Time to Fill in the Gaps: Dubrovnik, Montenegro & Turkey

A chum here in Cuenca recently returned from a visit to Turkey and posted some of her photos, which reminded me…

Yes, yes – Turkey for me was wondrous – among my all-time favorite destinations yet… Though I did manage to peck no fewer than *15* different TL posts here on my 6 week skip around eastern Europe back in 2016 – I seem to have neglected to finish off that marathon adventure with posts on Dubrovnik, Croatia, along with my final two countries:  (fabulous) Montenegro, and (even more fabulous) Turkey.

So here I am – nearly *7 years* later – sitting in Cuenca with (thankfully!) still, a myriad of photos of all three destinations. So I thought I’d drop a few of them here to “fill in the gaps” of my life as a perpetual nomad living/traveling over the past dozen years (to more than 30 different countries!).

A fun little “walk down memory lane” for me – and interesting to see just what-all details of that adventure that I still am able to vividly remember.

DUBROVNIK, CROATIA

I’ve already pecked details of my several other destinations within Croatia: the perpetual swoosh of a gazillion waterfalls at Plitvice; meeting up with a Cuenca chum to gaze at the wondrous “Sun Salutation” and “Sound Organ” in Zadar; and my personal favorite in all of Croatia (indeed, perhaps my fave in ALL of my travels throughout the globe!), magical Motovun – up in the far northwest corner of Croatia – nestled on the Istrian Peninsula.

But after a short detour into neighboring Boznia-Herzegovina, I re-entered Croatia to visit THE most recommended (no doubt made famous thanks to the enormously popular “Game of Thrones” series, which… not owning a television for more than a decade, I personally haven’t a clue what all the fuss is about): Dubrovnik.

My take after 3 nights there? Um… pretty enough I guess with its tangle of red-tiled rooftops and ancient stone walls overlooking the Adriatic Sea. But honestly? Far, far too touristy/crowded for my tastes, and nothing to get overly excited about. Nonetheless, I dutifully traipsed up ‘n down a bazillion stairs the full length of the “walls”, snapped a few pics, and made the best of it by… lol, (as usual) by slurping my fill of fresh oysters on the half-shell!

MONTENEGRO

(Surprisingly) it seems Montenegro is not often featured as a destination on the usual European tourist path. Croatia sure, it seems everyone’s drooling over it (as did I, in no less than three different TL posts). But its verdant neighbor to the south, Montenegro?

Not so much.

Indeed, I only decided to check it out because – after my 5 country (in little more than 2 weeks!) blitz through Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina – I sorely needed a place to slow down and chill before embarking on an extended skip around my final country, Turkey.

In short: Sooo. Glad. I. Did!

Less than 80 kms from Dubrovnik, getting to Kotor was easy-peasy – just a couple hours bus ride (including the legalities of crossing the border) and I was soon deposited in Kotor – a medieval walled town perched on magnificent Kotor Bay.

I spent a delightful 3 nights there just wandering the ancient cobbled streets and one day I hopped on a small cruise boat to visit the nearby town of Perast, along with a stop at the “Lady of of the Rocks” church on a tiny isle off-shore.

I even made a furry friend that came to visit!

But by then I’d had my fill of sightseeing, and had booked an extended (for me!) 6 night stay in a tiny village further up the coast in Lepetane (pop. 194!) – a place few tourists have even heard of.

It turned out to be truly idyllic – one of THE most lovely and relaxing interludes of my entire 6 week marathon. My little apartment (with kitchen and balcony overlooking the sea) proved very comfy. And there was little to do but wander through the quiet village each day, and settle in each evening to watch the sunset with wine and hors d’oeuvres on my balcony.

In short – I loved every. quiet. boring. moment. of it!

TURKEY

And then there was Turkey – the final prize on my solo DIY marathon in eastern Europe. Jolly-good that I arrived well-rested as the many diverse corners of Turkey that I explored proved truly extraordinary. Indeed, Turkey turned out to be among my all-time favorite destinations – and I would go back in a heartbeat!

Now my “plan” for this “Fill-in-the-Gaps” update was to be a “quick ‘n dirty” plop of a single photo collage of Dubrovnik, Montenegro, and Turkey. But for the latter – no way can I possibly offer even the highlights with but a single collage. Thus… let’s start with where I started my Turkey adventures – in (my new bff city on the globe): Istanbul.

