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  • Day 1 - I've been here before...

    7 września 2024, Czarnogóra ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    06:44
    I am once again, would you believe, in Brewdog at Gatwick North terminal. Comfortably the earliest I’ve had to be here this year. Vicki and I are off to Kotor, in Montenegro, along with 6 of our dearest friends. There’s a small cock-up when the cab doesn’t arrive. Mindful that I’ve been the taxi mistake maker in the past, I check and recheck my confirmation email, before calling the cab company. Nope - it’s their snafu. Somewhere along the way, they’ve got a couple of bookings confused, and they’re expecting to pick us up on Monday, to fly to New York. Really not what you want to hear for a 05:00 cab after a 04:15 alarm… Thankfully, they have a driver on standby, who gets over to us in 10 minutes, and we’re still at Gatwick in decent time.

    Vicki, bless her, has had a crazy week at work. Couple of weeks in fact. When I went to bed last night, I had an inkling she might not get finished until v late, and my inkling is confirmed. She’s not managed to get to bed - but is in awesome spirits, ready to go etc etc. She does, however, doze for the entirety of the cab ride to Gatwick. I suspect today will be a day of many en-route naps.

    In the check-in area, we rejoice to see a gin still that’s been christened ‘Judith.’ We’re quickly through bag drop and security. In a first of its kind, neither of us is pulled over for additional security checks.

    And so it is, that I find myself in the North Terminal Brewdog, for maybe the 6th time this year. They don’t have a loyalty scheme, but if they did…

    Our group is arriving in stages, and I suspect we’ll meet at the departure gate. The nucleus of this group is a gang we’ve travelled with a bunch of times before, but not for quite a few years. I think 2015 or 2016 would have been the last time. We exist very easily together, so am expecting a chilled out week of not very much. We’re staying in a waterfront villa on Kotor Bay, in a little village called Dobrota, about 5km North of Kotor Old Town. I’m unsure, at this point, how active we’ll be - there are tons of opportunities for adventuring, but most require car-hire. The weather may well have a role to play in helping us decide. The forecast is, let’s not be coy, shit. Heavy rain, thunderstorms. We’re all hopeful that the storms will be intermittent and fleeting. Fingers crossed, touch wood etc etc.

    Last time I flew out of North Terminal was peak, PEAK Summer holiday season. The airport’s a very much more relaxed affair this morning, most schools having already started again for the Winter term. There are a few families getting away, but the vast majority are groups of adults headed off on their travels. There’s a slightly subdued atmosphere.

    19:30
    The flight is blissfully brief. We’re around an hour late taking off, due to some mist and fog at Gatwick generally slowing everything down, and land into Dubrovnik about 45 minutes behind schedule. Quickly enough, we’re squashed into our 8 seater taxi for the journey South to Dobrota. There’s an airport at Tivat, about 45 minutes away from our villa, but flights there were much more limited, and far more expensive, so we’ve flown into Croatia, and will drive down into Montenegro. It’s around 90 minutes to drive, but the variable is how long the border crossing will take. Whilst Montenegro uses the Euro for its currency, it’s not (yet) part of the European Union, so there’s a hard border between the two. I suspect leaving the EU to get into Montenegro is going to be a lot quicker/easier than getting back into the EU when we head home.

    The drive down is really something. The surrounding scenery is just beautiful. We’re surrounded by mountains, and spend most of the journey hugging the shores of lakes and fjords. I wasn’t prepared for how close the mountains are to where we’re staying. We spend the last 50 minutes driving round the coastline of the Bay of Kotor, which looks like a lake, but is actually an inland bay, joined to the sea about 15km to the North West of us. We’re reminded of the Italian lakes, except prettier, more rustic.

    There’s some small confusion as we try to figure out which villa is actually ours, but ultimately manage to locate the right property. It’s a beautiful building. A maze of staircases, rooms, and terraces. It’s bewitchingly charming. The views across the bay are simply staggering. We’re all a bit warm and peckish, so head out to a local restaurant for refreshment. The local beer is Niksicko, and is a pleasant little drop. Most critically, it’s cold. Super cold. We have a sharing platter of ham and cheeses, and all is well with the world.

