Croatia and Montenegro

I started writing this post while Ollie was sleeping on me on the airplane, but finished slowly and surely over the next five months. 

We arrived in Croatia and the weather seemed so dark, of course I was bummed because coming to the Mediterranean, I couldn't wait to escape the rain! First things first, (after getting organized in our rental car) was to find some lunch! We flew from Madrid so we could have a direct flight, however we woke up at 2am to start our trip. The boys did well but we were super drained that day. We still aren't quite sure it was worth it. 😀

 

Anyways we saw a restaurant on the side of the road and stopped. We went with a safe bet for the kids and got pizza and it was so yummy! It would have been the most beautiful view however the clouds blocked our visibility. Then we made our way to our Airbnb in lapad , which is a more residential area of Dubrovnik. The host was lovely and met us and helped bring our things into the house. The place had a designated parking spot which was a relief bc even outside the city center, parking was extremely sparse. Across the street from the apartment was a nice park and a cafe across the street. Joel napped and I took the kids to the park right away. We went to the market to buy some groceries. The studenac markets are everywhere, sometimes less than 400 meters from another one. Anyways this particular one was tiny and completely packed with just one checkout person. 

The next morning was ollie's second birthday! We drove to a bigger ( or what we thought would be bigger) supermarket. It was bigger, but still small compared to any American or even Portuguese one. We got some birthday donuts for Ollie & dang happy birthday again with a candle to blow out from YouTube. 😅. Then explored more around our neighborhood and walked down by the Marina to check out the cruise ships and other boats. It was raining but ever so lightly. I wouldn't mind the rain as much if it was like that at home. We walked a few KMs and never felt wet and stepped in big puddles. After a nap and lunch time the sun came out! We headed to do a little hike in babin kuk. While we were walking there, Joel and I thought about geocaching! We downloaded the app again ( it's been forever since we've cached). We found out that the place we were trying to reach had a cache! It would be Luke's first one however we couldn't find it! 🙈  He was completely bummed but we said we would go look for other ones the next day. 

 

The next morning was so beautiful and sunny! We headed to the local beach. They had a boardwalk going around to connect to the same trail by our Airbnb , passing  through  beautiful coves some stairs down to hop in for a swim. I would have loved to jump in that water, but it was that day , I realized I forgot my own swimsuit even after packing swimming caps ( which we should never need, )& even  pool floaties for the kids and I forgot mine. That's mom life for you. That morning, Luke found his first cache successfully! It was so fun to see how excited he was. That afternoon we checked out the old town. We drove around a few times to try and find where to park. I read it was impossible but we easily find a spot in a parking garage. I think we paid 6€ for 3 hours there. Not terrible. The boys loved walking around the old city and climbing around, chasing pigeons, saying hi to people. Of course we had to try some gelato to make sure it was good. I ordered sour apple and it was so yummy. 

The next morning, it was a mission to find mommy a swimsuit and head to the ferry to mljet island for our next accommodation. 

Driving in Croatia and Montenegro we found to be very annoying, (Or I think that’s the best word). Outside of Dubrovnik, it was just one lane roads mostly, once in a while a passing lane. It's often very scary to see the locals pass one another, often when it's forbidden to do so. Fuel was quite a bit cheaper than in Portugal. It was around 1.38/l and right now in Portugal we are paying around 1.76.  Speaking of fuel, the rental car was given to us with ¾ a tank and supposed to be returned like that. 🤔 We drove quite a ways before that arrow moved anywhere. I'm sure we gave more gas than we got but it's impossible to figure out where ¾ tank will be. 🤣 Especially coming straight from Montenegro. 

 

The ferry was beautiful. There was a play space for the kids that kept them entertained the whole journey. We had to drag them away from there to get off the ferry! Our Airbnb was just a short drive away and had a jacuzzi with the most amazing view on our patio. We enjoyed eating at the restaurant in our village and ordered squid and a meat plate to share.  It came with an intensely seasoned cabbage salad.. it tasted like it was just wine but I have no idea! Next door to the restaurant was a place packaging up fish in boxes with ice to sell. The boys loved to watch that while waiting for our food to come. 

