Montenegro Reconnaissance Mission!

 Ćao ćao.... from the Wandering Berkmans!

Ah Montenegro.... your natural beauty is a wonder.  

Ah, Montenegro... where are you exactly?? Check it out here.  

We decided to explore Montenegro for 2 weeks to judge whether it would be a good location to wait out the Schengen clock while still staying close to Madrid for our every- 4 -month dentist visits.  Schengen says we can stay in most of Europe for only 90 of any rolling 180 days so our 2-3 month stays can affect our planning.    Montenegro is not part of Schengen.   

Where else can you have such a lovely bike ride?  On Kotor Bay, a submerged river canyon!  Specifically on the road Dobrota-- largely car free, crystal clear waters abound and stunning view of the mountains!  Otherwise, you take your life in your hands with the cars on narrow roads. And the hills are a beast.   

Wisteria in bloom everywhere!

The view from Fort Verige, the "crossroads" where the midsize-only cruise ships come in from the Adriatic Sea headed for Kotor Bay.  Check it out on the map!

We roamed outside the walls and on the pebbly beach of this awesome island-- Sveti Stefan  .  Apparently entrance inside the walls is only available to the likes of tennis great Novak Djokovic, who, rumor has it,  rented the entire island for his 2014 wedding. 

Our Airbnb was a 20 minute walk downhill to the beautiful walled city of Kotor  on Kotor Bay.    Spacious and comfortable with an amazing view of the bay, the apartment was far enough away from the very congested walled city to be peaceful but sometimes that walk back up the hill beat any elliptical at the gym.  It was worth it-- the view from the high vantage point of our terrace was phenomenal.  I can't remember if this pic was of Don dreading the roundtrip walk to the city or recovering from said trek.  

The walls from the 15th to 17th centuries surrounding Old Kotor were built by the Venetians and inside the walls the Italian architecture is everywhere.  

Igor our guide explained that the name of Montenegro in Montenegrin is Crna Gora, literally "black mountain".  All signage in the city is in Montenegrin using the Latin script and in Cyrillic.  

Cats rule in Old Kotor. The feline residents are so numerous they have a plaza named after them.  Read about their story here. Igor told us that the way to find a good restaurant is to see if there are cats all over it.  This cafe is apparently Michelin ranked based on this cat's demeanor.  The cats are owned by no one but receive free healthcare and spaying.  And there are plenty of cat people who set up lodging and food for them in exchange for their hunting prowess.  

Those who are keeping track will recall cevapi from our Croatia travels.  Armed with 2nds of my beloved ajvar, this cevapi was fantastic.  But my food jag here in Montenegro is Riblja Corba, a fish soup that makes me cry.  And yes, that is Montenegrin wine, from the Vranac grape.  And it was delicious.  

A drive along the mountain road that surrounds the bay led us to the tiny town of Perast for a delicious sea bass lunch, a water taxi to the artificial island of the Lady of the Rocks (made by sailors, rock by rock) and more peaceful views.  

 A common side dish-- boiled potatoes with parsley, onion and vinaigrette.  Alternately, blitva (garlicky swiss chard and potato) is king and can be found on many a plate of grilled squid.  I've never eaten more swiss chard in my life.  

 

Another day trip took us to Tivat, another port city but this one larger and with less cruise ships a-calling-- thus less people on the streets.  Port Montenegro is shiny with cafes and high-end stores but the riva (boardwalk) is just too pretty to miss.  Ultimately, we decided Tivat would be a more likely option for us in the future to wait out that blasted Schengen clock.   

The Italian influence on the cuisine is strong in Montenegro and so our meal in Tivat ticked a lot of Italy boxes but made sure to include the region's flavors.  Case in point-- the bruschetta with anchovies and tomato paired with grilled vegs that included a local soft cheese similar to feta and grilled sweet red peppers.  Camera shy-- Don's panini layered with prosciutto sporting a decidedly smoked paprika flavor.  

