Great hospitality and adventures around Mojkovac Montenegro

FRIDAY:

The road from Bajina Bašta to Mojkovac is slow but extravagantly scenic, and the terrain varied.  Most of the way is over and around mountains and hills. Some areas are almost entirely forested with deciduous trees, some largely coniferous, and some are mixed. Some areas are nearly treeless with broad rolling fields of tall tan grasses reminiscent of the American west. The roads pass through some villages and one touristy area (Zlatibor) but most of the way is fairly unpopulated. Yet aside from in the most densely forested areas there are orange roofed houses  dotting even the highest and steepest hillsides. We always wonder, who lives there, what are their stories, and how did they happen to build their homes in such inaccessible places? My refrain, as it so often is when we drive in the Balkans is, ‘Wow,’ and, ‘I love western Serbia.’ Usually the latter comment is followed by, ‘if we had to choose a place to live in the Balkans I would choose western Serbia.’

The further south one goes in Serbia, the more mosques one sees. Some of the towns have more Muslims than Orthodox Christian. When we arrived at the border crossing into Montenegro there was a longer line than we have seen before. It was not long at all compared with the lines at the border into Canada north of Seattle, but we had to wait about 15 minutes or so. The drive from the border down to the small city of Mojkovac (not a city at all by American standards) is also gorgeous, with higher and more rugged mountains than in Serbia. It is a stunning landscape and both of us continued oo-ing and aww-ing for the entire drive. If I had to choose a place to live in Montenegro it would likely be in the general area of Mojkovac despite the town itself being pretty sleepy. 

Upon entering Mojkovac we stopped and bought phone cards. The cards here are much more friendly to English speakers. There are no hoops to go through, no calls to make, nothing to ‘activate’, and, the instruction booklet has info in English. We don’t understand why it is not this easy in Serbia.

Bojana and Mičo live in a village about ten minutes from Mojkovac. This was our 4 th time to stay with them. Their house is small but neat and cheery with all the flowers growing out front. Behind the house is a huge field where neighbors’ cows graze, and across the dirt road out front is a smaller field used for cows as well. The valley is surrounded on all sides by mountains and there are three mountainous national parks nearby. The Tara river flows through the town and passes by the far end of the field out back.

Bojana and Mičo greeted us warmly and enthusiastically. We first stayed with them in 2018 after having met their daughter, Kristina, and her boyfriend, Dušan the year before. At the end of 2017 the young couple came to America with the idea of staying for 2 years, working, and returning to Montenegro with a bunch of money. When they came to America they flew to Seattle first where we hosted them for a night before they moved on to Chicago where there is a large Serb community that they hoped would help them find jobs and indeed they did. Kristina did odd jobs at first, including cooking take-out meals of Balkan cooking for residents of the apartment complex where they lived. Eventually she and a Serb couple opened their own Balkan deli/bakery. Dušan initially worked for a semi-truck repair shop owned by Serbs, then opened his own repair shop with a friend. It has now been almost 6 years since they went to America and they are still there, and due to have their first child any day. It has been harder to save money than they expected especially because they have sent a lot of money home to their parents to make home improvements. They pray they can return home to Montenegro next year. They like America and the fact that there are opportunities for people willing to work hard (they work 6 days a week), and they like American people, but they deeply miss their families and their own beautiful mountains and nature that they grew up with. Bojana and Mičo wanted to go to Chicago when the baby is due but were twice denied visas. Luckily Dušan’s mom was given a visa and she is in Chicago now for 3 months to help Kristina when the baby comes.

I mentioned all of that to help explain why Bojana and Mičo are so welcoming to us. They credit us with helping the kids go to America (we wrote an unofficial letter to the government saying we were inviting the kids to visit us) and treat us like family. 

Bojana and Mičo ushered us inside (we removed our shoes before entering and put on slippers provided by our hosts, as is more common than not here). As soon as we sat on the couches around the coffee table Mičo poured us his homemade apple rakija and we toasted. Bojana brought us Serbian coffee and plates of cured meat, little pickles, homemade cheese, homemade raspberry juice, and cake. 

They speak no English so we all got out our phones so we could access our translating apps. We spoke Serbian when we could, and they often understood us.

Soon after we arrived their neighbor, Danka, came by. Danka is 81 and uses a cane but is in relatively good health. We had met her twice before and enjoy her immensely even though she speaks no English and doesn’t bother trying to translate on her phone. I gave her a beautiful photo I had taken of her and Bojana the year before and she was absolutely delighted. She kept looking at it and holding it up. We also gave Mičo and Bojana a small photo album of pictures I took when we visited the kids in Chicago as well as from our visit with them last year. They both loved it and kept looking at the photos.

We continued sitting around eating and drinking (Mičo is quick to refill the rakija glasses when they get low, and even when we say, ‘just a little’, he fills the glass to the top), then Bojana stepped over to the kitchen to prepare dinner which was a beautiful spread of homemade bread (pieces placed directly on the table next to our plates), soup, potatoes, homemade cheese, plates of tomatoes and cucumbers, and perfectly cooked veal that Mičo had been stewing out back in their outdoor kitchen. All was delicious! Bojana loves cooking and is an excellent cook. 

After dinner we moved back to the living area (living, dining and kitchen are all part of one L-shaped room) where Mičo poured more rakija and Bojana brought over more cake. Bojana served us peppermint tea when we said we would prefer that over coffee at that late hour. 

We watched a Serbian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire on the tv. The format, music and set were nearly identical to the American version.

Finally Jim and I excused ourselves and went to our little room to prepare for bed. Bojana did dishes and cleaned up (she always refuses help).

Photos: scenes from the car in Serbia and Montenegro; 2nd row far right is Bojana’s road; pre-dinner; Kristina on the cover of a local magazine in Chicago; Danka; first dinner; our cozy little bedroom;