It’s probably safe to say many of you didn’t know anything about Montenegro, well, a week ago, neither did we. After 4 days in Dubrovnik, Croatia we made our way on a disorganized, unfriendly bus ride with a long border crossing to Kotor, Montenegro. The Bay of Kotor was an unbelievable sight as we wound around the inlets along the coast shrouded with mountains similar to fjords. Zane booked an extra special, beautiful apartment with a balcony overlooking the bay since he declared the whole week my birthday!

View near our apartment

Cheers to another year!

Birthday Lunch Date

Spending my 5^th birthday abroad, turning 33 years old while visiting my 40^th country was a day full of fun milestones.   The day began with a run along the bay spotting multiple cats, local fishermen on their morning routines, and wrinkled women watering their flowerbeds. Then we took the bikes provided complimentary with our apartment to town for lunch at the best seafood restaurant in town, Galion, which has outdoor seating along the water. Tuna Carpaccio, mussels and clams followed by grilled squid and a fish fillet finished with apple crumble and chocolate cake was our menu. The food, drink, scenery and especially the company made for the best birthday lunch date! The evening was spent on our balcony with yet more food and more wine. Thanks to everyone for the birthday thoughts and wishes sent from different corners of the world.
Some of our afternoons were spent on small rock beaches peppered around the bay next to the boat slips. Biking to the stone town of Perast where the famous ‘Lady of the Rock Church’ lies on an island was another afternoon feat finished off with a special cake only served in this town.

Church on the water near Perast

Our final couple days we moved into town to a cheaper apartment run by a funny, old Serbian lady named Vicky. She guessed Zane was American as he had his baseball hat on but she guessed Katie was Mexican. This was a first, guess she is getting tanner than we realized. This apartment had our kitchen in a shed, we coined it our medieval kitchen since we were in a medieval town. From here we were close to the local fruit markets, which we visited daily. The cherries were to die for! One evening we picked up cheeses and prosciutto from a local lady at the market. She spoke on and on to us in Montenegrin while shoving samples of meat and cheese into our mouths as we all laughed together. Probably overpriced, we didn’t mind, as it she was hilarious and showed us true Montenegrin spirit!

Best view of Kotor Bay

Zigzagging trail near old town

Kotor has a well-preserved medieval old town with a large wall leading up to churches and St. John’s Fortress. We walked the 1,350 stairs to the fortress in the blazing sun while being forced to listen to the docked cruise ships awful karaoke singers. Since we didn’t think our legs got enough of a workout the next day we hiked up the zigzagging trail next to the fortress wall. This brought us nearly twice the height as the day before leaving us with a stunning view of the bay and surrounding mountains.
To sum it up, Montenegro was magical. 

Pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/105315223482012434599/Montenegro02

The next blog will be about Dubrovnik as we are now in Ston, Croatia, which is near the same area. For more freedom along the Croatian coast we have rented a car for the next 2 weeks.   Excited to stop where we please and find some hidden gems along the way.

View of the stone town of Perast