This morning we were awaken at 0400hrs by a flash of light that lit up the room and a deafening crack – a storm had made its way over the mountains and into the Bay. It went on for about 20 minutes, and it felt like some of the strikes hit our hotel.

When it was actually time to get up, the sky was overcast but not heavy with rain. We enjoyed breakfast outside, leisurely sipping our americanos and orange juice and chowing down on corn flakes with cut up banana (my favourite vacation breakfast).

One of the things we really wanted to do while we were here was to visit a church. But this isn’t just any church – this is a Catholic Church built on a small island that was built upon sunken pirate ships in the middle of the Bay of Kotor. Our hotel offers 5€ boat rides there, so we paid the ferryman and putted over to the middle of the bay.

I’m of course in my element, because if you’ve read my previous years of travel, you will remember how much I love boat tours.

Our ferryman dropped us off, letting us know we can spend as much time as we like on the island. A little bit about the island – it’s an artificial island, with construction starting in 1452 when sailors found an icon of Madonna with child on a rock. Over the years they filled seized pirate ships with rocks and sank them in the same location, and once the island broke water, they built the Catholic Church that stands there today.

The Church is tiny, with a small sanctuary and a bit of an ad hoc museum upstairs, housing all sorts of recovered treasure and bounty adorning the walls and floors.

After moseying through the Church, we grabbed a bench outside and watched two enormous cruise ships enter the bay, and dark dense clouds creep over the mountains. Being from Raincouver, we know when it’s time to start looking for cover.

We found our ferryman pretty quickly and boarded the boat as droplets started to fall. After the five minute sail we were back on land and downpour was imminent, so we found a covered restaurant, ordered grilled meats and charcuterie and watched the warm, pouring rain.

Maybe two hours passed, and the sky was nothing but blue and white fluffy cloud, and the sun heating up the air and evaporating any puddles left on the road. We had noticed a small ice cream stand right beside our hotel and decided it was time to test it out.

My lavender cone was delicious, but the sun was making us drowsy, so we all grabbed our books, found some chairs in a sitting area of the hotel and read away the afternoon.

We watched a few wedding parties and tour groups stroll by, and before we knew it, it was dinner time. We again dined outside, tried the local rakia and watched the sun set.