Montenegro – The old fortified city Budva.
Old fortified city Budva is in Montenegro facing the Adriatic Sea, and it a part of the former Yugoslavia, with a fortress wall history of about 2500 years.
There is also a theory that people settled here for the first time in the Adriatic Sea.
The origin of the castle walls that the battle between ancient Greece and the ancient Roman Empire began, then the castle walls began to be built.
Even in modern times, Budva is a key point on the Adriatic Sea where the suzerains of Budva have been changed to Austria, France, Russia, Yugoslavia, Italy, Nazi Germany.
*The country of Yugoslavia no longer exists as a result of the series of “Yugoslav Wars” that lasted from 1991 to 1999, and as of 2020, “Slovenia”, “Croatia”, “Serbia”, “Bosnia and Herzgovina”, “Montenegro”, “North Macedonia” and “Kosovo (not recognized by the United Nations)”, The land of former Yugoslavia is divided into seven countries.
Budva is part of the country of Montenegro. (Note: As of 2020)
We left Istanbul…
There was an option to enter Bulgaria, but we chose to go through Greece by train and enter Yugoslavia. Nostalgic and deserted town scenery continues.
Adriatic Walled old fortified City.
We moved to avoid Albania, where political unrest continued, and arrived at Budva, which faces the Adriatic Sea.
Budva seems to be quite successful in tourism, and while many tourists were coming and going, we also looked around the city of Budva.
I didn’t know anything about Budva until I got here, but it’s a very beautiful city and has historical significance.
In Budva, there was a battle over the city over and over again, and each time the walls became stronger and the area was also expanded.
There is also a difference in elevation.
This topography is also an important factor in building a fortress.
Budva is a small town of about 2km square, and we were able to see everything by the evening, but we decided to spend the night in this town.
In fact, it’s also true that we had no plan for what to do next.
We didn’t have any lodging booking, so we bought some food and wine from the market and spent the night on the beach.
A man named Sasha.
When we were playing billiards in a bar in Budva, we became friends with a Yugoslavian named Sasha. He was born in Budva, and aged early twenties, and was quite handsome.
As usual, we entered Yugoslavia completely no information about here, so we didn’t know that, but Sasha taught us here Budva has two kind of prices,
“Tourist Price”
and
“Domestic Price”
and the difference is 3 times.
After hearing this story, we started asking Sasha for shopping.
And more, we were sleeping on the beach in the night, when Sasha knows that, said to us,
“It’s forbidden. If the police find you, you might get arrested.”
Tourism seems to be the main industry in Budva, so it may be natural.
From that night onwards, we hid behind the boat and slept.
In fact, we’ve seen police officers patrolling the beach several times, then we’ve been chilled.
When Sasha had free time, he come up to us and listen intently to stories about our travels and our home country.
leather bracelet
Budva was very comfortable so we stayed there for quite a long time.
Well, sleeping under the stars condition, though.
One day, at a shoe store near the beach, we found “colorful scraps of leather” thrown away, and asked the shopkeeper, “If you’re going to throw them away, can you give them to me?” and the shopkeeper said “who cares.”.
We were pending the day on the beach doing nothing special. and when we got bored, we just walk around the city, but it’s anyway still boring.
But just for killing time, I started to cut the leather into three thin strings and made anklets and bracelets, It was very interesting.
After repeated trial and error, such as adjusting the length, hiding the seams inside the leather, and twisting the leather, we were able to create rings with various patterns.
After a few days at the beach, I was indulging in leatherwork, then a white female tourist approached me and asked me, “What are you doing?”
I said, “Oh… I’m knitting a bracelet”.
I really just answered casually, but she said she wants to buy the bracelet I made. I didn’t make them specifically for sale, so I was a little confusing to reply, then she said she would pay about 10 US dollars. I jumped on it right away. I didn’t think I could get $10 from my hand play with costless leather waste,
and more to say, The prices are cheap in Yugoslavia, 10 bucks is not small money.
As expected of tourists.
She also said she wants to take a picture with me. I guess they have not seen Orientals without on TV or films, So maybe I was a rare existence for them.
Of course, you can take as many of my pictures as you like.
…after this happening, my leatherwork were all sold out in a hour.
And then, This easy business was continued for several days.
Hanging out with Sasha, sleeping on the beach, making leather goods, and living in this small town like a miniature garden were pretty comfortable and enjoyable, but it’s time to move on to the next town…
[Supplement]
Yugoslavia (1929-2003) became independent after World War II under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito. Because it contained such diversity, it was expressed “Seven borders, six republics, five nations, four languages, three religions, two scripts, one nation.”, A series of wars called the “Yugoslavian conflict (1991-2001)” such as the Ten Day War, the Croatian conflict, the Bosnia-Herzegovina conflict, the Kosovo conflict, and the Macedonian conflict have continuously happend, then collapsed.