Day 5 The Drive

Busy day. G is resisting getting up in the morning. Two days in a row he has said he will get up when I get up. With minimal prep time on my part he has no argument. The kids got a couple games of cards in with their new friends before we left for Cetinje. Major detour on the road to Cetinje, lots of climbing. Beautiful drive, but nothing like later in the day. Look up Cetinje for specific information on location, and history, it would be too lengthy here.

P was in a foul mood from the time we left until we got some pizza in her after looking at everything. We’ve come to the conclusion that the pizza here is consistently good and very inexpensive. This is a plus since it’s 50% of P’s diet. Trying to get her to eat a Plasma cracker was a chore, and unsuccessful. Sat at a café in Trg Kralja Niklle, next to the Palace of King Nikola, watching children go wild on the very temporary looking playground equipment that was much too small for most of them. Took a nice slow stroll around the town past the Blue Palace, through the Royal Court’s Garden up to the Monastery where misery was building. It was relieved by visiting the massive contour map of the country, housed in what previously looked like a closed building. G liked it, P was unimpressed. Toured the second floor of the Billiards Hall which was dedicated to the Poet Prince. P stayed one room ahead in an effort to hurry us through, then she got spooked out by some of the portraits and stayed with us for the remainder of the visit. We decided to cut our losses and get them a meal. Pizza, as mentioned before, at Café NYC in a quiet square. Very pleasant, but we over ordered. Two pizza margarita’s and one vegetariana. Not small pies, and there was definite lactose overload for me. I topped it off by ordering Njegusi cheese. I couldn’t pass it up, it was very good but lesson learned, order pizza for the kids on an as needed basis, and watch the dairy intake. Ab went to the Ethnographic museum while we finished up. G, P, and I worked on a collaborative drawing. Took a walk in the opposite direction to work some of the food off. We really liked the feel of this town. Found our car where we left it in front of the French embassy and departed.

Options were considered and in the end we decided to take an old Austrian roadway toward Lovcen to Kotar, which had 25 switchbacks between Kotar and the Njegusi Village. AB, G, and P each took a half Dramamine. Good call. Took it slow. The kids were very enthusiastic, and it was a relatively easy drive, no one on the road for the first ten kilometers. All that time in the south of France has paid off. Very narrow road, would be considered one lane by most. Came upon goats and sheep wandering in the road, awesome, and the occasional tour bus, not so awesome. Seriously, what’s the point. Had to back up only once which increased AB’s tension. The descent was a little more challenging, more traffic, motorcycles, and trucks, trucks? Incredible view of the bay, looking forward to going there later in the week. Headed toward Budva, P was nodding off, as was AB, and it was a long drive back. The traffic and driving was fairly unpleasant along the coast. Nice views, but unpredictable drivers kept me focused. P hit her head when I had to slam on the breaks when a car stopped in the middle of the road a couple cars ahead. The trick was to avoid the car in front while not getting rammed from behind. The climb out of Petrovac was rapid and contributed to AB’s growing headache. G fell asleep so it was solo for a while. Got a nice look at Lake Skadar as we drove across it. Trying to figure out what part of the week we’ll fit that in. It ended up being a three hour return drive from Cetinje to Podgorica via the route we took. A lot of time to be in a car changing altitude and direction.

The children were happy to see their new friends, and G participated in an intense two-on-two soccer match in a very tight area. P wanted to play cards. She finally got her wish, but then the chess came out. G gave PI a run for his money, and both players had their advisers to consult. PI was nice enough to pull the bikes out for a ride, spending a great deal of effort getting his brothers old,very small, bike set up for P, and getting another mountain bike working for G to ride. After the local street riding was complete, he took G and myself on a night ride to Gorica. I was itching to climb and didn’t care what type of bike I had. G did well to keep up on a bike with questionable gears. He will have no problem in France, and is a natural on the descent, much to AB’s chagrin, although she says that’s a bad rap. We took a detour to the city center on the way home. It was very busy, filled with people out for a stroll, had to do a bit of dodging on the bikes. Will have to take the kids down there this week.

Walked to the store with G after we returned; milk, corn flakes, water, tea cookies, and, while I couldn’t understand the packaging, guessed right on the tea.

P did 11 units from lesson 1 on the Rosetta Stone (French), now she’s on the DS, no headphones this time. G went to his room to read. AB is reading Shirley Jackson.