A Place to Rest My Head, Part III

Our visit to the tourist office the next morning started off a bit shaky as the morning shift employee was hesitant to provide any information on accommodations, whatsoever.  When she finally realized that our persistence in finding a room was not just a facade, she made a quick phone call and informed us that someone would be coming to pick us up in a few minutes.  Our only instruction was to "just wait outside," with no information about the person for whom we were waiting or what type of sleeping situation that person may be leading us toward.  At this point, Will was empathetic of my lack of thorough information the evening before.  :)  

Within a couple of minutes, a spunky older lady with BRIGHT clown-red hair swooped in and led us to her fantastic apartment in the heart of the Old City.  She sincerely told us to make ourselves at home, provided some keys and towels, and gave her blessing to come and go as we please ("You're on holiday!").  We would still be sharing the space with her, but the apartment's layout allowed for a much more secluded feel to our bedroom & bathroom.  She was wonderful, the room was perfect, and we were just around the corner from restaurants/sights and a 10 minute walk from the beach.  We decided to stay two nights, and from that point on, thoroughly enjoyed Kotor and our final days in the Balkans.  

Montenegro may have been my favorite of the three countries that we visited (although they were all wonderful).  Kotor is a beautiful medieval walled city sitting on the crystal-blue Bay of Kotor, surrounded by green mountains and once guarded by a mountaintop fortress.  Yes, the tourists were there in full force, but that did not disrupt the beauty and serenity of this fairy-tale-esque town.  I did NOT want to leave, and have been daydreaming about returning since the moment we got into the car & steered out of town!  

Our vacation is quickly drawing to a close.  After driving from Kotor to Dubrovnik & returning our rental car with three minutes to spare, we caught our late-night flight from Dubrovnik to Stuttgart.  With an eight-hour overnight window between our connecting flights, we decided to just camp out in the Stuttgart airport.  I was hesitant, but quickly relaxed when I found that 1) all of the hotels in the immediate area were insanely expensive, and 2) TONS of normal people had already claimed airport sleeping spots for the evening.  It was totally the norm!  In fact, we had to search through three terminals before finally finding an unoccupied row of benches on which to perch our sleeping bags!  During the search process, Will made friends with some European college boys who were awaiting their 5am flight to Majorca with the help of a cooler of beer and a boom box.  :)  

Observing that we were totally killing time by visiting the various funny airport shops the next morning (since we woke up when the airport's morning hustle and bustle began), a sweet American couple offered us a few minutes of remaining internet time that they had purchased and were unable to use...so here we are, awaiting our flight to Munich, where we will catch our final flight back to DC.  

This has been such an amazing trip on so many levels--history, natural beauty, comfy adventures.  I am utterly exhausted but completely refreshed.