Speaking of waiting for food, I was just in love with the availability of eating  outside throughout our trip. In Dubrovnik we also only ate on our terrace at the Airbnb. I love that because it's just so much less stressful and easy to clean! In restaurants it's so nice because you don't feel like you are disturbing other people and the kids are too loud when they are outside. Plus there is so much for them to see and talk about , and play I spy! 

I suppose the outdoor dining is because of the weather and smoking culture. They need to have a place outside. Unfortunately smokers were everywhere and it didn't matter the gender or age, people just sitting for long periods of time at a cafe, lighting up one after the next. Even in the airport, it smelled like someone was smoking in the bathroom. According to wikipedia, Croatia has the highest rate of smokers in the EU. 

Our Airbnb host came to meet us and told us that those clouds in the distance wouldn’t come to us over here on the island! So after relaxing in the hot tub, we decided we would drive around the island a little bit and look for some more geocaches, as Luke had kinda become hooked after the first few. Anyways just as we arrived to the location of the cache, on a quiet road  a huge lightning strike seems to happen

The next day on mijet we did a beautiful hike down to Odysseus cave. Well, I was the only one to get to the bottom to see the cave but it was so pretty on the way down. Luke did such a great job. Once the boys got to the snack spot, I went down to see. The water was so pretty but there were tons of jellyfish floating around. There was a French family with teenage kids considering diving in and swimming through the cave.  Hiking up was a bit hot, luckily Ollie zonked out int he carrier for a nap but Luke did tough it out until almost the end, then he did complain a bit but overall he did so well. It wasn’t easy and the sun was so strong. It was pizza by the sea for lunch and then chicken nuggets and salad for dinner at the Airbnb.

 

 

The next day we made our way to Montenegro. The border crossing was very easy, they asked for our IDs, checked them and off we went. I think the crossing took us about five minutes. Now it was time to rest up and stay in an all inclusive resort for a few days. Our room was amazing, so spacious with tons of storage everywhere. A bunk bed and bathroom and then a queen bed with another bathroom and a lovely veranda where we could watch the cruise ships sail into Kotor Bay. The town itself didn’t have much and the beach wasn’t very swimmable but we just enjoyed staying put in the resort. I think we went swimming twice a day, every day. Then went on some walks. Luke joined the Molky tournament playing against a bunch of French adults and they told him he came in third place out of 10 people! He was very shy about knowing how to play but was so proud and several times he got the exact thing he wanted to knock over. The food was good, and Ollie loved to watch the guys making pizza! He never wanted to leave. 

 

Some things we found interesting in Montenegro;  none of the restaurants we went to, had sprite or a similar drink. We did see a tiny selection in the supermarket but nothing compared to the selection of other drinks.  We were oftentimes surprised at places being cash only, but only being told when it was time to pay. Montenegro uses the Euro but is not in the Eurozone, therefore our credit cards from Portugal charged a little fee each time we used it. On the way back to Croatia we drove through a construction zone and were a bit scared as you could literally just drive into the big hole they were digging on the side of the road. We found that the people were not nearly as friendly and warm as in Croatia. One grocery store checkout lady got annoyed at Joel when he asked if she could ask the question again in English. Eventually we figured out it was to ask if he wanted a bag. They had a huge selection of pretzels in the store! Like whoa! I couldn’t decide which ones to get. :P They have a red pepper sauce called Ajvar which they served alongside their famous meatballs (cevapi ). That was so tasty and probably one of my favorite things about the cuisine. 

