It's well past time for the second installment of our Summer of Visitors! From the middle of August to the middle of October, we had 4 more groups of visitors come to see us in Montenegro! We were so blessed to have such a wonderful crew come all the way to visit us and our little country.
In August, some of our best friends from DC came to see us. We met Stacey, Gavin, Janae and Bobby in Dubrovnik and spent a couple of days there before heading south into Montenegro. Our next stops were Kotor and Bar and a very rainy drive through the mountains. Speaking of rain, Montenegro had one of the driest summers on record but of course it rained almost the whole week the DC Crew was here! Fortunately, we didn't let a little rain "dampen" their visit and we still had a great time. We really enjoyed spending time with them and catching up. It felt like an old time "friendcation", just halfway across the world!
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| The DC Crew at Porto Montenegro in Tivat. |
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| Janae, Stacey and I made the most of the second torrential downpour we got caught in that day in Dubrovnik! |
Sam and Tyler Joiner were our next visitors. Sam and Tyler are some of our best friends but we haven't had much time to spend with them in the past three years as we've both moved all over the place. It was such a great time catching up with them. They were up for an epic Balkan road trip so we took them to a whole list of places that we hadn't been before. We started our driving journey in Kolašin, Montenegro and stayed at a lovely lodge in the mountains. We spent the day hiking at one of our favorite places, Biogradska Gora National Park. Next we drove through Prizren, Kosovo and explored the beautiful old town before driving on to Skopje, Macedonia where we spent the night. Our next stop was in the amazing lake town of Ohrid, Macedonia where we spend the days relaxing in the lake and pool. After a couple lazy days by the lake, we drove to Tirana, Albania where we explored and spent the night. Finally, we drove through Bar, Montenegro where we showed Sam and Tyler our favorite parts of the beautiful Stari Bar before making our way back to Podgorica. Overall, it was such a fun week with Sam and Tyler and they made for great company to see parts of the region we hadn't explored yet! We've missed them!
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| Sam, Tyler, Jim and me posing in front of a beautiful mosque in Prizren, Kosovo. |
Jim's dad and step-mom were our next visitors. They were technically here for two weeks but in the middle, they took a long-weekend trip to Rome and Florence and Jim and I flew up to Garmisch, Germany for an Olmsted reunion. While they were here we really showed them all that Montenegro has to offer! We spent a couple of nights in of Kolašin where we hiked and explored parts of that area we hadn't seen before. One day we drove up to the Tara River Bridge and Jim and Bob zip-lined across the second deepest canyon in the world! They were much braver than Vickie and me! We also took them to Kotor, Porto Montenegro, Bar and Lovćen. Overall, I think they got the grand tour of Montenegro! We are so grateful that they made the trip to come see us. It was a really special time with family!
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| Vickie, me, Bob and Jim at a stop at the Morača Monastery. |
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| Jim and Bob at Biogradska Gora National Park. |
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| Vickie and Bob exploring the fortress ruins in Stari Bar. |
While Bob and Vickie were here, we took a few days to fly up to Innsbruck, Austria and Garmisch, Germany for an Olmsted Reunion. We stayed in Innsbruck on the front and back end and really enjoyed exploring this lovely town. Jim had been before and remembered it as one of his favorites so he was very excited to show it off to me. It did not disappoint! From Innsbruck we took the train to Garmisch to meet up with lots of other current and former scholars and their families. It was a really fun weekend of reunions and introductions. We especially enjoyed catching up with the Marshalls who we overlapped with only briefly in Monterey but made fast friends. They are now in Zagreb, Croatia with their two beautiful children and loving the region! It is always fun to be with other Olmsted Scholars and hear just how things are going for them in their respective cities. We are all having different experiences, but a lot of the joys and struggles that we experience are very similar, no matter where we are in the world!
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| Jim, Cam and John Shea on the hike at the gorge. |
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| Amanda and me catching up on the beautiful hike. |
Our final visitors of the season were fellow Olmsted Scholars, Ryan and Ashley Stevens. They are scholars in Kiel, Germany and spent several weeks this summer traveling around Europe before Ryan started school this fall. They were only with us for a couple of nights, but we really enjoyed showing off our country to them! We took them to Lovćen, Kotor, and Tivat and showed them some of our favorite spots. One of the things we love about this program is how we are encouraged to stay with other scholars while traveling. It has been so fun getting to know the people, cities and countries on a deeper level. We welcome more scholars to come visit!
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| Ashley, Ryan and Jim at the top of Mt. Lovćen at the mausoleum of Njegoš. |
It was great to have so many visitors this summer come visit. We really enjoyed showing them some of our old favorites and exploring new places with them. This week, Lonely Planet travel blog voted Kotor, Montenegro as the #1 city in the world to visit in 2016. We appreciate our friends and family for trusting our opinion that Montenegro is
THE BEST even before that vote was announced! For those of you who couldn't make it this year, we hope to see you in 2016!
Until the next adventure,
The Adventuring Armstrongs