    23:30
    For ease, we head back to the same place for dinner. We’ll do some more exploring tomorrow. Our dinner is lovely. Simple, grilled dishes in the main - and I have a cuttlefish risotto, a dish I was introduced to in Croatia, and which appears to be a specialty of this section of the Adriatic coast. Our bill is a slightly scary €450 for 8 of us. This feels more than a little steep. Interrogating the bill, it transpires that broadly half of that has gone on 4 bottles of wine - not an insane amount for us to have got through, but a whacking chunk of change. We resolve to be a bit more mindful of wine options when we’re out and about.

    Whiskas proposes a digestif/nightcap, and this feels like a brilliant idea. We head to a little café only steps from our villa, and try Slivja. This is part of the Slivovitz family, so common across Eastern Europe, and particularly the Balkans. It’s a brandy made from damsons or plums. I find myself quite liking it, though it’s not to everyone’s tastes. The café has an entire section of their menu for ‘homemade’ spirits. Nicci insists that we try them all over the course of the week, and that’s the second brilliant idea in the past 30 minutes.

    Vicks and I are both flagging. She’s managed about 90 minutes of sleep through the day, but is ready for an extended doze.
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  • Day 2 - All kinds of sunny.

    8 września 2024, Czarnogóra ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    17:50
    Waking time for our collective is wildly varied. Eddie and Nicci are up and out for a walk by 07:00, whilst Vicki sleeps till past midday. I would say the average is around 08:00, and most of us are well slept/rested. Despite several attempts, the coffee pod machine is simply not playing ball, so Eddie, Whiskas and I pop to our new favourite local café for a coffee, followed by an improving swim in the bay. The water’s beautiful - cold enough to be refreshing, but warm enough not to warrant tears. The sun rises over the mountain behind the villa, and slowly chases the shade away from our private beach type area by the bay. It’s heating up pretty quickly, but I find a wonderfully shady solace behind the pool, and curl up to read my book for an hour.

    Around 11:30, Rachel has the first brilliant idea of the day, and moments later, we’re slipping into the charming depths of a beautifully made Aperol Spritz. It’s a great option with which to open our Sunday account. Bravely, I stick to my promise to check on Vicki at 12:00. She’s just woken up, and decided it’s time for today. She’s clocked in at a little over 12 hours. Very impressive.

    We decide some lunch is in order, and head down the road to a little fish restaurant. The wine is much more reasonable than last night, the food simple and good. It’s pushing 14:30, and I can feel a nap on the cards. I head back to the villa with the girls, and hit the hay. It takes me a while to get off to sleep, but am rewarded with fully 90 minutes of doze. Deluxe.

    23:45
    We congregate on the sun terrace around 18:30, for sundowners. The sun sets lazily across the bay from us, over the mountains in the distance. It’s still hot, but gradually cooling. I learn of an incident involving Simon’s drone while I was sleeping. It’s been on the fritz recently. He’s an electrician by training, and has been working to fix it. An issue with the sensors apparently. His efforts have not been going entirely to plan. On one of his test flights earlier, it took on a mind of its own, gave the tree by the bay a bit of a haircut, and then tried to decapitate Rachel. With the warm glow of hindsight, it all sounds super funny, but I suspect was anything but at the time. There was such alarm and shrieking that our neighbours popped their head around to our pontoon to check everyone was still alive…

    For dinner, we walk South along the coast towards Kotor. Dobrota, whilst recognised as a town, is really a stretch of coastline, about 4km long. Forza is perhaps 1km to the South of us, on the waterfront, and attached to a plush looking hotel. They have a wood-fired BBQ on the waterside terrace, and fresh fish on the menu - a winning combo. Six of us have whole seabass, cooked over the fire, and it’s sensational. Cooked to a soft, juicy texture, with crispy skin, and really well seasoned. It turns out we can’t quite manage on two bottles of wine, but do keep ourselves from ordering a fourth. The food is a little more expensive than last night, but our bill feels like much better value. We all agree that we’ve been very well fed.

    We head back to our local café for a nightcap. Eddie, Whiskas and I go for a Pelinkovac - a local Amaro style liqueur that’s bitter and smoky. Nicci bravely tries a Zlatna Rakija, which transpires to the apricot variant of homemade firewater. It smells deeply of apricot, but tastes of anything but. It’s marginally nicer than the plum version we tried last night. The hour is advancing, and some of us have had as few as 12 hours sleep. It’s time for bed…
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  • Day 3 - Wetter than an otter's pocket

    9 września 2024, Czarnogóra ⋅ 🌧 19 °C

    19:00
    We’ve been expecting the rains. Waking up on Monday morning, we see grimacing skies, and chop on the water. They’re not here yet, but they’re surely in the post. It’s still warm, but a stiffening breeze promises malevolence.

