The cat walk, Day 7

Today we are counting cats.  This city is teeming with felines and so far, we’ve seen 29 in our 12 hours of counting.

Leaving our apartment this morning, we nearly passed by the”market” without noticing. Upon closer inspection , we found a few vendors selling touristy items including decorative braided reeds (in the traditional style), sachets of lavender and some local spices.  I purchased the latter (5 for the price of 4, thanks to negotiations, but still Whole Foods-like prices of $4 per spice sample) and look forward to giving them to Erin (shout out) and the fabulous chef Noah.

Our first stop was the contemporary art museum, a privately owned villa converted to a museum after WWII housing the work of exclusively Croatian artists.  The first floor is largely modern, focusing on Croatia’s most famous artist, Vlaho Bukovac.  The second had more contemporary art, including a large temporary exhibit with paintings that merged abstract patterns with aerial representations.  The best part of visiting was getting a “student discount pass” to all of the town’s museums–entry to 9 museum for $5 (the advertised price for 1 was $20).  This allowed us to enter the famed city walls (also $20) for free, by “sneaking” in through the Maritime Museum.  James qualifies this by saying “sneaking” does not legal entrance make, but I’m pretty sure it’s the best option.  We only saw about ¼ of the walls before a “ticket control” station sent us back down, but this afforded fantastic photos of the marina, with islands spotting the horizon.  None of the museums are all that impressive on their own, (Ethnographic: lacking, Marina Drzica: uninformative, Natural History: closed, Cultural History: renovating) but there is little else to do but take in the scenery and spend money, so museum hopping has filled our day.

Some observations:  The smoking here is less prevalent than Serbia. The pronunciation of “good day” “Dobre dan” also seems different, or shop keepers insist on replying in English.  Wine is sold at the grocery store in a “bring your own plastic water bottle” way.  The local red blend is very jammy.  I brought a vessel from our rented apartment and using the psychological tactics of “anchoring” and “recency” got about 1/2 liter for $4.

At 5:49, we hatched a plan for securing wine and a spot to view the sunset, scheduled for 5:59 pm.  We ventured out onto the rocky crags of the old city where we found an isolated spot–for the first 15 minutes–and took some photos of muted colors.

For dinner we checked out a hot spot called Nishta,which means “nothing” going in with expectations that our  meal would really be somethin’ (www.nishtarestaurant.com) .  The food was “fast casual” Indian, but had a great set menu deal and a good salad bar.  We met Andy and Lynn (blogging their adventures here: http://moneyleftfortravel.com/) and talked US politics and exchanged travel tips.

Sunday will be an early morning drive (with ferry) back to Montenegro to return the car and catch our flight to Belgrade, where all planes go to rest.