Travel article: Lac Skadar, Stari Bar & Ulcinj

Last day in Montenegro before we head back to Croatia and we’ve decided to go to the Lake Skadar. Biggest lake in the Balkans, natural border between Montenegro and Albania, it’s home to many birds and nenuphars for our greatest pleasure. Once again Montenegro surprised us with such a different landscape from what we saw before! The many mountains surrounding the lake offer a perfect scenery for nature lovers (and photographers with the mountain reflection in the lake!). Unfortunately I took the wrong road and we missed the picturesque road between Rijeka Crnojevica et Virpazar (a good reason to go back?) but the cruise we did quickly made us forget that.

In Virpazar we joined a 3 hours cruise on the lake. Not less than 255 bird species live there including ducks, cormorants, eagles, vultures, snipes, herons etc (I’m still not a bird expert but I really enjoy seeing them flying & diving!). Surprisingly 4 weeks later I’ve found the same type of landscape in Northern Territory, Australia.

A short 30 minutes drive from Virpazar is Stari Bar (Stari meaning old in Montenegrin). The Old Town has been successively taken by the Venetians, Serbians, Hungarian and the Ottoman Empire (chronological order to be checked; our dear Historian friends from Ward avenue a topic for you ;) ). The fortress has been built in the 11th century and even if today we can only see ruins of churches, remparts & mosques, we can easily imagine the power it had in the past. A real movie set with perfect sunset lights.

So far our trip was just flawless. Well Ulcinj changed that. I’ve picked that city for its oriental atmosphere explained by its proximity to Albania. The only thing we saw was a seaside resort, tourists packed on the small beach and in nightclubs. Luckily the only disappointment we had in Montenegro.  

Some recommandations:

# The cruise costs 10 euros + 4 euros for the national park

# To visit Stari Bar it would cost you 2 euros, don’t miss that!

# I hope you have a better sense of direction than me! Make sure you take the road between Rijeka Crnojevica et Virpazar!