We are fortunate to be neighbors with a lovely Montengrin fellow called Darko, who is the Captain of the boat on our port side. He has been treating us to some of the local flavors and delicacies, which he has been dropping off every other day it seems. Yesterday was a spiced coffee cake, before that some kumquats from his garden, a chunk of fresh pork that he had butchered for the holidays, and a bottle of his homemade Rakia.
The previous week his wife had sent a natural chocolate cake sweetened with yam which was amazing, and was delivered with a bottle of Darko’s Granddads homemade red wine. Unbelievably generous! We did manage to force a batch of homemade chocolate and peanut butter balls, and some lemon and coconut bites on him on his last visit.
The nice Turkish fellows, Raif and Engin also stopped by last week and dropped off some spices for us, as they had a good source for the stuff we couldn’t find. In addition, he added 3 bars of specialty soap; garlic, shaved pearl, and celery. (The garlic one I’m using now has more of a citrus smell and isn’t garlicky at all!)
I have been attending a yoga session once a week with a kind Romanian lady who has lived with her Montenegrin husband here for 25 years. Not only is she a good teacher, but she also gives us avocados and kiwi fruit from her garden after every class. Yet another very generous person that we have run into here. The marina staff have been excellent, and even the car rental guy has been lovely to chat with. They are universally proud of their country and their independence since 2006.
This has been our first Christmas on the boat and it was very relaxing! We have a pretty sparkly Christmas tree off our bow and a festive Christmas Crane off our stern. Starting Christmas Eve it was grey and drippy but with that was a warming trend, and Christmas day was 65 deg F on board. We hung out and watched Christmas movies, enjoyed our traditional potato pancakes with chopped onion, sour cream, caviar and lemon wedges..with a crisp Prosecco, yum!
