One of our audits took us to Podgorica, Montenegro. Because it is so far away, we had to take a short airplane ride. We flew out of Ljubljana on the morning of February 6th. Also traveling on this flight was the Zagreb basketball team, who had a game the next day in Podgorica. It was a small airplane and most of them had to nearly bend double to get through the doors.
After a short peaceful flight, the plane began its descent into a little green valley, tucked between steep sharp mountain ranges. We were surprised how green it was for February, but they had been having lots of rain this winter. The senior couple there, the Cary's from Denver, Colorado, picked us up at the airport, took us to the hotel and then treated us to a wonderful visit to their city.
We were impressed by the amount of building going on in the city, with large cranes working in nearly every part of the valley. The Church branch was tucked away in an older part of the city, but the inside was beautifully finished. It had been a bank at one time, so the floors were of marble and a large winding staircase lead you to the meeting rooms upstairs. We did the audit in record time, and even had time to do a little familysearch training before we left for dinner.
First thing the next day the Cary's picked us up to show us the beauty of Montenegro, with a car trip to Kotor, Budva, and Perast, all cities along the coastline.
Kotor, we had visited shortly after our senior missionary conference last fall, so we drove through and ended at the beautiful seacoast city of Perast.
Perast is a very old city and has changed ownership many times through the centuries. It boasts 240 days of sunshine a year, making it a perfect location for vacationing and relaxation by locals and tourists. However, the day we were there, it was raining, windy and pretty cold. In the bay there are two small islands. One is called St. George and the other Our Lady of the Rocks, each one has a picturesque chapel resting on it. The Lady of the Rocks is an artificially-built island, built on a rock after two Venetian sailors from Perast found a picture of the Virgin Mary on it in 1452. The island chapels were closed the day we visited so there were no boats for hire to take us to the islands.
Finding only a small grocery store where we could purchase a loaf of bread and a hunk of cheese, we sat in the car and had lunch. Afterwards we began our return trip, but stopped off in Budva to walk along the beach.
It was stormy and the ocean was angry. The usually quiet, peaceful waves had turned into rolling, crashing, black tumultuous waves pounding the shore. Walking along the beach, we found hundreds of the most colorful rocks; reds, greens, pinks, white, all smooth from years of rolling along the ocean floor. Chris even found a coin on the beach. We were hoping it was a Roman coin but turned out to be a Serbian dinar...and a small value at that, but to find a coin in all that sand, we felt very lucky indeed!
The next morning before heading to the airport, we took a quick side trip to the Centinje Orthodox Monastery (built in 1484) in the mountains outside of town, where according to the monastery personnel, their blessed relics, which are on display every morning, for the penitent to pray too, include a piece of wood from Christ's cross and a portion of the hand of John the Baptist. We were not there at the correct time to view and participate, so we will have to take their word for it.
One more stop brought us to the Podgorica Niagara Falls. Traveling down a small one lane road bordered by a pasture, old houses and a fence along a windy river, we dropped down into the river bottom where the limestone had been worn away into a Niagara Falls-like view.
An authentic traditional restaurant next to the falls finished out our sightseeing with a "local's special" luncheon. What a wonderful place to visit with much more to offer than we had anticipated.
