MONTENEGRO's MOST DRAMATIC SETTING, Kotor

When we road into this tucked-in town, we were amazed. Kotor is nestled in a deep fjord...we mean deep. It reminded us a lot of New Zealand where you can literally see where the glacier used to be through the valley. It is a great setting for a city. Yes, of course there is a city wall too (what old Eastern Europe town doesn't have one?) which adds to the quaintness of the visit.

Layton showing his true self!

A lady, Rosa we later found out, approached us at the bus stop to offer her house as a place to stay for the night. She did not speak much English but we knew we would have a place to stay, a bathroom and pay 15 euros each for the night. She spoke German too but that did not do us much good. We got by with sign language and smiles! It was a little stuffy, but we can handle anything for a night!

getting ready for a swim

It was really hot when we arrived into Kotor, so we went to the local "beach" if that is what you want to call it. Basically, the beach was in the back of an old run-down hotel that did not make it. If there had not been MANY other people swimming and playing at the "beach", we would never have thought this was ok because it was trashy and just sidewalks and weeds basically. There was one little part with sand, but we mean LITTLE. We still took a jump in though because it was blazing. The water felt very good, and this is all part of the experience, right?

Then, we wandered up ~1,350 stairs (yes, we thought we needed to top the 827 in Nafplio!) to the fortress and Castle of St. John. Again, we really enjoyed this because it helps you take in all the surroundings. Oh, and we are back to cheaper living...the entrance to the climb was only 2 Euro! Nice!

ahh that is more like it

After a well-deserved shower and cooling off, we had dinner in the old town. The old town is not very big and easy to just roam around to see really old churches and old mansions that are now cool hotels. This city has a nice vibe. The only drawback to our time in Kotor was that there was a forest fire up in the mountains, so it was pretty hazy for our 2 days in the beautiful setting of a town.

RANDOM

Do you know what Montenegro gets excited about during the Olympics? WATER POLO! So much so, that the National team is on billboards around the country for advertisements, and it is the lead story when the National team plays. Layton sat with a group of locals in the bus station at Niksic and watched both the semi-finals games. Montenegro was playing Hungary in one, and the US played Serbia in the other. EVERYONE was into it! It was also a bit tense because there were a few Serbs in the room, but luckily the US turned out on top.

Jana's turn

Just when we think we have been traveling for a LONG time...We met a guy from California, Ben, on our trek up to the Castle of St. John. He had been traveling/working for 3 years! Kind of puts our 10 month trip into perspective! There is always someone who has been gone longer.

cold but feels so good

this is BEACH in Montenegro

St. Luke's

great shoes for hiking

are u kidding me?

Kotor port from top

looking back to where glacier cut through

Layton found a short cut

are we done with fortress climbing?

Layton and Kotor

our home in Kotor

fortress wall and smoke from fire

our goal, to reach...the flag

well, we did it again

archway to the fortress

monkey arms from fortress

wow..we made it up there

so awesome