Durmitor National Park was so cool and the drive to get there as well! However the traffic completely stopped while we were in one of the needle turns climbing up the mountains. We had no idea what happened or how long we might be parked on the side of the road. Luckily, Ollie stayed asleept for a good chunk of the time we were waiting and the car was a nice temperature for him to be comfy without being on. Joel went walking along to see if he could see anything but couldn’t see the end of the traffic without going too far from us. When we arrived at the accommodation we found out that there was some sort of a protest about the government therefore they close a whole town during certain hours and no one can pass through! Luckily we only were waiting an hour ish, but I cannot imagine if we had to be waiting there much longer, how the boys would have coped. Our accommodation was called Fairy Tale Bungalows and they were the cutest super V shaped roofs and tiny. We all slept up on the top, with mattresses on the ground.  The next morning we went on a hike through the national park and the boys were such good little hikers. We went to Black Lake, which we could hike to directly from the road behind our bungalow. We found a nice playground that the boys enjoyed but part of the hike was a little bit chilly! I didn’t expect it to be so cold by the lake as the afternoon before it was a nice temp outside and sunny. The mountains still had their snow on the very top and it was so peaceful and serene. There were very few visitors around that side of the lake.  We went into town in the afternoon and had some more pizza.  The town reminded me a lot of Durango, Colorado. It was small and quaint, and you could walk up and down the entire main street. All of the bungalows/ chalets had the super V pointed roofs and were so cute. 

 

Then we headed to our last stop, which was near Petrovac. I booked this accommodation especially for the kids' amenities. It had a playground, a huge playroom and a pool. However the location was a bit strange. The day we arrived the kids playroom was a complete disaster! Like toys and stuff everywhere but a big group of kids maybe around 7-12 year olds who were there watching people play minecraft on youtube. I’m not quite sure where they were from but maybe Russia, Ukraine or Serbia. It seemed like many of them were staying there long term. The boys could have been entertained with all the toys, playgrounds, and cars to drive around the property for many days! 

We visited the beach which was unfortunately not a sight you would imagine being on the Mediterranean, but it wasn’t developed at all and unfortunately seemed to have stinky stream water flowing right into the sea, and lots of garbage scattered. I’m wondering what it might be like during summer, maybe it just looks abandoned in the off season? The hotel there had a pool with a glass cover so it was just warm enough to go for a swim. It was nice because there are a bunch of families living there, therefore there were tons of toys scattered about that we could borrow. 

 

 

Driving to Kotor bay was again slow and required a lot of patience, but at some point we entered a construction zone. This construction zone had no barriers, therefore if you wanted to drive through it, you could. We didn't, however there were some motorcycles doing it, literally driving alongside machinery making huge holes in the ground. 

 We were quite bummed in Kotor Bay as the magic of the place just seems completely lost as it’s filled with cruise ship passengers following their guides. It also didn’t help that it was completely pouring down rain yet was completely sunny the whole rest of our drive. I later learned that it is the southernmost fjord in the Northern Hemisphere which is why Joel and I thought it looked so much like the fjords of New Zealand. The lovely man working in the parking garage in kotor Bay had fancy umbrellas to lend us as we just left to eat a little lunch in the shopping mall and then walked through the old town quickly and found our last geocache of the trip.   Driving back around the bay was very slow, but almost immediately after we passed Kotor Bay, the rain stopped! We crossed the border back into sunny Croatia and hit up our favorite swim spot/ park one last time because our time in Kotor was shorter than expected because of the rain. We enjoyed a little more time at the park and checking that beautiful beach, one last time. 

 

 

Overall, it was a fantastic trip! The boys behaved so well, both of them enjoyed some car naps. I would definitely love to return to Croatia and maybe just pick one or two places, or better yet, go on a small sailboat and explore more of the islands with a bicycle! I found the people in Croatia so warm and friendly and helpful. They spoke excellent English. I loved the fact that all of the parks had places to sit and there was always a cafe right next to each park. Also, how the parks filled up with families as the afternoon went on. The moms seemed to have stopped in the market on their way to the park and stocked up on snacks and fruits to share with everyone. I loved that. Lots of restaurants, even the ferry, had toys and spaces for kids to play. Portugal is very child friendly but I felt like there it was next level. 

We had planned to enjoy a day in Madrid and drive back to Portugal while the kiddos were sleeping at night, but the forecast was for a day full of rain. We played at the park by our hotel and then headed home. The kiddos took a super long nap and did a great job on the five hour drive. While it was nice to have a direct flight, we haven't decided if the drive to Madrid was worth it or not.