The day that this whole trip was based on has finally arrived … my 50th birthday. Last night the captain said that the sail into Kotor, Montenegro is stunning but you need to be up by 6:00am. When we got up, we noticed that the fog was starting to roll in which made it even more spectacular. You feel like you are sailing through fjords but actually they are rias which are submerged river canyons. Kotor has the mountains behind it and the bay in front of it.
Karen’s neighbor Milena is from Montenegro. Her son Vasko, his wife Biljana and their two kids Milos and Maksim moved back about two years ago. They live in Bar, Montenegro which is about one and a half hours away. When we booked the trip, Karen reached to them to see if there was any chance that we could meet and they said yes. We waited by the entrance to the Old Town and all of a sudden we could see Milos running to us. We heard that he was very excited to see us. He loves Maui and when he heard that we were coming for a visit, he thought Maui was coming too. Also joining them today was Biljana’s sister.
We spent the morning walking around the Old Town which is surrounded by a wall and is made up of many marbled laneways with shops, restaurants and churches. It reminded of Venice but yet it was different.
After leaving Old Town, we found a park where the kids were able to have a bit of fun. We were all getting a little hungry, so we found a restaurant on the bay and enjoyed a meal that I will never forget for quite awhile. The portions were humongous and quite inexpensive. We had a lot of laughs and we learned lots about life in Montenegro, both the good and the not so good.
Since the boys were tired, we decided it was best to say our goodbyes so that they could make the trip back home. we so appreciated the time that the Jovics spent with us. We still had a couple of hours before leaving so we headed back into Old Town to do more exploring.
When we got back onboard, we were greeted with more chocolate covered strawberries (thanks Linda, Steve and the boys) and a bottle of red wine. We are not sure who the wine is from. Cagney’s Steakhouse was the setting for tonight’s birthday dinner. We got lucky again and were seated by the window so that we could enjoy the departure from Kotor. Karen and I each had the Mexican Ceasar Salad, 5oz filet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes. Between our late lunch and dinner, we were in a food coma. We waddled back to the cabin and changed into our comfy clothes so that we could spend the evening relaxing.
A big thank you to the Jovic Family … Vasko, Biljana, Milos and Maksim for spending the day with us. And a special thank you to Karen for making my 50t birthday a day to remember.
I just want to say few things about our time spent today with our friends from Canada. First thing we did is took a tour of old town of Kotor Montenegro where we enjoyed its history and beauty. We also had few drinks at one of the bars where we exchanged some old stories from Canada. After that we went with kids to one of the parks in city of Kotor. Later on we took a walk along the bay of Boka Kotorska where we stoped for taste of Montenegrian causine where food was great and where our friend reminded us of how much we miss Canada. After all we had to say good buy because our boys got tired and it was almost time for our friends to continue their Mediterenian cruise. I just want to say thank you to Karen and Dorothy for coming to our country of origin and learning littlebit more about our culture and life style and of reminding us of our time spent in Canada and gow much we miss Canada and its people. Ones again thanks guys we’ll never forget time spent with you guys. Cheers.
Wow, what a beautiful port to visit for your birthday! This wasn’t a stop on our Med cruise itinerary back in 2009, looks like we need to book another one!
Happy Birthday Dorothy! What a way to spend such such a milestone and what memories you will have to remember it by. All the best the rest of your adventure.
So nice to meet up with friends halfway around the world! Happy 50th! What wonderful memories!