    I’m up by 08:00, but leave Vicki to sleep a while. I briefly look in on her at 09:30, but she declares insufficient, so I leave her for another half hour. We’ve determined that the inclement weather necessitates an excursion, and we’re going to head down to Kotor for a wander around. We book cabs for 11:30, Vicki emerges, and we’re outside the villa by 11:25 waiting for our cabs. I say cabs, but really, it’s the brother of Maria who runs the management company that looks after our villa, and one of his mates. Ivan (brother) turns up on time, but his mate is 25 minutes late. Apparently there’s traffic trouble down in Kotor. It’s a town of perhaps 12,000, so I struggle to understand just how bad the traffic can be.

    As we drive down to the town centre, I start to understand. It’s a perfect storm of terrible road planning, insane drivers, and perhaps 3,000 passengers flooding off a couple of cruise ships. We attempt to turn off the main road, but a cruiser is crossing the road, despite the crossing light being red. We nearly run her down.

    As we walk into the old city of Kotor, the sky is darkening. We’re all ready for a beer, so head for a lovely little square just inside the city walls. Within moments, the rains commence. Fleeting at first, they build into some of the heaviest rain I can ever remember experiencing. I ping Felix a message to let him know that the rains around Khao Yai might just have been relegated to second place. The noise as the water pounds on the slick, stone paving is immense. The bar we’re in has an awning, but it is woefully inadequate for these conditions. Despite sitting underneath this covering, Vicki has her umbrella up. ‘A’ drink turns into several, as we’re in no rush to head out into the deluge. We decide to grab some food while we’re here. The rain keeps getting heavier, and heavier. I love the rain, but this is just something else.

    Finally, FINALLY - after about two hours, it starts to abate. We grab the opportunity to settle up our bill, and make for the nearest supermarket to stock up on some supplies. It’s only a 5 minute walk away, but we’re all beyond soggy by the time we arrive. Because I’m such a goddamn hero, I’ve lent Whiskas my waterproof coat, making do with a small umbrella instead. Honestly, I’m so soaked through before we leave the bar, that a waterproof coat would have done no more than trap the moisture in.

    We manage to grab most of what we need at the supermarket, before Ivan and his dad give us a ride back to the villa. Opening the door, it’s quickly evident that all is not well. There are puddles of water all over the floor. We quickly identify the the water is coming from the first floor, and discover water pouring in from the small baloney at the front of the 1st floor living room. It’s properly flooded. A clean up exercise commences, and I get in touch with Maria to request assistance. The next door villa is owned by a guy called Vuco. He’s had some similar issues, and has identified a blocked gutter at the rear of his property as the culprit. This perhaps explains the water in our kitchen, but our problem is definitely due to something at the front of the villa. The villa owner pitches up to help with clean up, and kindly leaves us a bottle of vodka as an apology.

    The next heavy shower is only minutes later, and we experience the same flooding. Our diagnostics team has identified a gutter at the front of our vila that isn’t draining properly, and which is creating a waterfall that falls directly onto the balcony. The balcony has a raised lip about 2 inches high, and the water can’t drain away from it. As it fills, the water reaches the level of the door, and the door is not watertight. Knowing how and why we’re being flooded is heartening, but hardly the outcome we’re after. The owner’s son rocks up, and drills some additional holes into the balcony to allow for better drainage. Honestly, I’d probably have started with the gutter which is the genesis of the problem, but what do I know?

    Look, the villa managers and owners can’t control the weather, obviously. But this can’t possibly be the first time this has happened. The rain is incredibly heavy, but it’s not some kind of days long, generational storm. We’re still having to deal with ingress of water 4 hours later, and it leaves us feeling more than a little irked. The hole drilling has helped, but when the rain gets really heavy, there’s still some water splashing against the door from the deluge coming down from the gutter, and some of it makes its way into the living room. It’s manageable for tonight, but needs more attention tomorrow.

