Charm of Kotor town

We spent the last few days in the scenic Kotor Bay. It's visually delightful, but also geographically sublime. A bay within a bay abutted by tall mountains. This meant that the water has remained calm and predictable for a long maritime history. But the mountains have left no more space than for mostly one row of houses. This results in a coast that is both expansive and claustrophobic at the same time. The sunsets always have a good place to land though.

The old town is another heritage site in our way, but it charmed us way more than Dubrovnik, or than we expected. The labyrinth of narrow stone streets is quite fun to explore with no plans. Instead of resolving the issue, the town has adopted the cats as it's symbol. There are even solar powered cat food boxes at junctions.

We walked around and found an abandoned trail behind a fortress. Kiran led the way up through the thorns and the bramble, and soon we found ourselves perched high above the old town. A nice view in a chill breeze, won through our own pathfinding.

Kiran surprised me with wanting to go to churches and museums. The Orthodox church of St Nicholas is an active one. We lingered for an hour after Sunday mass, watching the locals queue to kiss the scepter, then the hand of the priest before taking the communion cookie. Then the priest got into ornate robes and set about chanting prayers at the various paintings of holy scenes. The people seeked him out for animated discussing that went on for quite long. Kiran asked for a photo so he could remember the place.

The Maritime museum was also a surprise. We went slowly and meticulously through all the floors, listening to stories or creating our own about the fantastic replica ships, scabbards, Turkish rifles and more in this cool collection. In one corner, there was a gallery of gallant naval adventurers of years past. I looked around and was inspired. I licked my fingertips and twisted up the ends a few times, and there it was. I had found my adventurer look among these hirsute heroes.Read more