Croatia Day Three ((That's an actual country?))

Montenegro. I have never heard of this place until just a few days ago as we were docking in Croatia. I had absolutely no idea that it was its own country. I thought it was a city in Croatia, but nope, apparently it even has its own language. Montenegran, or something like that.

On a whim, ten of us rented a van (yes, a VAN), and had the driver take us two hours into the country of Montenegro. I thought island hopping was fun, but country hopping is way cooler. When we’re docked in a country, and we leave that country with our passports and bottles of water…now that’s pretty sweet, especially when you didn’t know that the particular country that you are traveling to existed.

None of us had any expectations, and the country itself ended up looking a lot like Croatia, with the red rooftops and beachside cliffs. It was gorgeous. We ate lunch in the small city of Kotor Bay (I ate a roast beef sandwich topped with potato salad and pesto mayonnaise. It was incredibly yummy.) and then we made our way to Budva (home of the Budvians) where we spent the rest of our afternoon and evening. We toured around the city walls, the fortress, the beaches.

After walking, and walking, and walking some more, Paul suggested that we sit down at a bar and have a drink. By that point, I wasn’t going to say no. Not that I wanted a drink, but a seat would have been amazing. We passed a place when we first arrived to Budva that had egg shaped seats that hung from the ceiling. I thought the place looked pretty chill, so we found it again and walked on in.
…my first thoughts as we made our way past brightly colored couches, tiki torches, and mini-huts were, “Wow. This is really trippy.” We found a quiet spot in a corner of the place, and I seated myself into a beanbag. A beanbag. The entire place was outside, and bugs crawled around our legs and buzzed around our ears. A woman with her stomach showing and a high pitched voice asked us what we would like to drink. After checking out the cocktail menu, I decided on a Long Island Iced Tea. I don’t know what I must have been thinking. There was no tea in that drink…who knew?

That was when I saw the big hookah sitting on a table. I laughed out loud. Of course. It all made sense. The beanbags, and huts, and weird masks adorning the walls….we were in a hookah bar! It was hilarious to me that I was sitting in a hookah bar, sipping my not-so-yummy Long Island Iced freakin’ Tea in a country I had no knowledge of prior to Croatia embarkation. Or maybe it was hilarious because I was feeling that drink in the pit of my stomach.

We paid our lovely van driver in Kuna and Euros and Dollars and made our way back to the ship after one very long drive back into Croatia. “You are now leaving Montenegro. Don’t forget to tell your friends back home that this place exists. Maybe even highlight us on your world map. Please come again!”

A.