    23:45
    Our evening is more stressful than is entirely ideal. Intermittent heavy showers have continued to leave us soggy. I guess we’re kinda inured to it. We’re certainly well versed in wringing out the various towels and rugs that we’re using as flood barriers. We make the best of it. The owner’s son turned up with a bottle of a decent Reposado Tequila for us - again, by way of apology. Honestly though, we’re pretty miffed that we’ve paid a whack of cash for our villa, and it’s flooding like this. We’ll need to get on to the managers tomorrow to try and sort out the guttering, as there’s heavy rain forecast on several of the next few days…
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  • Day 4 - Sore heads, and lost keys

    10 września 2024, Czarnogóra ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    13:00
    There are some sore heads at Camp Fun today. Eddie describes his condition as ‘grizzly’ and Nicci somewhat regrets the last bit of Slivja Rakija we shared before bedtime. We’re delighted, however, that there appears to have been no significant leaking overnight, despite some pretty heavy rain, and a spectacular thunderstorm around 02:00. For my part, I sleep pretty poorly. Very wakey, and according to my Garmin watch, not much deep sleep at all. I suspect today will be a low powered day.

    Vicki is still catching up on sleeps, and banks another 10 hours. She’s a marvel that woman. We have a late breakfast of eggs on toast around 11:00, and I repair to bed with my eyes on a nap.

    19:30
    My low powered prediction has been proven right. We’ve had occasional rain showers, and played some games in the covered terrace area near the pool. Vicki is victorious in the Shut the Door competition, whilst Shenda and I take the prize for the Who’s In The Bag event. The villa owner and her handyman have been round while I was snoozing, and hopefully dealt with the guttering issues for the next round of heavy rains. The wind is getting up, and we’re a little concerned that there are stills storms brewing.

    Eddie and Whiskas have been out on some hired bikes today, with little success. There’s a bike path that leads down to Kotor, but which suddenly disappears as you arrive into town. They use the road, and are admonished by a local traffic cop. Apparently roads are for cars. They can’t use the pavement, as it’s jammed with pedestrians. There appears to be no other option. More than a little non-plussed, they return to the villa.

    There are staggering views of the sunset, which lights the sky up in a complex array of colours and textures. It’s jaw-droppingly beautiful.

    23:30
    It’s still pretty breezy when we head out for dinner. There’s a hiatus in proceedings when we realise we can’t find the door keys. There’s a little alcove by the front door where we’ve been leaving them, and they’re not there. Rach and Whiskas have gone out for a pre-dinner aperitif, but when we check, they’ve not seen them. We search fairly frantically for 15 minutes, but no joy. We suspect that the villa owner or handyman might have wandered off with them. Fortunately, we can lock the front door from the inside, and have a separate set of keys for the backdoor, so can head out leaving the villa in a reasonable state of security. I ping Maria to ask if she can check with the villa owner.

    Our destination for dinner is Babilon, a Konoba about ten minutes walk up the coast. About halfway there, Simon admits that he may have had the keys during the afternoon, for what - we’re not really sure. He and Vicki scramble back to the villa, declare success, and I apologise to Maria for unnecessarily disturbing her / accusing the villa owner. She’s very good natured about it. Simon is appropriately sheepish.

    Dinner is a triumph. We all agree it’s our favourite place to eat so far. Very friendly folks running it, and great value. The food is very good. The majority opt for steak, and the waiter dude brings out two huge platters with a combination of rib-eye and bone-in sirloin. Vicki, Shenda and I have variations on risotto - black cuttlefish for me, and prawn with Saffron for V+S. Very tasty, well seasoned, clearly using a very good fish stock.

    It’s after 22:00 when leave the restaurant, having had a rip-roaring time. The sore heads and jadedness of last night have caught up with most, and early nights are declared. Tomorrow’s due to be a hot and sunny day, and no-one wants to miss any of it…
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  • Day 5 - Happy Hump Day

    11 września 2024, Czarnogóra ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    15:00
    There are several reports of poor sleeping. Rachel’s been up since 4, Nicci feels more than a little jaded, and Eddie’s back is playing up. My own efforts are pretty poor as well - my Garmin watch estimating I’ve had around 5 paltry hours. Vicki, however, banks another 10 hour effort, sleep thief that she is.

    The promised sunshine has arrived, and the wind has died almost completely. Those who sunbathe, have little else planned for the day. Vicki and I grab some breakfast, and lounge in the shade by the pool. The villa owner drops us round some wine and some custard cakes as a further apology for the flooding incidents earlier in the week. Not long after midday, I head for a much deserved nap.

