Where is this place? Kotor Montenegro??? I might be in love !!!

Since I arrived, it has been a whirlwind of activities, discovery and just total amazement. The other day I had a wonderful tour of the Kotor historical district. It is unbelievable the amount of people over thousands of years who have come here to rule or fight and that this country has not only survived but flourished. The mountains are so beautiful. I wonder if wild goats are in these mountains? I’ve noticed the clouds sometimes cover the mountain tops. All very beautiful!!

But beyond that, this country has never been destroyed through war, although there was some serious efforts in World War II – we’ll get to that in a minute. So I’ve had a wonderful lunch – really great food, a great tour and then I was out looking for those cows. First time I saw them was around midnight so I don’t know maybe they’re like Midnight Ramblers? But I would like to find them.

I’ve met my neighbors, Maria and her family. She is Canadian but originally from Serbia and her husband is from Bosnia and they have three daughters. Her daughters are still teaching and living in Canada and the United States. She also does a Schengen shuffle but she does it in reverse out of Montenegro.

I think what has been truly most surprising to me is how nice these people are. How kind, caring and helpful they are. Now here’s the rub, there are so many languages that are spoken here my head is spinning. Of course, there is the Montenegrin language; then there is Serbian, Croatian, Yugoslavian, Bosnian, Albanian, Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian (all somewhat similar they say..) and a few more! How they all understand each other is quite surprising!! They do. I was just getting used to trying to learn Italian and now this is been dropped on me to learn a few important phrases here so I’ll give it a shot. Quite a lot of English as is usual in tourist towns. So I’m getting by!!

They are a most patient people and take traffic delays as part of life. When they honk their horn, they are waving to someone in the oncoming traffic that they know, and then that person waves back and honks at them. Kind of nice.

Having sampled some of the every day food and coffee, shops and restaurants, it is so different compared to Italy, but we’ll keep that a secret. I may need to increase my circle of sampling.

I have to live here for a while. I’d like to check out a bit more of the flaky crust bakery items. A small Baklava is okay but….and their coffee is so strong. Oh yes, there’s a lot of Turkish people here so their coffee, Turkish coffee, makes you stand on your head and cartwheel!

For some reason today the buses are not running and I have now spent three hours walking trying to understand what is going on but apparently a huge truck somewhere turned over or something and it’s a big problem. There are many buses and taxis usually so there’s hope. But maybe fewer buses today and no trains.

The other day I took a boat tour around Boka Bay in Kotor. Now we all know that you get to a certain point in life and you decide “I’m not getting on any boat unless it’s at least 40 feet long and the captain is 50+ years old!” I negated that rule and got on the boat for a three hour trip-yes sounds like Gilligan’s Island!! There was a young Turkish couple, a Welsh couple, two girls from Switzerland and some other folks back in the boat that I didn’t catch where they are from.

The captain was Jahnko, a Montenegrin young man. He certainly is proficient in getting us across the water which was not totally quiet water and wind. There were enough waves going on and traffic that when you’re young in your 20s you just laugh and think it’s fun, when you get a little bit older, you realize you’re gonna have a back injury and you hold on for dear life! But the trip was very interesting. It stopped at two little islands that had a church and some significance to a saint – a Montenegrin nun. On another small island was the old women’s prison now a luxury hotel. (4000 € a night supposedly)

Then we went on to look at a cave called the Blue Cave where the boats go in and the water is a beautiful light blue. Unfortunately, there are six+ boats already in there and at least 30 people in the water swimming around so we all looked – and he backed the boat out and we went outside of the blue cave and jumped off the boat into the water, swam around a little bit then get back in the boat. No I did not get in the water – come on. I still have an hour and a half left on this trip and you’re gonna be all sticky from that salty water. I’m not getting in the water. But i plan to soon!!

Most importantly, there were three caves that were built by the Yugoslav Army sometime during World War II. These caves could hide a submarine down under the water, of course, but up above, you could anchor smaller boats. The caves were hidden by placing fake rocks on top of the opening so that German airplanes would not detect the caves and it worked. They still had some of the rocks sitting there on metal grating. They looked like they were styrofoam – quite interesting.

We went out to the open Adriatic Sea, turned around and headed back. There were various landmarks along the way also which made the trip very interesting and the bay is just spectacular. The mountains surrounding Kotor are stunning. But, and there is always a but…down the mountain from me is a beach!

Next to the Tivat Airport! Big jet just flew over! I could get used to this! There is a beach club there! Royal Blue Beach Club. No membership fees, but done very nicely and very cool. Rocky beach though…I’m going to need some special rock shoes! The water was warm and quite delightful. I swam in the Adriatic Sea. I’m going to do it again!!! Yes I’m sunburned…but briefly, then I turn brown!

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A quick trip to a grocery store on my way home…had to take a few pics. Very interesting.