeside in Ckla where we saw snakes in the water and decided against swimming. The road almost meets Albania, then doubles back sharply. There's a viewpoint…

photos-tivat
type: Add
content: An afternoon in Tivat. I walked around the coast from Lepetane, stopped at a beach bar for limunada and wifi, went for a swim in the sea, wandered through the surreal main promenade of Porto Montenegro, and looked at the opulent hotels and superyachts. The bus back from Tivat to Lepetane is €0.70.
published: 2019-06-08T20:32:10+02:00
summary: Amy added 32 photos to https://i.amy.gy/20190506-me/
target: 20190506-me

photos-visocica
type: Add
content: Starting the day with fermented pine juice (? - it tasted vinegary but was also great) in a mountain hut, then a hike around Visocica, followed by late lunch in Konjic and stops to see medieval tombstones with rare and historically important Cyrillic inscriptions, and the river from above. There are no photos which can capture the epic glory of the landscape of Bosnian mountains, but I took a lot anyway. RunKeeper GPS trace.

sarajevo
type: Note
content: Sarajevo what's uuuuuppppppppp
published: 2019-06-12T17:04:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: sarajevo

sarajevo-flea
type: Note
content: The Sarajevo flea market is enormous and amazing, you can buy anything you dream of there for always less than you expect to pay. I wish it existed everywhere. Probably best it doesn't though because today I bought three dzezvas. I do not need three dzezvas. I am going to pick one dzezva to hang on the outside of my backpack, for when I end up in places with no way to prepare coffee.
published: 2019-06-16T19:03:00+02:00
tag: flea+market
tag: life
tag: travel
tag: sarajevo

theory
type: Note
content: I once bought into the "if you don't post to your own website you don't have anything valuable to offer on technology" theory but eventually realised there are other things in tech and, shock horror, even the Web, than posting on your own website. I still see it being thrown around as an excuse to dismiss out of hand work that people don't understand immediately and find directly relevant to their specific needs though. Posting this on my own website, so it must be true.
published: 2019-06-06T18:05:00+02:00
tag: indieweb
tag: tech
tag: fuckthisshitiminabadmood

vegan-in-montenegro
type: Article
content: Food in Montenegro is a combination of Mediterranean and Balkan I think. Bakeries abound, often with many accidentally vegan pastries and ingrediants on the labels if you can read the language. But there are no real buregdzinica, so I was disappointed to find krompirusa did not live up to anything close to Bosnian standards. Pizza is widely available, and salads are generally good, although more on the tomato-cucumber side and less cabbage-oriented. My favourite, a common side dish in Croatia as well, is Dalmatian potatoes, which is just boiled potatoes and chard, and magically delicious. As far as I could tell there is only one fully vegan place in the whole of Montenegro. This is Paradise Foods in Budva. As well as making delicious, abundant and unbelievably cheap hot and cold meals, snacks and desserts, they also make seitan and tofu and other things in-house and supply many health food (zdrava hrana) stores around the country. I was fortunate enough to be staying behind one such store, Ibis in Bijela, so I got to eat Paradise Foods seitan and tofu, not to mention delicious small cakes, every week from there. I went to Budva twice, and Paradise is conveniently located between the bus station and the beach, so I could stop for an extended lunch on my way in, and then get there before they closed at 9pm to pick up more supplies to take home on the way back. One morning I worked from there for a few hours, eating continuously; they have wifi and a couple of power outlets, though not a huge amount of indoor seating. In Bijela itself is a place called Bura, a mostly-fish restaurant that has a good selection of salads and potato sides, plus a tofu salad which is large balls of battered deep fried tofu on the side of a large seasonal salad. The tofu inside wasn't seasoned at all, so it was kind of mediocre, but it was nice that they tried. And the location by the sea, plus power and wifi, makes it a good place to hang around nonetheless. I found a couple of places with …
name: Vegan in Montenegro
published: 2019-06-28T21:01:00+02:00
tag: food
tag: balkans
tag: montenegro
tag: travel
tag: vegan

