SUNDAY 28^TH OCTOBER 2012.

PERAST.

First thing today we went searching for the zimmer (room) we stayed in in 1972. Last night  I found a small b & w image  stuck to one of the 1972 maps tucked away in my notes so I was fairly confident we would find it.  I was right with my guess yesterday, the place I picked was where we stayed.

The zimmer we stayed in, in 1972.

An English lady owns it now and only takes up residence in the summer.  The place is still a zimmer.  The only obvious external changes are it has been tarted up.

Bev and I camped in the top right room.  On the night we stayed it was raining and we were glad to get in out of the weather.

Our lodgings for the night of 2nd December 1972. Cost US$1-50 each.

The weather forecast for last night was for thunderstorms and the prediction was absolutely correct.  Tremendous claps of thunder and intensive lightning made me think about why the locals are so keen to have conductors on their rooftops.  Of course the surrounding mountains intensified the thunder, which made the storms sound worse, however it was a night when Thor was expressing himself to the utmost.  During the night it rained ‘cats and dogs’ and this morning it was still pouring.  In Australia the use of the phrase  ‘raining cats and dogs’ is quite common.  The phrase might have its roots in Norse mythology and medieval superstitions, the obsolete word catadupe (waterfall) or dead animals in the streets of Britain being picked up by storm waters.

Whilst wandering about the town we had a chance encounter with Elif and Ozgur who hailed from Istanbul. Of course we had a lot to talk about.  They were staying in Dubrovnik and had hired a car and were doing a day trip to Perast.

Elif and Ozgur.

Ozgur has his own business designing and marketing video games and Elif is a pharmacist.  They suggested we should go to a local restaurant about ten kilometres  towards Kotor.  Turned out that the restaurant was famous for mussels, however they were off the menu today and I suspect it was because of the rain.  Excessive run off sometimes contaminates coastal waters.  There was plenty of other tucker to choose from.  It was a great couple of hours we spent with Elif and Ozgur. We talked, had beer and wine and naturally talked about Turkey and life in Istanbul.  We invited them to OZ and they invited us to visit them when next in Istanbul.  Talking with and getting to know people like Elif and Ozgur is what travel is about, making new friends of like mind or as Ozgur said, people of parallel minds.

Stairway to heaven near where we met Elif and Ozgur

Bev, Elif and Ozgur.

Wow!
The amazing view from near the restaurant. The red buoys have ropes hanging downward on which mussels grow.

Bev and Elif on the rocky path to where the previous photograph was taken.

Another encounter we had was with a group of young women who came from Tirana in Albania.  Of course we had a lot to talk about with them as well.

The Albanian girls.

The girl on the left spoke the best English and her job in Albania is involved with the planning and implementing of emergency rescue.  Bev and I asked them to join us for coffee but unfortunately they had little time as their hire car had to be back in Tirane by eight o’clock.  Perast to Tirana is about 250 kilometres.

Following are a few images from around Perast.

Bev’s view from the café table.

A million dollar location.

In the world of dam design you have to work out how long rain falling at the furthermost point in the catchment takes to get to the dam.  Knowing this enables you to design the width of the dam bywash (overflow).  Run-off from the rocky mountains in the background here would rate highly, very little water soaks in.  Most rain that falls runs off and that is why the creeks and rivers in these parts rise very quickly.

View from the Roman road behind the fortress. Around the furthermost headland is the open sea.

Perfect morning.

I wanted to hire a canoe and paddle out to Our Lady of the Rock but unfortunately all the hire canoes had been stored away for winter.  I couldn’t find the owner of this boat otherwise I would have hired it for a trip out.

Our Lady of the Rock church.

The original church was built in the mid-15th century along the Byzantine style.  The octagonal domed presbytery and bell tower were added around 1725 and the additions give the church its distinctive baroque appearance.  Over the centuries the ‘island’ was enlarged and reinforced by both deposits of stones and scuttled sailing ships until it provided a sufficient base for a bolder architectural undertaking. Most of the present-day church was erected after the great earthquake of 1667 when the original sanctuary was destroyed.

The Perast main navigational marker for ships coming through the narrows.

 A red and white pole usually relates to barbers. The origin of the red and white barber pole is associated with the service of bloodletting and was historically a representation of bloody bandages wrapped around a pole. During medieval times barbers performed surgery on customers, as well as tooth extractions. The original pole had a brass washbasin at the top (representing the vessel in which leeches were kept) and bottom (representing the basin that received the blood). The pole itself represents the staff that the patient gripped during the procedure.

A farewell image of Perast.
I wonder if we will return?