KOTOR

Turn down any of those side streets, and the town gives way without warning to limestone mountain, grey-green and enormous, rising sheer behind the cream-coloured stone.

Every second shopfront has a bowl of water or dispenser of food left out for the resident cats that roam around town (and are clearly beloved by the locals!). No one treats them as a nuisance, and we would often see them sitting patiently on a door mat, observing the foot traffic as the tourists passed by. Realising a whole town had collectively agreed that no creature gets left to fend for itself was one of the loveliest, most unexpected things about this place.

The old town is a maze of Venetian stone and cobbled streets worn smooth by centuries of footsteps, narrow enough that the sun only finds certain corners at certain hours.

The best thing to do in Kotor is climb the 1,350 steps up to St John's Fortress. Or, so I heard. We climbed exactly ✨none✨ of them.  Partially because it was far too hot by midafternoon, and partially because we didn't have quite enough time to scale the side of a mountain and still make it up the cable car to Mount Lovćen for sunset. You can't do everything in one afternoon, and today, we chose the version with less sweat and cardiac regret. 

Instead, we opted for a flirt (me) and a pastry (Loz) from the charming gentlemen at Senso bakery, who swore their krempita would change our lives. Krempita is a famous Montenegrin dessert, with three thin, crisp sheets of pastry layered between an unreasonable amount of vanilla custard, and dusted with icing sugar to finish. Loz's official review: "basically a custard slice."