Something very special happened on Monday, it was my birthday! It was an amazing week of fun and celebration in Montenegro. We stayed in Perast, an old stone fishing village. After my chocolate covered birthday croissant we visited the little island in the bay. It is a manmade island built on top of hundreds of ocean ships and rocks. We toured the beautiful church and museum in honor of the Blessed Mary. Later in the day we went on a magical sunset boat ride through the bay and into Porto Montenegro. The water was so still it’s almost like a lake, but it is FREEZING!

On Monday we climbed up the old walls to the top of Kotor, a nearby town and looked down upon the stunning city. We visited Sveti Stefan which is the quintessential picture of Montenegro.  It was once a little fishing village but is now a five star resort where we had a wonderful lunch on the cliffs gazing at the sparkling ocean. Later we had an awesome swim in the Adriatic.

A few days later we saw six incredible bottle nose dolphins trained by the US Navy to search for sea mines and other explosives left over from the wars of Montenegro’s past. We were there for the last day of their mission and saw the dolphins put on a show. They did all kinds of tricks like playing catch, jumping through hoops, and sliding onto the boat.

In the next village we saw mosaics that dated back to 230 B.C. They were very detailed, one even had Hypnos the Greek God of dreams who watched over them while they slept and controlled their dreams.

During the week I became friends with a caramel colored stray kitten that I named Snuggles.  On our last day there was another huge storm. The rain was pouring and when we were walking back home after dinner there was a gust of wind that I thought was going to blow us away.  I felt like Dorothy in Wizard of Oz during the tornado. “Toto I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” Montenegro and my birthday were amazing!