Kotor

This post might be a little hard to follow... All I remember of Kotor is feeling too hot, all the time. I may have sustained brain damage from the constant overheating. There's a chance I made the situation worse by going both hiking and kayaking while I was there, too. I'll blame brain-fry for my poor decision making as well. 

Kotor was lovely. I'm pretty sure it was, anyway. I think. All I really remember is a haze of unbearably hot days, followed by the sweet, blissful relief of the excellent air conditioning in my room. I arrived from Dubrovnik, after a two-hour border wait, in the early afternoon and staggered off to find my hostel. As it turns out, "Old City" and "Old Town" are different places, so I shortly realized I didn't have any idea of how to get to the hostel I actually had a reservation for. I wandered around aimlessly for a while before finding a tourist information booth. It's a good thing I did, too, as the hostel only had one small sign outside and I would probably never have spotted it on my own. Did I mention that it was over 30 degrees, and I had my great big bag with me? Yeah, I needed a lie-down after that. 

I didn't get up to much that night, but I planned to get up earlyish the next morning to beat the heat... Yeah, that didnt really work out so well. Instead I got up late and frittered away the morning trying to find an agent to book a kayaking tour with. I had to hide inside from about 11.30 to 2.00, as it was much too hot to function, but later in the afternoon I managed to get out and see a thing or two. 

The view from one of the low points of the hike. 

Part of the fortress. 

The whole place is in ruins, so it's hard to pick out the path. 

See the stairs off to the right? Yeah, I climbed those too. I'm not that bright. 

Overgrown rooms of indeterminate function. 

Also the whole place was super dodgy. See how the path just ends, with no fence or anything? And that dark gap - that's a six foot drop to the next level. 

There's also this - the worst bridge I've ever crossed. It sagged with every step, and creaked like nothing else. I was expecting my foot to go through it at any second. 

But once you're up there...

Mountains!

It's gorgeous. I'm not sure it was worth it, but it was gorgeous. 

For reference, I climbed up to the top of that. For some reason. 

The next day, I decided to keep my adventures a little closer to sea level, as in, on it, and went kayaking. 

Swimming point! It was wonderful. 

I'm actually really happy with this shot. Except for the red and white barrel at the front. Sticks out, doesn't it?

On my way back to town, I snapped this. I always wanted to jump in the canal, but it was pretty gross. 

Oh, also, around town, I found this:

The scale's a little hard to see here, but it's a giant's laundry! 

I was in Kotor for three days, and other than the constant exhaustion from being too freaking hot, it was pretty nice. I left early the morning of the third day for Albania... Which was less nice. I'll get to that. Maybe.