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Finalised BODS internationalisation / translation workflow stuff. Explored around Lepetane, across the bay by free ferry. Hiked to Kotor from Lepetane, partly in the rain, takes 6 hours or so.
name: Week in review: 27 May - 2 June
published: 2019-06-02T23:59:59+02:00
tag: week+in+review
tag: hiking
tag: travel

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Explored a bit more of Herceg Novi, walked around the bay through Igalo. Did some work on flattentool. Spent an afternoon in Tivat. So fancy, such yachts. Spent an afternoon in Perast. Very quaint, many tourist.
name: Week in review: 3 - 9th June
published: 2019-06-09T23:59:59+02:00
tag: ods
tag: montenegro
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Spent an afternoon in Budva. Touristy and tacky but not objectionable. The only vegan cafe in Montenegro. Got caught in Sarajevo's gravitational pull, and went for the rest of the week. (worked on flattentool) All the usual Sarajevo stuff. Ate cabbage, went to Karuzo, went to Prana, met some cats. Went hiking near Bjelasnica. Made excellent gains at the flea market.
name: Week in review: 10 - 16 June
published: 2019-06-16T23:59:59+02:00
tag: sarajevo
tag: montenegro
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: yoga

week-in-review-4
type: Article
type: Activity
content: Still in Sarajevo, hung out with occrp peoples. Ate krompirusa, etc. Bussed back to Bijela. A day of adventures to Niksic, Ostrog Monastary, Podgorica, Skadar Lake. Spontaneous stopover in a random village on the lake shore. Road trip back up the coast, via Ulcinj (meh) and Bar (ooh). Watched lots of Twin Peaks.
name: Week in review: 17 - 23 June
published: 2019-06-23T23:59:59+02:00
tag: sarajevo
tag: montenegro
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: tourism

week-in-review-5
type: Activity
type: Article
content: Hiked along the Lustica Peninusla, from Krasici to Rose, and took a boat back to Herceg Novi. Spent a day in Budva. Went to Sveti Stefan to see the outrageous rich people beaches. Ate more at Paradise Foods of course. Spent an afternoon in Kotor; climbed the ladder and down through the fortress. Worked on bugfixing BODS translation and 0.2 schema release stuff. Took an unnecessary amount of night buses to Zadar (via Dubrovnik and Split), then a ferry to Iz. Settled in to Korinjak for a yoga retreat with Aida from Prana (Sarajevo).
name: Week in review: 24 - 30 June
published: 2019-06-30T20:58:00+02:00
tag: yoga
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: montenegro
tag: croatia

https://rhiaro.co.uk/2019/06
type: CollectionPage
type: Container
contains: photos-hike-kotor
contains: week-in-review
contains: cooplife
contains: theory
contains: photos-herceg-novi
contains: only
contains: photos-tivat
contains: photos-perast
contains: week-in-review-2
contains: photos-budva
contains: sarajevo
contains: big
contains: photos-sarajevo
contains: photos-visocica
contains: sarajevo-flea
contains: week-in-review-3
contains: photos-sarajevo-2
contains: photos-ostrog
contains: photos-skadar
contains: photos-bar-ulcinj
contains: week-in-review-4
contains: photos-lustica
contains: photos-budva-2
contains: photos-kotor
contains: adventures-in-montenegro
contains: vegan-in-montenegro
contains: week-in-review-5
items: photos-hike-kotor
items: week-in-review
items: cooplife
items: theory
items: photos-herceg-novi
items: only
items: photos-tivat
items: photos-perast
items: week-in-review-2
items: photos-budva
items: sarajevo
items: big
items: photos-sarajevo
items: photos-visocica
items: sarajevo-flea
items: week-in-review-3
items: photos-sarajevo-2
items: photos-ostrog
items: photos-skadar
items: photos-bar-ulcinj
items: week-in-review-4
items: photos-lustica
items: photos-budva-2
items: photos-kotor
items: adventures-in-montenegro
items: vegan-in-montenegro
items: week-in-review-5
name: Posts between 2019/06 and 2019/07
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