Lunch in Montenegro.

I love that we can drive an hour and be in a new country, where a different language is spoken and different foods are served. It’s old hat for Europeans I suppose, but a pretty unique thing for us Americans to experience. We are very close to the countries of Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina here in Dubrovnik, so today we went to check out the former.

Montenegro is a very new country, the last to separate from the former Yugoslavia (in 2006). Unlike what happened in the neighboring countries, no fighting occurred here over their independence…I guess Belgrade had just given up trying to hold anything together by then. The country is teeny tiny.  My guidebook says it’s about the same size as Connecticut.

Although there was some delay due to the amount of traffic on the way, getting through the border was pretty simple, with just a cursory glance at our passports. (On the way back they were randomly searching trunks and it took a very long time to get through).

We choose to visit Kotor, which is situated at the end of Europe’s southernmost fjord. The drive was pretty spectacular -- mountains and water surrounded us. Fantastic. There was an unfortunate amount of garbage along the road, which Steve quickly picked up on. I found it was best to look up towards toward the mountains and avoid looking down at the depressing plastic litter.

Parking just outside the walls of the old town was an issue, but we finally got a spot in a paid lot near the harbor after some time waiting in line. Who would have guessed Kotor would be such a popular place! From the harbor, we could see the old fort walls climbing high up the mountain behind the town. It was gorgeous! You can climb the 1300-or-so steps to get there, but it was just too hot and we didn’t have the right shoes, so we settled for a look around the historic town. It was similar to the many other medieval villages we have visited recently. In fact they are all starting to blur together. We walked through quaint alleyways and explored everything of interest, all the while feeling that déjà vu.

For lunch, we went to a restaurant called Kantun, recommended by Fodor’s.  A very old lady dressed in flamboyant purple floral and wearing a big dark wig sat directly behind my chair, yelling out very loud greetings to some people passing by. (I would have preferred some live music or something.) We had the usual for lunch: salads. Mine was Greek style, with very delicious creamy feta cheese (not super tangy like the kind we have at home) and incredible red tomatoes. Steve had “tunny fish salad,” which was kind of an odd presentation sans lettuce or mayo. All was quite tasty. When we left, the old lady was still there, nursing a coffee and keeping an eagle eye out for anyone she might know passing by.

We had a flash of spontaneity on the way home, stopping in the village of Perast since we were passing right by anyway. We loved this town! It had a great, laid back atmosphere.  1) There were no crowds and no parking issues!  2) it was filled with old stone villas, many of them occupied, but many just empty, picturesque shells  3) beautiful seaside location, but no throngs of Speedo wearers and loud kids to be found anywhere.

We found a lively café covered with a grape arbor (with ripe grapes hanging all over the “ceiling,”) and treated ourselves to iced coffee, which incidentally is served with ice cream here in Montenegro. Imagine that! Then we walked the entire length of the town on the waterfront. It was but pleasant and quiet. Loved this place… two thumbs up for Montenegro.