 

While on the road we passed by posters that reflected the recent presidential election battle between Đukanović (Dem Socialist)  who served for 3 decades as either president or prime minister of Montanegro and newcomer Milatović , the former finance minister.   Milatović won by a landslide in the 2nd round.   

Đukanović's poster slogan "Nego ko?"  loosely translates to "But who?".   We think maybe the real meaning behind it is "Who else? I mean, really."  

Ultimately the public did think of someone else.  Enter Milatović.  

His less arrogant slogan -- "We will succeed together." may have sat better with the public.  Ah, politics.  

While Kotor was a little crowded for our liking, we made sure to enjoy its many positives.  

 We found this large cafe in which to work (on planning and blogging-- not making coffee, Churgins!) one Sunday.  Order a limunada (literally lemon juice and water, like the olden days!)  and you can milk the wifi and stay all day. This place was particularly special because kids were running around and playing aallll over the  cafe and plaza and no one had a problem with it.  Definitely a slice of life!

We couldn't leave this crystal- clear water without dipping our toes in at least once.  But these Jersey Shore kids needed some serious water shoes to deal with the pebbly beach.  

Call us one trick ponies but when they have lignje na zaru (grilled squid) on a bed of  blitva on the menu we can't say no.  Together with the grilled vegs and black risotto we ate our weight in garlic that night.  

And we were offered this to sip afterwards-- a liqueur made from quince called dunjevača.  

Not as lighter-fluid tasting as ouzo and slightly sweet-- živjeli (cheers!)

Armed with swiss chard purchased at the daily outdoor market to make my own blitva.  We were lucky to find black olives without pits-- the way they just melted in your mouth has ruined black olives for us.  We will never find olives so delicious... but we will try.  

It took 34 switchbacks to get to the Cheese Bar that Igor recommended,  halfway up the mountain behind Kotor.  Final destination-- Kotor Fortress (San Giovani).  There are two ways to head up-- we found a gravel path easier on our knees than taking the steps.   The Cheese Bar sported laundry hanging behind us to add a level of kitsch we welcomed and the cats were numerous and friendly.  Couple that with the view and it was worth the stop.  We opted for limunada instead of cheese-- still too much climbing to do.  

Ultimately we never made it to the end of the hike-- at one point climbers had to scale a short but "is it even attached to anything??" ladder just leaning against the wall.  Just below, a craggy downhill fall to sure calamity.  We enjoy traipsing amongst the living.  

But the view from the Cheese Shop was a keeper.  

So that was our Montenegro experience.  Would we return?  As we mentioned earlier, if we needed a place to wait out Schengen, we would choose Tivat over Kotor.  Kotor is just too small to deal with all the cruise ships (up to 4 a day in the summer!) and the construction and corresponding debris take away from the beauty of the place.  

This post's Slice of Life (SOL) is unusual because it involves us this time!  We originally arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia and arranged to take a taxi to Kotor, Montenegro-- on travel days with 4 suitcases we pay what's needed to get us to our next "home".  Interestingly, drivers from both countries are not allowed to transport passengers over the border so when we arrived at the border crossing in our Croatian taxi,  passports were stamped and we entered the  "no man's land" area between the two countries.  On Google Maps it's literally called "Unnamed Road".  There, our Montenegrin taxi driver transferred our bags to his taxi and we headed to Kotor.  The same curious dance happened on the way back to Dubrovnik.  

Here's Don waiting with our Montenegrin driver for our Croatian driver at the most beautiful taxi stand in the world.  PS-- Note the height of our taxi driver.  He's considered on the short side in Montenegro.  

Case in point-- as seen in Tivat.  She is my height. 

We arrived in Split on April 28 and it's like coming "home" (we were last here in 2021).  There's our favorite bakery!  The best beach!  We had our first black risotto there!  So it's been fun to retrace our steps.  And the kids arrive next week-- we can't wait!

We hope all are well. Thanks for hanging with us on our Montenegrin reconnaissance trip! 

Don and Monica

  

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