Herceg Novi (Montenegro) and Zagreb (Croatia)

On a hot tip from San Diego’s newest parents, the Endemann’s, who are world travelers in their own rite, we took a day out of our Dubrovnik stint to check out nearby Montenagro, a gorgeous country of 678,000 with ragged peaks, a beautiful coastline and historic old towns filled with locals drinking coffee and chatting. Montenegro only became independent in May of 2006 when it broke from its impractical union with Serbia, so tourism is a new national focus, albeit a successful one so far. We wanted to see the country’s Bay of Kotor, which is surrounded by dramatically steep mountains, so we took a bus to tiny Herceg Novi on the southern part of the bay. With a charming and ancient Old Town to explore and a sunny square to drink coffee in among the locals, we were quite taken with the place. It made for a perfect day trip.

After Dubrovnik, we changed up our plans a bit and headed inland to Croatia’s capital (and largest) city, Zagreb. The city is divided into two parts: Lower Zagreb, where most shops and restaurants are, and Upper Zagreb, home to most of the historical/cultural venues and the capital’s main square (and spellcheck nightmare) Trg Jelacica. We strolled around both for a bit, which was nice, but eventually decided to spend the afternoon at the ATP Tennis tournament we saw billboards for, the PBZ Zagreb Indoors. We watched two excellent matches, including an impressive victory by current Croatian tennis hero and current #10 in the world, 21 year-old Marin Cilic.

Later that night, to complete a random day in Zagreb and while waiting for an overnight train to Venice, we saw the documentary Gonzo - about the life and times of writer Hunter S Thompson - in a downtown theatre. Fortunately, the movie was in English with Croatian subtitles so we could follow along. Next up, we return to Italy for more pizza.