Kotor, Montenegro Day 2

Kotor, Montenegro Day 2

It was a great day to get a little sleep. We needed it from the pile up of hectic days. We got breakfast and came back to the hostel. This is where our friend Boyana joins in. She is the hostel attendant and has the most interesting sense of humor. We were in search of the entrance to the fortress wall. Yes, it was hot outside and we were not getting the earliest of a start, but when we asked Boyana about the people hiking the steep steps, she replied, "they are idiot!". OK, Boyana but we want to go to the top as well and don't care about it being hot outside. She then says again similarly, "Then you are Idiot too!" I just agreed and she then told us where to go. We had some more to take care of with her for reservations and this short dry humor persisted, so we just played her game. At this point, I did not know her name and we continued to go back and forth. Her accent only added to the humor, and it seemed that she was using it as a tool for her being funny. She never cracked a smile and most people would probably just think that she was rude and should not be operating the front desk. We were glad that she helped us with all of our matters and each time we visited her, we played her little game. It only got better as the night went on.

We went ahead as idiots do, and went up the fortress walls in the grueling heat. This is what has protected the city of Kotor for so long, and now it is mostly ruins. We climbed and climbed taking breaks in the few shady places and reapplied sunscreen and drank more water. The higher we went, the views kept getting better and better. We could see all the way down the fjord and up to the tallest mountains around us. Perched throughout the walls, there were gun cut outs through which a shooter could easily take out his opponent. Right off the walls were sheer cliffs and crumbling rock. When we got to the top, the breeze made it comfortable in a window pass through. The descent was much quicker and we got down to the bottom really needing a water and food. Perfect timing. So, that's what we did and it was nice to cool off in our hostel making jokes once again with Boyana. We brought her some food since she said that her work day was super long and she did not have a break. This happened twice. Once for snack chips, and again for some of our left over breakfast. She was super excited each time.

The dinner was a little crazy. We ate once again at the hostel's recommendation. You pay at the desk and then head over with a voucher. Once seated, you just give the voucher to the waiter and you get salad, soup, and the main dinner. Previously, the night before, when we were done, I left a few Euros on the table for a tip. We did get water, but I thought it was included. So, even if the water was charged for, the tip would look like we were paying for the water. Sounds good, right? OK, this was the second night, and we were ready to leave a few more Euros on the table to cover the water or a tip. We we not sure. With money on the table, we were confronted upon leaving by the waiter and the hostess. They were both angry as I was going to give him another few Euros and he said, this time being able to suddenly speak English, "you owe 4 for water tonight, and you did not pay last night", arggggghhh! I said, since we left money on the table last night and we were leaving more tonight. I said, "4 for water tonight, for real!" I told him that was ridiculous for water and we were leaving. Surly, when you sit down with this hostel meal ticket in hand, and you order something else, it should me mentioned that you will have to pay. Oh well. Now it gets funny. We went back to the hostel, hopefully having an ice cream in hand for Boyana, which we did not, and I told her about our situation. She freaked out and ran to the restaurant angry. She just told us to wait and she would take care of things. I thought surly we would have to owe money, but when we saw she had 5 Euros in hand, I was a little amazed. Boyana had come through in full glory. That set the tone for the rest of the evening. The tour that was out all day from the hostel returned with crazy fun people and I ran out to another place, not the same restaurant, to get ice cream for Boyana.

Andrew found some English friends to actively discuss politics which lasted the entire evening into the morning at 4 am. That has been the situation with most of the Brits. All they want to do is bash America and tell you that their national system is the one and only way to go. This leads to some very heated conversations at times. Also, coming out of the mouths of rich, over privileged, young, idealistic college kids, you have to just sit back and laugh. I don't even respond, but Andrew being a history buff, tears them up. I really wish that he would enter a blog entry just on this matter. It would be hilarious.

The rest of the night I was a little concerned for him being out with these angry people alone. As the hours went by, I had enough waiting in the room and I went down to the lobby. Boyana was furious since they were there too late and kicked them out. The wonderful political conversation continued in our lobby dragging on as people were trying to sleep.

All in all, I got at best 2 hours of sleep and we had to catch an early bus to Dubrovnik the next morning. Hopefully we will make it.