Day before yesterday we had a bus tour that extended down to Kotor in Montenegro. We had to be at the bus station down the steep hill from our hotel at 7:10 am, which is a might early for us old retired folks. I hobbled through the smoke down the hill, using my cane, but tweaking my knee anyway. It was one of the new buses designed to work in narrow roads. The seats were 4 across, and they were very tight and uncomfortable.
There was already one couple on the bus. We wound through town picking up more people here and there, then headed East. One of the things we have noticed here is the tall, narrow trees. I am familiar with Roman Poplars - they are fairly common in the U.S., especially for lining roads or property boundaries. They are so skinny they are not much good for shade, but they are elegant, and work well as wind breaks. But we noticed that there are some similar-shape trees that look more like cedars. I asked our tour guide, and she said they are cypress. She then told me that people don't like them around their houses, but they put them in cemeteries, because the legend is that when people die, their souls rise up through the cypress trees on their way to heaven.
I have always thought of Roman Poplars as cultivated trees only, but clearly these are growing wild. This is their native land! We were quite enthralled with them and struggled to get a decent photo of them from the moving bus.
The border crossing was not too long of a wait, but the guide collected all our passports to make a list, then handed them back out again. And then we had to get off the bus and present them, one at a time, to the border guard shack. Then we walked across the border and stood in the sun to wait for until everybody was ready, and then they let the bus across and we got back on.
We then continued driving until we got to a little town in Perast. There we got out of the bus so we could look around for a while. These little towns are quaint to us, but we were fascinated with the flowered alleys.
This one leads into a hotel.
And we had a nice couple take a photo of us together.
We went in an old church there. It was supposed to be built out over the water, but the ruling Lord made them stop, so it is still small. I always find interesting paintings.
I'm sure there is symbolism to this. Mary's heart radiating out her love?
This one I find artistically pleasing, but ridiculous. Did Mary ever sit on a throne? I doubt it in her lifetime. And she is holding baby Jesus and a string of rosary beads with a cross, symbols not adopted until a century or two or three after her death.
And this one shows a priest succoring Jesus while he was carrying his cross. And what is with the page presenting Jesus with a sword? Utter nonsense,
This old church has a large display of vestments. These are the items they used in their services. A whole room full of them. I imagine a lot of them are solid silver, but probably some are plated, The amazing part is how did they avoid getting pillaged sometime in the many wars that ravaged the Balkins.
And these are ceremonial clothes. This room was entirely circled with glass closets of these vestments, with a center case holding manikins wearing some examples.
But the center stage is The Church of our Lady of the Rocks out on an artificial island. The story goes that local fishermen were required to bring rocks and dump them off the point of a natural island. Over the years, they built an island, and then a small church was erected.
We got on a boat and went out to the island. It wasn't too impressive to me, but I'm sure Catholics feel differently about it.
My favorite part was that while I was walking along the edge of the island, a herring ball came up in a mating frenzy, just off the island. I could see them clearly in the clear water.
This is the boat, and from here, it took us to the City of Kotor. I always enjoy boat rides, but the smoke from the fire in the mountains plagued us still.
This is a bed of mussels growing on the rocks at the edge of the island. I was tempted to go down and get a few for lunch, but I managed to restrain myslef.
And this is the Church. Why is this one famous, and a similar church on a little island not? They didn't build the island, I guess. We did enjoy sitting on a bench in the shade though. This was the hottest day yet. It got to 44 degrees, which is 111 degrees in our home land. That is hot in anybody's book. Notice that everybody was standing in the shade?
As we rode in the boat toward Kotor City, we went by a place called Donji Stoliv, which I am told means "10 olives". The story is that if a young man wanted to marry, he would plant 10 olive trees, then go ask her father. Apparently, this remote place had land where you could plant olives, and naturally it became an agricultural area.
Olive tree leaves are a grey color, so you can pick them out from other trees. Just right of the steeple, you can see a patch of grey trees. There is another at the very top of the photo, but it is harder to see. I took quite few photos of this hillside and there are lots of small-ish olive groves along it.
There was a Greek couple sitting right in front of us, so the lady kept getting in my photos. Then we decided she looks like "The Responsible Woman".
You be the judge.
We got off the bus at Old Kotor, and went on a guided tour. It was HOT!! We finally got to a square where a restaurant had fans blowing water mist, so we decided to stay and cool off. It took a good half hour before Liz began to look her normal, cheery self. We order a pizza and it was the best (American like) pizza we've had here.
And now for my missionary story. Liz wanted to buy some souvenirs, which was very easy to do. We got a Montenegro souvenir plate so now we have all five in the Mission. She was attracted to some jewelry, but it was way too pricey.
After that, I wanted to go straight back out the gate and find the bus. But, Liz had prayed that morning that we would find somebody to teach the Gospel to. She wanted to go a different way back out, still holding out hope.
We were looking in shop windows and there was a shop with silk products. The shopkeeper scooped us in and offered us some hot cider. They said drinking something hot makes you cooler. I was unconvinced.
They had some gorgeous silk rugs that were way too expensive for us - $6,000! But we were interested in a runner for the front hallway in our house, so they brought out several of them. He was asking $3,000 for those, but he agreed to leave while we discussed what we would be willing to pay. Keep in mind these are hand-tied, pure silk rugs. They were stunning! I felt them and they do, indeed, feel like silk. They are a different color depending on the angle you look at them, but still stunning. Pure silk rugs are amazing. You will see it if you come visit us in Texas after we get home.
When he came back, we offered $1,000 and he said no. Then Liz said we wanted to pay something less than $1500, and he clapped his hands, "Sold for $1500 American dollars!" What a salesman.
That comes to 1385 Euros, and I needed to go to an ATM to get it. We'd been dickering with an old, bushy-bearded guy, and his partner who was totally hairless, was doing the unrolling and bringing out more goods. We had a few questions, which they answered, and they rolled it up so that it can be carried on a plane as a carry-on.
The bald one offered to show me the way to an ATM and guard me as I withdrew the money, so we headed out. As we walked along, he asked me why we were there. I started to tell him we are missionaries and he got very excited. "You can come preach to me? I am Christian!" Then he told me an amazing story. His ancestors lived in Ephesus when Paul The Apostle went there on his first missionary journey, and they have been Christian since then. But then people started to forget the details of Christianity, and the young people began to drift away. He said they needed someone to guide them and teach them the true religion. He said that if we don't, there won't be any of them left after him. We could teach him, and then he would teach the rest of his people, of which there are only about 1,000 left. I told him we were just visiting there, but that our church has teachers in Podgorica, which is only about 1.5 hours away.
When we got back to the store, it turned out that Liz and hairy guy had been having a very similar conversation. They were SO excited to hear about us. I took the time to give them a brief overview of Joseph Smith as we closed the deal. When we left, my friend of the bald head (his name is Selguk, which is Turk for Sebastion - the hairy guy is Viber) had tears in his eyes, and he shook my hand. We had our picture taken together. And then when we got out the door he followed me out, and gave me a big bear hug I've sent his contact info to the Podgorica missionaries, of course, but we are wondering if we can come back for him. We will see.
What an amazing answer to our prayers!
The bus ride back home was long, hot, and smokey. It would have been OK, except that the line to get into Croatia was so long. We sat in the bus for 3-4 hours before we got up there. This time the tour guide gathered up our passports and took them all in at once. The guard gave them back in a bunch and we rolled out onto the road, as she passed them back out to us.
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