European Cooking Lessons

Ruins of Fortress of St. John at Kotor. This place felt like Helms Deep from the Lord of the Rings movies.






Local kids in Dubrovnik playing a form of soccer next to the fortress walls. If the ball went out of bounds the kids had to dive into the Adriatic to retrieve it. Not a bad place to grow up it seems.







Fortress Walls and Old Town Dubrovnik




This sign details the damage done to Old Dubrovnik by Serbian forces in 1991-1992. people here seem intent on making sure no one, including visitors, forgets about this conflict.





Harbour at Kotor, Montenegro




Church and Square in Stari Kotor (Old Town Kotor)



After 4 or 5 days in Montenegro, as well as a quick visit to Dubrovnik on the Croatian coast, we'll be heading to Bulgaria tomorrow. Chris and I decided to travel again and we're hitching a ride to Sofia with Petia and Igor, a Bulgarian couple we met at the hostel. From there I'll probably head to Varna on the Black Sea to catch a ferry to Odessa. For the moment, that's the plan.

Dubrovnik was quite a treat. I went there for a day on my own after deciding to leave for Bulgaria on Sunday. Dubrovnik is a beautiful old town surrounded by mammoth fortress walls and jutting out into the Adriatic. At first the super touristy nature of the place put me off but once I began tp wander away from the centre it became apparent that tourists didn't own the place. Laundry was hanging out to dry, couples were arguing and kids kicked soccer balls around - just a regular neighbourhood in ancient surroundings. Outside of the fortress walls locals hung out on the sea walls to swim and nap while kids played soccer that involved having to dive into the ocean every time the ball got away. Only a day and night there was not really enough.

After Dubrovnik I took the time to climb the fortress of St. John at Kotor. This was also really beautiful. The climb up to the fortress, (a Unesco heritage site), took an hour or more but the views and the peacful surroundings were more than worth it.

In any case the past few days in Montenegro have been fun. Although there was no political excitement Chris managed to tell a group of Montenegran Serbs that they would be responsible for the next conflict in the Balkans and on another occasion announced to a group of people that the only thing Europe had to offer America was cooking lessons. Always stirring the pot...