Montenegro was an unexpected surprise. I was looking forward to going eventually, in the future. It wasn’t on the plan for this particular trip. But my friend, SC (see post on Dubrovnik), said how awesome it was and she had some work to do there so we made a day trip.

I was surprised to learn that they use the Euro, but they are not part of the European Union. It is the only country to do so. Before the Euro they had a deal to use German money, but when Germany moved to the Euro….so did Montenegro. That made life really easy for me as I still had left over Euros and didn’t need to go to the ATM aka I won’t get ATM withdrawal fees.

We drove around and took a ferry. The views were beautiful! We spent some time in Kotor. An old city with city walls and a fortress on a mountain to prevent Turkish invaders back in the day. While SC was working, I went up to the fortress and to walk along the wall.

There was a sign that said part of the wall was renovated by the donations of the United States people. The higher one climbs, there were more signs saying climb at your own risk or risky area. The view of the city was great as well.

The river with the mountains juxtaposed with the old town buildings was splendid.

We stopped at a very small town called something like Presat. There are two islands near it. One is man-made and has a legend connected to it. Apparently, two sailors found a religious figure there years ago and promised to build a church. They also threw rocks into the river around the figure. So now it is tradition to throw rocks into the sea on a day in July. There is also a house next to the church that when people or neighbors don’t get along, they are forced to live in that house until they work it out.

“Really? That’s real?” I asked SC. She nodded,

“Yup. They really do that.”

I guess if you live in a small community like this…

We finally got a late lunch in another town. We had some traditional food, which was delicious! There was so much! We ordered a full meal, but the half would have been perfect.

It was a lovely day in Montenegro and I can’t wait to go back to fully explore the country further!