Old Town Markets
I love a good food market. I love the smell, the colours and the lovely way they bring a whole community together whether it is daily, weekly or monthly. The food markets in Kotor are located just in front of the entrance to the Old Town and were fabulous and did not disappoint.
I managed to ‘lose’ Scott and the kids for a bit and got to have a really good look around. I have a personal facination with the price of local produce. I am not sure where it came from but I have always been really interested in the economics behind locally producing and selling your own food. Everywhere I go it is different and it never ceases to amaze me how different items fetch such contrasting prices in neighbouring countries. To give you an example, when we were in Bosnia we visited a few local markets and bought a kilo of figures for around 1.50Euro. Here in Montenegro, less than 100km away they were 4.00Euro, despite that the fig tree lined roads still existed. Montenegro has been called the Monaco of the Adriatic and I was starting to see why.
I had a good look at the fruit and veges and bought a whole lot of berrys and figs for us to eat later on when we were out on the river. Sadly, despite looking fresh and plump, most of my figs were rotten on the inside and made a lovely sweet gift for the local fish. The berries on the other hand were delicious and the boys happily picked away.
There were many different types of locally dried mushrooms which didn’t smell that appetising. We were cooking a little bit in our lovely apartment, however I decided to pass on these and moved on over the the fantastic fish monger.
The fish monger was fabulous, the only one who didn’t mind me taking a photo and to watch him fillet a fish was impressive. My absolute favourite meal in the Adriatic was the grilled calamari which we found everywhere. It was so good and very healthy. I also liked that you could tell all the fish in the market had arrived that morning and was all sold by early afternoon. The markets run daily and I think they start around 9am (I didn’t get there that early) and were winding up just after lunch.
The next area was the cured meat and cheese section. We met a lovely lady who let us try her hand made cheese and proceeded to give us massive chunks to ‘taste’. It was very nice and tasted a little bit like feta crossed with ricotta. The harder cheeses were a hit with the kids and I have never been one to turn down a piece of prosciutto! We bought cheese for the boat ride and kept going
We found the wine in Montenegro to be better than it’s Bosnian and Albanian neighbours (wouldn’t have taken much) and we managed to find a local brand that sold a lovely table wine at a great price. Our biggest problem was that we couldn’t understand the language and resorted to taking a photo of the bottle so we could ‘find’ it again when were in a supermarket! Something we found quite useful in Eastern Europe as the Alphabet was often different and we couldn’t even remember the names of something things!
Miki’s Boat Tour
Across the road from the Markets and Old town is a large docking jetty, filled with massive boats and cruise ships. Amongst them we found our tour boat. We rolled up with bags of fruit and cheese ready for a beautiful afternoon on the bay. It was fabulous! We were the only people on the tour with kids but it was very safe and calm on the bay so I felt comfortable taking them on board.
The tour goes for about 3 hours and slowly drives around the bay and out to a little island. I went up the front of the boat with all the ‘young kids’ (20 year olds) and Tom followed me. I let him sit in my lap and hang his feet of the side (there was a pole between his legs so he couldn’t fall) and I hope that the magical sound of him squealing with delight every time the cool water sprayed up on our feet will hopefully stay with me forever. He LOVED it! He loved the feeling of gliding along and feeling the spray on his legs and loved feeling free. This was one of those beautiful bonding moments where I felt like out travels were really making a different to our children’s lives.
I also took Milo up the front, however he was a little more reserved (an emotion I wish he would savour for 6am!) and while he enjoyed it, preferred to sit with Scott down in the main part of the boat and eat strawberries.
The views were amazing. One magnificent scene after another. The feeling of flying along through the water and wind was euphoric. I loved it! At this point I started to think that perhaps I could be a boat person after all (I get terribly sea sick) and then I remembered we were in a protected bay with no wind or waves and then thought perhaps we should stick to walking and driving.
Our first stop was out to a little island called ‘Our Lady of the Rocks’ in the middle of the Bay. The island is most famous for the beautiful church and museum. We had a great time wandering around and taking photos. The kids loved climbing all over the old buildings and walls and Tom was fascinated to come across two artists painting the church on the side of the jetty. Scott and I really enjoyed walking around the tiny island and learning about it’s history.
According to legend, the islet was made over the centuries by local seamen who kept an ancient oath after finding the icon of Madonna and Child on the rock in the sea on July 22, 1452. Upon returning from each successful voyage, they laid a rock in the Bay. Over time, the islet gradually emerged from the sea. The custom of throwing rocks into the sea is alive even nowadays. Every year on the sunset of July 22, an event called fašinada in the local dialect, when local residents take their boats and throw rocks into the sea, widening the surface of the island, takes place. Wikipedia
The boys loved all the Old buildings throughout Europe. Tom, particularly likes ruins and anything that he can touch and walk through. Inside the 17th-century church on the island it was decorated with intricate painted walls and ceilings, he really loved looking around and taking in the atmosphere of this very quiet, old and scared space.
There is nothing quite like eating an icecream while riding a cannon! My boys both love anything gun/war related and this low (aka easy to climb on) Cannon was a bit of a bonus! Towards the end of our time out there it started to rain so we hoped back on the boat.
A short ride across to the shore took us to our second stop, at the quaint and very photogenic Venetian-style village of Perast. Here we had plenty of time to take some more photos, and also for a short walk along the bay before hopping back on the boat for the trip back to Kotor.
There were a few people trying to sell hand made lace table cloths as well as another person who thought his ‘fish’ in a bottle might make a nice souvenir!
We arrived back into town just in time for the heavens to open and quickly headed back to our apartment. We had a great time out on the bay and I have decided that we need to include more boat travel in our plans, especially when it is on flat, calm water!
Kotor Bay from Villa San Marco
Kotor Bay at night