    23:30
    I struggle to wake from my nap. Blearily, I pad downstairs, and decide a quick dip in the pool should help me shake the cobwebs away. Crikey - and then some. The pool is cold. It does the job though. I settle down to read my book with a rum and Coke, and consider that this is a really rather lovely way to pass the time…

    There’s a monster cruise ship in the bay today. Checking the cruise ship schedule, this one has over 3,000 passengers, and weights in at 120,000 tons. Today’s schedule has two ships in total, and they’ll have spewed something like 5,000 passengers into Kotor, a small town of maybe 15,000. It’s easy to see why the townsfolk are less than adoring of the cruise ships that so frequently stop by. We’re planning to head into Kotor later for a wander around and some food, but both ships are due to have departed by then.

    The afternoon passes in the loveliest of fashions - with very little done, and a truckload of relax. We jump in a cab at 18:30 to head to Kotor. There are no issues with keys today. The cars drop their respective passengers in different parts of town, and we spend a faintly ludicrous 20 minutes trying to locate each other. Kotor Old Town is beautiful - very pretty, narrow cobbled streets, street side cafés abound, a variety of live musicians performing.

    We pitch up at a restaurant I’ve found that has great reviews, a little stroll outside of the old city walls, around the harbour. I have a grilled octopus dish that is banging. Perfectly charred, but ultra tender. Vicki’s braised beef dish is a cracker as well. We take a stroll back through the old town to our meeting point for the cab back to the villa, grabbing ice creams along the way. The city is still teeming with activity - bars spilling out onto the streets. We head to our local café by our villa for a nightcap. Nicci and I are making great progress trying the full range of local firewaters. Tonight is a pear brandy, which is probably my favourite of the lot thus far. A day of doing very little has clearly taken its toll though, and we’re all headed to bed by 23:00...
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  • Day 6 - Reset, recharge, rebound

    12 września 2024, Czarnogóra ⋅ 🌫 18 °C

    12:00
    I’m not sleeping well. No idea why not, but I’m not. I’m averaging maybe 5-6 hours a night, which I once would have thought super-deluxe, but which now is just not quite enough. The team are off to Perast today, but I may stay behind and try and catch up on some sleep. There’s a definitely some weather brewing, but the morning is actually quite bright and sunny. Vicki snoozes till 10:00 - no such sleep challenges for her… I grab some breakfast, before deciding to head back to bed for some snooze, and will see where the day takes me.

    17:00
    Holy shit - that was some nap. Everyone else heads off in a cab to Perast around 13:00, and I fall asleep moments later. I wake a few times, but essentially sleep for 4 hours. Much needed, much welcomed. I’m pretty groggy when I wake up, but it’s the kind of grog that comes from having had a deeply restful sleep, so I’m ok with it. I find everyone cowering under the covered table near the pool, and quickly deduce that the rains are here. Not wickedly heavy like our Monday experience, but sufficiently weighty to require shelter. Perast sounds/looks lovely from the photos they show me. I may pop up there tomorrow for a look around, if the weather gods play ball. I decide a rum and OJ is in order…

    23:45
    Around 19:00, the lightning starts to build, mainly over the mountains to the North of us. Given the likelihood of a rainstorm breaking out at any time, we head all of 50m up the road to a small Konoba for a bite to eat. They’re sufficiently worried about the storm that they seat us inside. I have a delicious risotto made with local sausages and some butternut squash. Simon has had an incident. He slipped over on the stairs in the villa, and has cut/badly bruised his left leg. He’s a bit subdued, and doesn’t even finish his red wine. This is unheard of, and we’re all a little worried about him. He heads back to the villa to go to bed, while the remainder head to our local café for a nightcap. Nicci and I complete the full range of local brandies, and we discover something rather lovely called Amaro Montenegro, which confusingly is not from Montenegro, but rather celebrates that marriage of a Montenegrin princess to the future king of Italy. The lightning is still present, and slowly building. As most make their way to bed, I spend 40 minutes on our sun terrace watching the light show in the clouds above me. I’m almost willing the rain and thunder to arrive. The lightning is spectacular, but I’m disappointed that it doesn’t appear to be progressing beyond that, so at 23:30, I call it a night.
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  • Day 7 - A high degree of soggy

