Bar, Montenegro

After just under two months on the road, you have no idea how good it is to see a familiar face. We just got back to Italy after about 4 short days in Montenegro visiting Steph's parents. In case you didn't know (or we haven't mentioned it yet), Steph's parents have made the amazing commitment of two years with Operation Mobilization, a Christian mission organization that spans the entire globe. They decided to go to Montenegro (part of the former Yugoslovia), just arrived a little over a week ago, and are getting settled in to their new lifestyle - with some interesting cultural adjustments and a huge language adjustment. They have to learn Montenegran! It's basically the same as Serbian, but sounds completely different than English or any of the "Romance" languages. Anyways, they are currently in the town of Bar, which is on the coast of the Adriatic Sea directly west of Italy. Upon arriving, we were impressed at how clean and nice the town was. Sure, a lot of the buildings are ugly concrete blocks, but the surrounding mountains and sea and abundance of olive trees made it a really cool place. They even have a nice (but basic) one-bedroom apartment for the time being. They'll stay in Bar for at least three months as they get adjusted and take language lessons.  As they are just getting settled in (and unpacking all of their SEVEN suitcases), it was a good time to go visit them and see what they're in store for for the next couple years. Like I said, the area is beautiful so when we weren't playing a heated game of cards we were usually walking around exploring. We got to see the side of Bar that the average tourist wouldn't see when they took us to the "washing machine bridge", which is just like you'd expect it to be - a bunch of old washing machines and refrigerators and other junk lined up to form a bridge over a small stream.

Most of the areas of Bar were really clean and pretty, especially the "beach" area and harbor, and we made it a point to visit at sunset.

Our last day one of the team members, Daniel, who is from Serbia but has lived in Bar for 10 years, took us to the old part of town called Stari Bar for a little tour. There is a cool castle from around 1000 AD, which somehow he knew everything about so gave us a great personal tour. He also took us to Bar's premiere tourist attraction - the oldest olive tree in the world. Upon arriving, we found out it was "believed to be one of the oldest olive trees in the world", but they figured it to be over 2,000 years old so I doubt there's many trees older. Once olive trees get to a certain age (around 200 years), their trunks split open lengthwise and "new" trees grow out of the old stumps. So there were relatively new trunks growing out of a stump that is over 2,000 years old. Still cool though.

Old castle in Stari Bar

Old Olive Tree

We also got to meet most of the other team members - all of them are really great and diverse. Besides Steph's parents and Daniel, there was a couple from Germany with their two young kids, a girl from Germany, a girl from Canada, a guy from South Korea, and a couple from Oregon. It's amazing the difference in culture in Montenegro and how long it takes to build relationships with people there before they open up to you.  It's going to be a really interesting experience for them but if there is anybody that can get through to kids it's Steph's parents. It was sad to leave them again, especially since we're not sure if we will get to see them for almost two years, but the ferry only leaves every couple days and we have a lot more of Italy to see. Right now we're on a train heading up the east coast (almost to the town of Ancona) and will cut over to Bologna then change trains to Florence. Everyone has raved about Florence (and it's gelato) so we are pumped.