Title: Message
Montenegro: Balkan Diamond in the Rough
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
| Associated Press
SVETI STEFAN, Serbia-Montenegro - Montenegrins like to call
their tiny republic the jewel of the Adriatic. Visitors are often stunned by its
beauty, but say the diamond needs cutting.
Much of Montenegro's allure
comes from its shining mix of colors: aquamarine waters, green pine-forested
mountains, blazing blue skies and white pebble beaches.
The sights of
this small Balkan republic at the southern corner of the Adriatic Sea are best
when seen from a plane landing at the seaside airport of Tivat.
But once
on the ground, visitors can be put off by narrow, bumpy and winding roads lined
with garbage dumps. Most hotels are old and decayed by years of neglect, and
many private houses dotting the spectacular landscape are cement gray and
unfinished.
"Nature has done wonders here," said Brian Ball of Dorset,
England, during a recent vacation. "But what people did to the nature is not so
nice."
Even so, tourism is growing in Montenegro after a decade of Balkan
wars in the 1990s slowed the stream of visitors to a trickle.
Although
most tourists still come from neighboring Serbia, the much-bigger republic that
with Montenegro forms a union, the dazzling scenery draws visitors from Germany,
the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Many are drawn by the stony peaks - still
covered in snow as late as May - that abruptly give way to the sparkling blue
Adriatic.
Sveti Stefan, a tiny peninsula whose sun-bleached limestone
homes were turned from a fishing village to a luxury-hotel complex in the 1960s,
is a summer mecca for the rich and famous who like to see and be
seen.
Its 15th-century stone walls, narrow streets and tiny church
destroyed by an earthquake in 1979 were carefully reconstructed bit by
bit.
Today, red-tile roofs shimmer in the sunlight with oleander,
bougainvillea and palms providing green and shade.
Next door is Budva,
Montenegro's most popular beach resort, featuring a quaint, stonewalled Old Town
with its warren of little lanes lined with shops and restaurants buzzing with
activity.
With its intact city walls, narrow streets and seaside locale,
Budva can seem like a vest-pocket version of Dubrovnik, the renowned Croatian
resort on the border with Montenegro. But it lacks Dubrovnik's air of cultural
sanctity, and high seriousness is outdone by naked pleasure offered to the
tourists.
Just north of Budva's Old Town, a sidewalk leads along the
rocky shore to Mogren Beach - the nicest in the area - where families and young
people bask in the sun or take a dip in the amazingly clear sea.
South of
the Old Town, vendors hawk everything from beach clothing to soft drinks to
religious icons. Open-air discos and playgrounds pulse with music and lights
until the wee hours, often drawing protests from tourists staying in waterfront
hotels.
Some of Montenegro's best restaurants - offering an hors-d'oeuvre
of traditional extra-dry ham and goat cheese dipped in olive oil - are located
in Budva and in neighboring Rafailovici and Bigovo.
"The tourist season
this year started earlier than expected, promising a good tourist harvest," said
Nikola Lazarevic, owner of the Grispolis restaurant in the picturesque village
of Bigovo, perched on a deep-sea bay nestled between pristine hills covered with
ancient olive trees.
"More and more foreigners are discovering the
delights of Montenegro," Lazarevic said as he served delicious grilled fish
spiced with garlic and parsley, coupled with famous Montenegrin Vranac red
wine.
Recently, foreign guests have gradually started to return, in part
attracted by bargain-basement prices: A double room in a private home can go for
$15 per night, about half the price of a similar room in a beach town in
neighboring Croatia. In Sveti Stefan, the average room with breakfast and dinner
costs up to $160 per person.
According to official statistics, Montenegro
last year had an increase in visitors of 30 percent over 2001.
Before the
Balkan wars, Montenegro booked more than 11 million overnight stays, and 35
percent were foreigners. Last year, only 20 percent of the guests were
foreigners. Still, that was three times more than in 2000 - a figure that makes
clear the tiny republic is back on the map.
In an attempt to attract more
foreign visitors, Montenegro is trying to shed its image as a lawless state
where cars and other property stolen from Western Europe ended up.
"Come
to Montenegro - Your Car is Already There!" used to be a tongue-in-cheek tourist
slogan aimed at Westerners.
No one's laughing anymore.
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