    13 września 2024, Czarnogóra ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    18:00
    Team Dobrota are a little subdued this morning. Well, 7 of us. Vicki is respondent after ‘yet’ another 10 hours of sleep. The sky is heavy with cloud, but we’re apparently due some sunshine late morning. 7 of us (all but Simon) head out for a walk. The breeze is fairly stiff, but the cloud is starting to clear. We make it most of the way down to Kotor, stopping briefly at Babilon to book a table for dinner tonight, and pitch up at a plush looking beach club called Virtu. Beers/ciders for the majority, with soft drinks for those that are particularly suffering. The sun emerges, and we’re at peace with the world. A small cat appears, who I name ‘Bob.’ Vicks and I head back towards the apartment to grab some lunch, whilst the others carry on into Kotor. After some food and wine, I’m ready for a nap. I reward myself with a super deluxe snooze.

    23:45
    I’m a little groggy when I wake up, but shake the fuzziness away with a Whiskas strength Negroni. We’ve booked a table at Babilon for 20:00, but are a little concerned that the sky has significantly darkened, so head off a touch early. Happily, Goran has our table ready and waiting. A couple of minutes after 20:00, the floodgates open. The rain is as heavy as Monday, when we were flooded. Our table’s pretty well covered, but there’s still some notable water mist and splashing.

    We have a sensational dinner. Vicki has a repeat of her order of Tuesday, and I have a wonderful salmon carpaccio, followed by a Tagliata - thinly sliced pieces of sirloin steak, served over a rocket and Parmesan salad. Delish. The rains continue while we eat. There’s a brief hiatus at 21:30. Vicki seizes this opportunity to head back to the villa. The remainder of us regret not taking our chance, when the rain comes back with a vengeance. Sated, we settle our bill, and head off. Shenda has an umbrella, so is broadly ok. I do not, so am not. It’s about a 10 minute walk back to the villa, and the rains heavy around half of that distance. Suddenly, the rain stops, and we rejoice.

    Back at the villa, we’re delighted to find that there’s no flooding. Clearly the gutter jiggery-pokery has done the job. We’ve a small mountain of booze to get through before we leave tomorrow afternoon. I decide wine is my target for the evening, so have the last glass of white, followed by a couple of glasses of red. The rum can wait for the morning…
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  • Day 8 - From there, to here

    14 września 2024, Chorwacja ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    14:00
    The cleaners are arriving at 10:00. We’ve negotiated with Maria that we can hang out in the villa until 12:00, when our cab will arrive to take us back to Croatia, and towards Dubrovnik Airport. We’re up and busy a little after 08:00, and all pretty much packed up by 10:00.

    I’m taking most of a bottle of tequila home with us - the one that was gifted to us by the villa owner’s son as an apology for the flooding issues. Now, I don’t do well with tequila. A horrific incident when I was 15 involving a horrendously cheap and nasty white tequila, which means that even the smell of it turns my stomach. Back in 2018, I tested whether this was still the case, while Vicks and I were in Antigua, and discovered that yes - yes, it is very much still the case. This bottle though is an aged Reposado tequila. I tried some a couple of days ago, and - I actually quite like it. It’s smoky, and has spicy notes. I’m still not sure I’d wanna smash down shots of it, but as a sipped drink, it’s closer to a decent whisky than the shitshow of a white tequila that’s haunted me for the past 30 years.

    We congregate downstairs at 10:00 to let the cleaners crack on with their work. There’s still a fair amount of booze that we’ve not finished. Some tuck into a glass of rosé, others have a beer. I dive into a spiced rum and OJ, and sit by the pool, contentedly reading my book.

    The cab arrives just before 12:00, and is, in fact, a small coach. No bad thing, as we were pretty squashed in during the journey down. It transpires that we’re going to do some kind of a swap at the border. Croatian drivers aren’t allowed to drive into Montenegro to pick up passengers to take them back to Croatia. Quite why the Montenegrin driver can’t take us all the way to Cavtat, I’m not sure. The drive around the bay is spectacular. It’s just such a stunning vista. It’s Saturday, and traffic is quite clunky, particularly through the town of Herceg Novi, near the border. About 20 minutes from the border crossing we used on the way out of Croatia, our driver turns off the main road, and starts heading up the side of a mountain. We all look a little non-plussed. Turns out there are several different border crossings in this part of the world, and he’s brought us to one that he expects to be quieter and quicker. Once we’ve left Montenegro, and are in no-mans land before entering Croatia, and the European Union, we swap vehicles. This all feels quite shady, though it’s anything but. As we approach the Croatian / EU border, our driver explains a little more about this border crossing, and that it’s a hotspot for typically Albanians to smuggle drugs into the EU. It’s quite small, and doesn’t have a sniffer dog team. He goes not to tell us that it’s possible (!) to transport 10 kilos of coke through this border without any issues. Bit worrying that he’s so confident about this. There’s a short queue to cross the border, and the car in front of us has Albanian licence tags. After a fairly lengthy dialogue with the border guard, the car is turned back. Happily, our transit is a more straightforward affair, and we’re quickly on our way to Cavtat…

