Happy 50th Birthday to me

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.

sailing into Kotor

morning fog

Kotor fog

sailing into Kotor

sailing into Kotor

welcome to Montenegro

 

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.

The Sea Gate, West Gate from 1555

Old Town Square

Clock from St. Triphon’s Cathedrale

Maritime Museum

Tower

one of Kotor’s famous cats

view through archway

St. Luke’s Church from 1195

alley way in Kotor

Vasko, Milos and Maksim

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.

Maksim, Vasko, Milos and Biljana

Milos

Maksim

schnitzel lunch … this was the small portion

Kare, Biljana, Maksim, Vasko, Milos and me

 

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.

view up the mountain side

inside Church of St. Nicholas from 1909

back alleys in Old Town

window

alley way

steps

St. Triphon’s Cathedrale from 1166

 

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.

more birthday treats

 

 

4 Comments

  1. Vasko Jovic
    June 14, 2016

    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.

  2. Irene
    June 14, 2016

    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!

  3. Patti
    June 14, 2016

    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.

  4. Helayne
    June 15, 2016

    So nice to meet up with friends halfway around the world! Happy 50th! What wonderful memories!

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