Cruise ships sound like an idea that a child came up with.
'It's this big hotel on a boat and there's water slides and a cinema and all-you-can-eat restaurants and they drop you off at cities around the world to explore'.
'Wow, that's very imaginative. Why don't you draw me a picture?'
Every day a new cruise ship comes in. It fills the window as I'm brewing my coffee in the morning. I can see the Bay of Kotor from my window. There are mountains high above it. It looks spectacular, and depending on which angle I'm looking, I see half water and half mountains, or if I’m coming down the stairs, water fills the entire window. I've never stayed anywhere with a view like this.
A sailboat just drifted from one window to the other.
It feels like a lot of pressure to write and draw and come up with good ideas when there are huge mountains outside the window. Why aren't you writing or drawing? How much inspiration do you need? Are these mountains not inspiring enough for you?
Thankfully though, a cruise ship comes in and blocks the mountain. The pressure is off for now.
It glides in, filling the window and blaring its horn, rudely interrupting everyone. 'HEY GUYS I'M HERE, LOOK AT ME. WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING? OH YOU'RE SLEEPING? OH OK THAT'S COOL.'
The sun has peeked over the mountains now and is hitting the white ship and lighting everything up. Eventually the ship slows down and drops the anchor. Metal chains rattling loudly, echoing across the bay. It has set up right in front of our window like a tall person who wanders in after the concert has started and stands right in front of you.
KB and I assess each ship that comes in. There is one that has a water slide. A big corkscrew that winds around, dipping over the edge of the ship slightly. There's nothing like riding a water slide and then going and looking at an old church.
Other ships have a giant TV screen on top. There's one with a driving range too. And I assume they all have swimming pools. We Google each ship that turns up and ogle over the facilities.
Small life boats start to peel away from the ship to drop people off in the old town, like parents dropping kids off at the movies or shopping centre. 'Have fun and make sure you're back here by 3pm or I'm leaving without you'. The kids scatter off.
On all the ships, black smoke billows out from the huge pipes sticking out at the top. The tall guy at the concert has lit up a cigarette. The logo of the ship is always placed just below the pipes which I always find strange. It's not good branding, I think.
We find out that KB's second cousins, Gina and David, are on a cruise and are arriving in Kotor and we're excited to go in and meet them.
As I'm brewing my coffee that morning, I stick my head out the window and see their ship has snuck in already. It’s parked up by the old town. A prime spot.
To get into the old town we make the 30 minute walk that follows the bay around. There are no footpaths or even edges so you share the narrow road with cars. 'You get used to it'. That's what people say in the reviews of our Airbnb. It's true, you do get used to it. In the same way you might get used to wild dogs living in your house. It's fairly unpleasant, but you eventually get used to it, mostly because you have no choice and having wild dogs in your house feels normal now.
A week earlier a car drove too close to me and the side mirror hit my arm. You get used to it though.
We walk into town a few times a week. Sometimes to walk around the old town, sometimes to go to the supermarket and the gym.
I like the gym because it's small and quiet and the guy who works there is warm and friendly. He greets me like an old friend every time, holding out his giant meathook of a hand out to give me one of those bro handshakes and you feel like one of the team.
One time I turned up and couldn't see anyone behind the desk. When I walked around to get a locker key, the gym guy had his head down on the desk, sleeping. I carefully reached into the tray near his head to get myself a key. For some reason in that moment I'm worried about waking him up even though he's at work. Bless him. Poor lil' guy is all tuckered out from all the grappling and kettlebell swings
He opens his eyes and spots me reaching for a key. 'Oh you've figured out how it works around here' he says, smiling and closing his eyes again.
Coming back from the gym or supermarket, I take the shortcut I found. It feels exciting to have a shortcut. It's a reward for paying attention, and for time spent in a place. A secret shared with a select group of people. The best part about this one is that it features the closest thing to an encounter with a forest you're likely to find around the center of Kotor. Which is to say, it's very much not a forest. More a line of trees spilling over a rock wall, but you get to feel the cool air change as you follow it along before the road has given way to a path and suddenly water is flowing underneath. At this point there is more greenery on the other side too and you eventually come out into a laneway that turns and takes you back out to a main road again. I'm grateful for having found such a refreshing detour. I spy a quick look around the corner to check the coast is clear, careful to not give away the secret, before I step back out into the crushing heat and humidity.
After having made the walk into the old town and feeling pleased to have not been run over by any cars on this occasion, we meet up with Gina and David and walk around for a short while talking. We go past an old church and look at that for a bit. David tells me about a bag they bought at a tourist shop in Croatia.
"I asked the lady 'Is this made in Croatia?' and she said it was. Got back on the ship and looked at the tag. Made in China".
Later we have breakfast and pick Gina and David's brain about the cruise ship. Their’s doesn't have any water slides but they do have several restaurants. Having never been on a cruise ship ourselves, we ping questions at them for a while.
Gina brings up the Croatian bag story again and they both chime in to deliver the final line.
"Made in China."
Boom.
David likes cats (which Kotor is famous for) so we encourage them to seek out some of the artist shops in the town. KB and I are slightly nervous about inadvertantly recommending more Chinese-made tourist knick-knacks.
When their ship leaves later that afternoon, we wave out the windows of our apartment. KB is waving her brightly coloured pants so they can spot us on the ship and we see two tiny figures on the top deck waving back. All of us keep waving for a while until it feels weird. The ship is moving quite slow.
We watch the ship leave the bay. It sort of feels like the tall person who was blocking your view is now finally leaving the concert, except you ended up chatting to them and they turned out to be nice. You wave them goodbye. It’s slightly awkward but that might just be because one of you is waving their pants.
Can 100% relate to the fear walking on those roads. Did not think I’d make it out of the Bay alive!
My husband and I recently went on a cruise to Alaska, and it was definitely an underwhelming experience. I think that many people enjoy cruises, but I was surprised to find that we did not as much as we expected to. Part of it was that experience of pouring into a town for only half a day and then having to pull anchor and move on. It felt disingenuous and unfair to the people who live there on a regular basis. So interesting to see your perspective on it! I would recommend to anyone thinking about going on a cruise to research the options and be wary of the hype. I think if we had gone in with lower expectations, we would’ve had more fun!