Day 13: Kotor and a crazy night

What a great day for us... A new country discovered and witnessing sporting history first hand in Croatia.

To avoid border issues, we took off early this morning, skipping breakfast and heading south.   Forty minutes after leaving, we were at the border of Montenegro - the former partner country to Serbia, turned independent by a slim margin in 2006.  Our target city was Kotor and the surrounding Bay of Kotor.

Montenegro is quite small (close to 650,000) and it’s capital (Podgorica) is located along the coast at the south end of the country.  Kotor is the biggest tourist destination,  both for it’s picturesque and well preserved Stari Grad (“old town”) and for the drive and towns dotting the huge bay.

The bay is a fairly unique geographic feature - it’s neck is really narrow, making it easily defensible, and its waters are very deep, making it ideal for hiding a large navy.   It’s also surrounded by mountains which makes a land attack virtually impossible.

After a quick border crossing, we reached the bay by about 845 after just over an hour of driving.  The bay is beautiful.  I had my eye on the town of Perast, half way around the smooth as glass bay, for breakfast.  Perast is a small coastal town that is pedestrian only, so we gave a tout two euros and walked into the town in search of breakfast.   The setting in Perast is fantastic, with mountains rising steeply on one side, the bay on the other and two small islands with beautiful little churches built on them a half kilometre off shore.

We had breakfast right on the water, then strolled the waterfront for twenty minutes, taking in the nice little town.

Back on the road, we continued around the bay, soon  arriving in Kotor.   Though it was starting to get busy with tours and the denizens of a cruise ship parked meters from the old town, parking was relatively easy.   We entered the town from a sneaky entrance on the south side, and wandered.  And wandered!

The walled city is like a little Dubrovnik, though with narrower streets, more squares, and even if possible, more of a medieval feel than its more popular cousin in Croatia.   The girls stopped in a couple of shops, while I was drawn down an alley by the sounds of live music.   When I rounded the corner, I saw Sonja (I learned her name later) and the Mocking Birds (their band name).  Sonja was a violinist who stood and swayed and bucked to the rhythm of her playing, eyes often closed with a huge smile.   There was an accordion player who was quirky but quite good, and a man on a Peruvian drum (I also found this out later).   When I came upon them they were playing  Desposito (the popular Spanish pop song that features our very own Justin Bieber) and I could tell right away they were something special.

The crowds ebbed and flowed while I watched alone.   Some dropped change after listening, some took selfies and kept walking... I just listened.  Eventually the girls came and we sat and watched and listened.   The drummer came over to chat after a while and I found out they’d been playing together for 8 years, and that Sonja also played with the National Symphony of Montenegro.  The accordion player was a professor of music and the drummer was studying music at university.

We left after almost an hour, dropping 20 Euros in their pile of bills and coins.   So lucky.  We all agreed it was one of the highlights of the trip.   I got Sonja’s email and she promised to send links to download their music (she offered a CD but we don’t have one of those newfangled things!).  

We continued to wander and shop, eventually settling on a restaurant in one of the squares.   It was close to two when we noticed we were starting to melt, so we headed out.

Instead of driving around the bay again, we drove straight to the pinch point of the Bay of Kotor and were lucky enough to catch the car ferry right before it departed for the five minute ride across.

The drive back was going very well, and when we got to the outgoing customs checkpoint and were behind just one car I thought to myself “sweet!!!  However that was short lived - the two males from Albania in the car in front of us were getting the third degree.  After 15 minutes and many visits from different people examining their papers, the customs officers eventually moved them forward to park and get grilled even further.

The drive back into Dubrovnik offered some stunning views of the coast and the Stari Grad, but it was the pool that we had our eyes set on.   Two minutes after parking, we were sharing the pool with Brian, Stephen, Sammy and Jordan.   It looked like they’d had a relaxing day by the pool.

The boys had secured a babysitter recommendation from the agent who’d arranged the house for us, so tonight the 10 or us headed down to the old town at around 6 to look for a spot to watch the big...no... huge game.   Melly, as she seems to always do, lucked out and got us 10 chairs right in front of a TV at a patio bar on the Stradum.

We went out in pairs to grab food so we didn’t give up our seats.   I went with Robin, and we also managed to procure some matching Croatia football jerseys!

The game was exciting and was made even sweeter by the fact that a family of brits was sitting right behind us who were very irritating.   England went up a goal at the five minute mark and it wasn’t until half way through the 2nd half before Croatia started to really dominate, scoring to tie and threatening to go ahead.   They seemed to be in much better shape and when overtime started, it seemed inevitable (to us!) that Croatia would win.

When they scored the go ahead goal, the place went nuts.   Suddenly shutters opened above us and an older woman began clanging two pots together.   The square, just down from us that had packed stands and a huge TV screen, went nuts.

Ten minutes later, overtime expired and Croatia had done the unthinkable - earning the right to play France in the World Cup final on Sunday.   Flares and fireworks erupted, the clanging woman emerged again from her shuttered window.   The people-watching factor exploded.   I’ve rarely felt such ebullient, positive energy from such a big crowd.   We stood, cheering, and watched as the crowds started surging outside the walls.   We followed, heading out and back up the street to our oasis.   The cars, buses, taxis - every possible vehicle - had people with flags, jerseys, banners and team clothing hanging out of them, beeping horns the whole way - so much fun.  We passed a group of teens with a French flag who managed not to get run down.   

What a night!   It’s a little too bad that we will be in Vienna for the final game, but that really sounds like a first world problem.   Way to go team Croatia!