We Heart Montenegro

Long post...bear with me...

So, we are in our rental car. Heading inland. Best part of traveling and the thing I will miss the most from this experience...having no plans and no idea where you are going that day. We start our drive and oh my gosh. This is the most amazing drive we have ever been on. The roads are narrow and precarious at points but they are gorgeous and we follow the Tara River Gorge and we are ohhhh-ing and ahhh-ing every chance we get.

The Tara River. CRYSTAL clear. Makes you realize how much sediment we have in our rivers. I mean this water was perfect.

We stopped along the way at a national park and went on a hike through some virgin forest around a mountain lake. Alex and I have started a daily wiki-lookup as we find ourselves asking random questions of each other everyday that neighter of us knows the answer to. Yesterday's lookup: Why do some countries drive on the right and some on the left? (originally horses were on left so that right-handed riders could weild their swords at any advancing threat.). Today's lookup: What is the difference between "virgin" and "old growth" forests?  Answer: nothing. They just like to say "virgin" in Europe. Boring but intersting. This is what you do when you don't have jobs.

At the time it was built this was the largest concrete bridge in the world. It was blown up (by its engineer) during WWII to slow the Italian invasion. It was then later re-constructed. The original engineer was executed on the bridge by the Italians.

Nerd alert.

One of the most popular things to do in Montenegro is to raft the Tara River. We opted for the half day trip. A full day in the deep canyon probably would have been better but it was still fun.

The water was FREEZING (like my feet were numb) but crystal clear. I'm really impressed we both jumped in...especially Alex...he's kinda a wimp with cold water.

I'm sorry...I love this picture. You know how there are those great feelings in life?....jumping in a freezing cold river and then drying off in the hot sun and drinking a cold beer is definitely on that list. Laying in the sun all day and then showering and drinking a cold glass of wine is as well.

More of our amazing drive...

One minute we are on this tiny two lane golf cart path of a road and then we go over a hill and this is what we see....the Bay of Kotor. I mean amazing.

The road wound down the hill in about 25 hairpin turns. Gorgeous sunset. Amazing views. And only minor husband-wife quarreling over how far we needed to stay from the edge.

Kotor.

We stayed on the opposite side of the bay from the walled city of Kotor. This was the road to our hotel. Umm...awesome.

The old town of Kotor. P-I-C-T-U-R-E-S-Q-U-E

A mussel farm on the bay. Yes I ate them and yes they were delicious.

Our hot red coche. The drivers here a only mildly crazy. Alex has done an awesome job. Best advice wegot, put on your right turning signal and let the freaky techno-listening Audis and BMWs pass.

We left Kotor for Herceg Novi...not that far away as the crow flies but about and hour's drive around the curves of the bay. We spent about 30 minutes there and realized we had seen much cooler towns along the way. After 7 nights in 7 different cities (and 4 different countries) Alex and I agreed we were ready for two nights in one place. We chose Perast. From the above picture you can see why. Right on the water. Lovely old Venetian-style architecture. Cafes. And tons of "zimmer rhode" (apartment rental) signs.

The view from our window. No, I'm not kidding. We must have the prettiest view in the whole town. The clock tower in that first picture is right in front of our other window. Both nights we have been here there are about 30 kids playing in the square below. And it has free wi-fi at the cafe downstairs.

The best and worst bar ever. Location, view and water...fabulous. I'll spare our readers the drama but basically we were in heaven here until some Russian mafia looking guys and their jerk friend decided to spray us with their Seadoo and get us totally soaked. Drama ensued and we're over it now but just goes to prove my previously stated point...there are jerks everywhere.

Despite horrible experience at the Pirate Bar, we love Perast and Montenegro and Eastern Europe.