    21:00
    Cavtat’s beautiful. A small, harbour town on the coast of the Adriatic. We stop for a well deserved lunch. We decided not to cook anything this morning at the villa, and so there’s some significant hunger amongst our group. I have a spectacular octopus carpaccio, followed by Saltimbocca - a thin veal steak topped with sage and prosciutto. Both are very tasty. Shenda has some of the best calamari I can remember having in a VERY long time…

    After lunch, the girls declare shopping, and the gents repair to a nearby bar. The sun is intermittently shining and warm, but is regularly shrouded in cloud, which leaves us feeling a touch chilly. There’s a stiffish breeze as well…

    There’s a spectacular looking super yacht in the harbour. c. 50m long, and sleeping 12 in 6 en-suite bedrooms, we briefly consider liberating it for a week’s cruise around the Med. The weekly hire for this vessel transpires to be €290,000, which is just a touch out of our price range.

    At 18:00, we jump in our cab to the airport. Dubrovnik Airport is pretty small, and not brilliantly equipped. We’re dejected to find our flight is delayed by around 45 minutes. It’s been a long day already, and we all just want to be at home. Shenda, Simon, Vicki and I put down anchors at a table in a small café in the departure lounge. They serve a decent white wine in a small bottle, several of which I plough through. We’re keeping our eye on the inbound flight. No way are we going through passport control and into the non-Schengen departure lounge until it’s landed…

    23:55
    We land around 40 minutes late - not the worst outcome… We’re very quickly off the plane, and through passport control. Not a lot of folks in the airport this late in the day. We say goodbye to Rach and Whisk, who have hand luggage and are straight into a cab to take them back to Charlwood. Our bags turn up pretty quickly, and we bid adieu to Si, Shenda, Eddie and Nicci. It’s been a great group to travel with, and I can’t imagine it’ll be that long until we’re planning our next trip together.

    It’s pretty bloody fresh outside. I think the temperature’s down at about 10C. As soon as we’re into our cab, Vicki’s out like a light, bless her…
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  • Day 9 - Home. Meh. Reflections...

    15 września 2024, Anglia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    13:00
    We finally got home about 00:30, and were greeted at the front door by our ginger babies. They seemed pretty happy to see us. Vicki’s wiped out, so heads straight to bed. I sit up with the boys for a while, who only seem interested in me if I’m giving them food. By 01:00, I’m fading, and head to bed.

    Vicki banks YET another 10 hours of kip. She’s a phenomenon.

    A few reflections on Montenegro.

    1) Staggeringly beautiful. I’m really not sure I’ve ever seen anywhere more beautiful than Kotor bay. It’s got everything - beautiful water, stunning mountain backdrops, pristine ancient Mediterranean architecture…
    2) More expensive than I thought it would be. I’m not sure there are really (m)any bargains to be had in Europe anymore. Restaurant prices in Montenegro were pretty high, particularly for wine. Main courses were typically in the mid 20s. Supermarket prices were pretty steep.
    3) Despite the cost, the food was great. Loads of very fresh fish, some really good quality beef, sensational shellfish. I was a little disappointed (again) not to see lamb on menus anywhere, but there were plenty of other options to keep me interested.
    4) Montenegro and Montenegrins seem to be on a go-slow (in a good way). The pace of life is incredibly relaxed, and the very vast majority of folks we met were happy, smiling, and laid-back.
    5) Climate change is a thing. I think we got pretty unfortunate with the amount and ferocity of rain we experienced, but these extreme weather events are going to be a constant part of our lives going forward…

    That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. Join me, oooh - a week on Saturday, for 3 weeks around Brazil.
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