With a tear in our eyes, we say goodbye to Montenegro!:-(

Sadly, today we say goodbye to Montenegro, our home since June 7 when we arrived by ferry.  We stayed mostly in Budva, reportedly a party town.  While the bars blared music late into the night, the town is so much more- great food, great beaches, great vistas, great walking town.  But it was the people we met that endeared this town into our hearts for the rest of our lives!  At our hotel, Nemanja, Ksinja, Natasa and Fritto are forever our friends.  Outside the hotel we met and be-friended Luka and his girl-friend Liza- truly the future of Montenegro!  In meeting them, we learned so much about this part of the world.  More than we imagined we could ever learn!  What we envisioned as a beach vacation mushroomed into an understanding of the great and forgiving nature of a people that were at war not so long ago.  While so far we have learned about Serbs and Montenegrans, soon we go to Croatia and Bosnia-Herzogovinia for perhaps a further understanding.  I suspect we will find the same kind hearts there as we have here!  Also great was the meeting of so many young people from around the world that stayed at our hotel: Russians, Germans, Brits, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Sweden, Croatia, Serbia, Switzerland and Spain- the human race truly has a great future! All hard working and hard-studying, the people we met give us great hope!

 Me at Jaz (pronounced Yazzzz) beach

 Ploce (pronounced Polcha with long o) beach

 Rich steadying the paddle boat we took out to the two islands in the bay of the town of Petrovac (pronounced Petrovoch)  Cute little town!

 The islands in Petrovac bay.  The island on the right has a little chapel on top!  We docked the boat- more like held it in place so it didn't smash against the rocks- and we took turns climbing up and ringing the bell.

 the main square of Petrovac

 a water hover device!  cool!  we saw this in Petrovac

We took a side trip to Ostrog and Cetenje in Montenegro.  Below are some photos- it was raining heavily that day, so bad photos, but= amazing!  Here is the monestary of St. Basil in Ostrog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrog_monastery).  Reportedly it has a piece of the original cross!!!

 The monestary is built into a cliff!  Quite a ride up switchbacks to get up there!

 Me entering the monestary

We also went to the town and monestary of Cetenje (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetinje), the spiritual center of Montenegro.  This city was the capital for many years and is quite cute!  It had some beautiful old embassy buildings that are re-purposed.  It also has a monestary that has the left had of St. Peter (yes, you can see it!) and 3 pieces of the orginal cross.

 Me saying good bye

Rich saying good bye

Rich at the full moon here in Budva!