Montenegro for dinner... really???

  Kotor, Croatia
Tuesday, July 1, 2008

It's JULY!!! REALLY!!!

I head down to the hotel and enjoy the "complementary" breakfast before heading to the rocks/beach to secure a good spot... We spend the morning swimming and relaxing beachside. 

I head upstairs to get the rental car delivery and then organize a hotel for tomorrow in Hvar.  Phin and I are planning to drive to Montenegro to see the bay of Kotor and the Stali Grad (Old Town) of Kotor which is also a world heritage site. 

The road trip begins

While talking to the concierge, I see the girl from the night before.  She is speaking English with a strong and clearly Russian accent and is looking for a place to eat dinner!  I quickly step in and recommend Gil's from the night before, and we start talking.  I take a long shot, and say that she should probably join my buddy and I for dinner in Montenegro instead of going to Gil's.  She agrees, somewhat shockingly, and then Irina joins Phin and I down at the beach for a swim before we agree to all head to Montenegro for dinner.

Church in the middle of the Bay of Kotor

The drive down was amazingly beautiful and we all enjoy getting to know each other while giving each other a hard time.  Irina is clearly intelligent, able to hold her own with the two of us giving her a hard time, and it comes out that she has graduated from Stanford Business School.  She just quit her job at Google Russia and is doing a little traveling much like we are. 

Another view of the lake church

We get to Kotor after a long delay at the border and walk around the old town to find a good dinner spot.  Irina loses credit card roulette and we enjoy our free meal as well as the company.

The town of Kotor

Heading back to Dubrovnik, we hop on the ferry across the bay of Kotor to save time but still don't make it back to the hotel until just after midnight.  We head into the old town for drinks at a few different watering holes.  The brilliant idea of swimming leads to an adventure of sneaking into an adjacent villa to swim in the hot tub and "private" pool.  We all have a blast and wind up forgetting about the whole sleep thing quite easily...

What  great adventure!