Krazy for Kotor!

First, let me say what an incredibly short and easy travel day this was. After a quick blink of our eyes on an hour long bus ride, we found ourselves behind the fortified walls that protect the gem that is Kotor’s old town.

Although getting here was effortless, finding our hotel room was no easy feat. The addressing system, or should I say lack there of, is very sporadic here. It seems as though some store fronts are labelled with numbers, but many are not. Even the handful of locals that we spoke to couldn’t guide us in the right direction.

Insert Hakan. A man with a friendly face, who was sitting outside of his tapestry shop. When we asked for his help, all it took was a quick phone call and voila, someone was on their way to let us into our room, which was only a few doors down from his shop. Little did we know that he was friends with the hotel owner, or that he was so well connected, which proved very beneficial for us. Kotor is the first place we decided to spend more than one night in, which was an incredibly easy decision to make by the way (it’s like you’ve gone back in time into the Middle Ages, not to mention the awe that you feel as you stand surrounded by sky-high mountains), however we only booked accommodations for one night. Fortunately, not only is Hakan a business owner, but he is also a landlord so he was able to find us a room to stay in tomorrow. Not to be a broken record, but Hakan’s hospitality was rather outstanding. It was like having our own personal tour guide on speed dial, whatever we needed he assured us that he would help. He even offered to take us out for a traditional Montenegrin dinner tomorrow evening.

As a mini afternoon excursion, we made our way to a small town called Perast, which the Lonely Planet book describes as looking like a small chunk of Venice that has floated down the Adriatic. With a population of 350, we walked down the one and only main street and indulged in some gelato, some of us more than others ;) - if you know Sean at all you know his love of ice cream.

Upon our return we had an excellent seafood dinner at a restaurant recommended to us by one of Hakan’s friends of course, and then we spent a better part of the evening playing cards, wandering the cat-strewn streets and getting lost in the magic. KKRead more