Spring Break Day 2: Skader Lake National Park

We woke up super early to head into town and grab some breakfast before heading to a national park. Originally the plan was a baked good, coffee, and gone, But we ended up discovering a delicious restaurant called Venus. After looking at the menu I could not decide what I wanted. Luckily Arielle was willing to split the fried pancakes and the sweet pancake with me. It was just enough of both to fill me up and satisfy me. The fried pancake was deep fried and filled with cheese and ham, and covered with a yogurt sauce and some of the best pickles I’ve ever had. The sweet pancake was stuffed with a banana, chocolate and cream. Yummy! I also had a double macchiato to cure any form of a headache I had.

After breakfast I was ready for a beer, so we ran quickly to the supermarket to grab one before hopping back into the van and on the road to Shkadar Lake National Park. To say it was a rough drive would not do it justice. It was the worst of all the drives we have been on yet. There was a few points where I actually almost threw up. I just tried to close my eyes and pretend like it was a bad dream. The road had several random holes, looking a good half mile down to the ground, and also had plenty of rock slides for us to drive around. 

Skadar Lake National Park

No need to worry. Eventually we made it, and did a short hike up to a castle. The views were beautiful, and I quickly began to enjoy the mountain fresh air for my runny and stuffy nose. We arrived just in time to hop onto a boat tour filled with older German men and women. I spent the majority of the hour on the boat just trying to stay in the sun so that I could stay warm. We did get to see the “Alcatraz” of Montenegro while we were on it and I like to make believe that I saw otters. After the hour of cold and a little bit of complaining about when we’d be back, we were all ready for some more food, so we found a restaurant and grabbed some chicken, fries, and eel, along with a bottle of wine. We fed a few cats some of the bones from the eel, and before we knew it we had a whole group of cats by us waiting for more.

The jail in the middle of the lake

We were hoping to get in a short hike in the National park, but realized that sadly we would not have time if we wanted to get to our destination before night fall. Mostly we wanted to be sure we could see the coastline as we drove, and boy could we! It was beautiful. We stopped to get some pictures overlooking so incredible rocks in the middle of the sea. 

Our road trip stop.

Eventually, we arrived in Kotor only to realize that we had no idea how to find our apartment (Google maps sucks here since there aren’t really street signs to guide us.) Adam was nice enough to get out of the car and ask for directions at a market. The lady at the market called and the owner of the Apartment came and picked us up. The apartment was larger, with three bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, and kitchen. After a quick hour of settling in, we were in desperate need of a walk and some food. We set out with the goal of finding a place nearby. In the end we ended up walking about 8km to find a restaurant. After a dinner of pasta and more chicken we stopped at the supermarket to get some items for breakfast the next morning, including real bacon, eggs, and bread with Nutella.

The Bay during the sunset 

Arielle and myself were craving ice cream and thankfully found some. Unfortunately it was very hard ice cream and it was still quite cold outside. I ended up only finishing 2/3^rd of mine before I realized that I felt like complete crap(in terms of fullness.)

Once we ended up back home I went almost directly to bed because I was so exhausted from all the walking. 

Spring Break Day 1: Ulcinj

I just went skinny dipping in the fucking Adriatic sea….in March!!! Well, mostly it was diving in and then getting the fuck out of there as fast as I could. We went in the freezing cold, and at 10:00pm at night. What?!?! Okay, so we decided a long time ago that my life was insane.

Love You!

Today started spring break 2013! I had a rough day to say the least. It began with a slight cold and progressed into a kids running around during last hour of day. We had a random assembly, which threw off the schedule, a math test, and a bake sale. They were hopped up on sugar, generally crazy kids, who needed a break as much as I did. Then I got an email from Jakarta that made me very unsure of the job, and the schedule surrounding it. I left about 20 minutes after school, completely in the need of a break to remind myself of why I chose this career and lifestyle.

After arriving at home I spent a little while emailing my mom for support and encouragement followed by taking a few sips of whiskey, and shortly afterward I got a call saying it was time leave! Woohoo!!! Spring break 2013!

I drank a beer about 5 minutes after I got into the car. Like I said it was a rough day. 6 of us in an 8 passenger van seemed perfect. We had plenty of space to stretch our legs and still were close enough that we could all talk. Ahead of the trip we were told by our principal to drive safely and by a fellow co-worker who lived in Shokoder to drive safely (her city was on our way.) We had zero issues. The road was gorgeous, even in the pouring rain. We stopped in Shokder to get a quick coffee, and then got back on the road, hoping to making to Ulcinj in time for dinner. We also grabbed a beer for the road because, well, it was spring break.

Eventually we got to the boarder, and managed to purchase international insurance for a total of 30 Euro. After a rough and beautiful road through the southern part of Montenegro (seriously wish I could see it by day) we made it to Ulcinj. The roughest part was finding our hostel. We ended up stopping in a market to ask directions. The man we asked was so nice that he insisted on hopping in the van to take us to the hostel even though it was about 10 meters away. We checked in, and headed to a well deserved dinner at a local bar.

We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into when we asked for the mix of whatever, plus 5 Montenegrin beers. The beers were delicious (not to a Minnesotan standard) and the food was amazing. We had chicken, beef sticks(like American breakfast sausage) and a soup that tasted like beef stroganoff. I was very satisfied and ready to go when Robert and Scott suggested making a trip to see the beach.

This turned out to be a bit harder of a task than planned, due to either the high tide, or the heavy rain fall of the day, but eventually Ari found a way to get us across the small river using sticks and balancing poles. Once there, we finished off the beer we had purchased from the market, and shortly after me and Robert decided skinny dipping was a viable option.

We took off our shoes to test it, and though it was freezing we decided that we couldn’t pass up a chance to skinny dip in the Adriatic sea with the moonlight, so we went for it. And now I’m back at our hostel drinking gin and waters, getting ready for bed.

Great group for the trip.  

Have I mentioned that I love my life?