Istanbul

As I recall, I spent about 4 or 5 nights in this amazing – uber ancient – metropolis (that straddles no less than TWO different continents, both Europe and Asia). Let’s just say… I could easily have spent 4 – 5 MONTHS and still only scratched the surface!
A dizzying potpourri of markets bursting with all manner of exotic crafts and eats. These pics, just a small handful of some of the diverse treats I enjoyed in my short time in Istanbul:

The iconic “Blue Mosque” of course (which has since been returned to an active place of worship, so it can only be visited outside of prayer times); a most incredible frothy-bubble scrub-down at an authentic (i.e. none of this touristy-gentrified spas for me) neighborhood hammam; an evening of the mesmerizing “Whirling Dervish” dancers; a myriad of amazing Turkish eats of course (including my favorite: a huge plate of deep fried, fresh sardines served up curbside from a tiny diner on one of Istanbul’s side streets). And last but not least – my beloved silk ikat coat that I spent multiple (earnest but nonetheless enjoyable) hours and *boatloads* of tea-sipping bargaining for.

Cappadocia

Flying domestically in Turkey is uber-cheap, so I next headed by air to one of the most fascinating corners of the country: Cappadocia. The eroded volcanic rock tuffs of Cappadocia’s “fairy chimneys” formed millions of years ago, along with its troglodyte cave dwellings and menagerie of underground rock cities is like no other landscape on the Planet. And thus… is renowned as one of THE best locales for hot air ballooning.

While I’ve had many opportunities in my travels to opt for a balloon ride (e.g. amid the Himalayas in Nepal, above the gazillion temples at Bagan in Myanmar, that lone Uluru Rock in Australia, etc.) I deliberately saved the ballooning splurge for Cappadocia. And oh my – it proved oh so worthy of the wait!

Pamukkale

The next target on my Turkey bucket-list was the cascade of brilliant blue and white travertine thermal pools at Pamukkale.

The bus to Pamukkale was 9 hours (and my absolute top-limit on a bus anymore maxes out at 5 hrs. and not a minute more) so…

I booked a flight that necessarily connected in Istanbul. Unfortunately, the flight from Cappadocia departed late and I missed my connecting flight to Pamukkale. 🙁 Ah but the connection hiccup proved minor as… Turkish Air happily put me up in a 5-star Istanbul hotel for the night and I flew into Pamukkale the next morning!

Though I ended up with only one overnight in Pamukkale, the cascade of brilliant aquamarine and white proved spectacular – especially at sunset.

Ephesus

I must admit – while I’ve long been an avid history buff – when it comes to my travels, traipsing off to stare passively at yet another pile of ancient rubble just isn’t my thing anymore.

I’ve already had my fair share of gawking at many of the World’s most iconic ruins and glorious temples (e.g. a thousand of the latter at Bagan in Myanmar, the Acropolis, et al in Athens, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and those incredible Pyramids in Egypt – not to mention amazing stone wonders built by the Mayan, Aztec and Inca civilizations in the Americas). So on this trip, I wasn’t too keen on squandering my precious travel time to visit every Neolithic, Greek, Persian and Roman archaeological site in Turkey.

Indeed, quoting from one of the many online resources I researched for this trip – this excerpt on the legendary “Troy” pretty much destroyed any stray notion I might have had to track down such ancient alleged “wonders”:

“The ruins are so meager that the managers of the site have constructed a big wooden horse that makes the place look like a very rich kid’s treehouse.”

Nonetheless, I did feel that at least one historical site would round out my short skip around Turkey, and Ephesus was conveniently on my way west by easy-peasy train to Izmir where I’d hop a plane to Athens to catch my American Airlines standby flight (thanks to a chum who’s a pilot for AA) home to Ecuador, so…

Oh, and the FROG???  lol, I swear, what is it about me that seems to attract the most oddball serendipity out-of-the-blue in foreign countries? Of all the visitors to Ephesus that day, when I strolled up to the window of the entry booth – these two lovely Turkish lasses singled me out to help carry this sweet stuffed froggy named “Otto” that wants “…to travel the World!” to new foreign lands.

Needless to say, I accepted the honor happily. I toted this soft green fellow first to Greece, and then back to Ecuador. There I snapped a few pics of him around Cuenca, and then handed him off to an Ecuadorian friend that was headed north to visit family in the U.S.

Whew! Quite the tome here in this not-so-little “Fill in the Gaps”. And the truth is, I have many more fond memories of my 44 day romp through eastern Europe that remain locked in my brain even after 7 long years.

That’s the thing about travel. As I’ve long earnestly believed: The trip itself is only 1/3 of the fun of traveling.

For me, fully 1/3 of the pleasure lies in the planning and dreaming. That alone can happily while-away otherwise ho-hum weeks, even months sifting through travel forums and blogs (like mine! 😉 ) for all manner of tidbits about what you hope to see and do on your next adventure.

And the trip – yes of course, the trip is fabulous as you slowly unravel your dreams (and bump into stray cuddly frogs that want to likewise “see the World” along the way).

But that too is only 1/3 of the joy of traveling. For there’s still the third stage of memories that you’ll carry in your head and heart for years and years to come!