Team Dinner

Instead of practice today, we all piled into three cars and headed to Ulcinj for a team dinner at one of Nikola's friend's restaurants. Layne and I drove with Nikola along with one other of our teammates. On the way there, we learned that it was located on what used to be one of the most popular nudist beaches in Europe. Thankfully, everyone was fully clothed when we got there. Nikola told us that one time they would not let him through to his friend's restaurant because he was not a nudest. Anyways, on our way there we ran into a herd of sheep taking over the entire two lane road. Nikola pulls up behind them and starts barking like dog out of his window which was quite humorous, but worked at getting them to the side of the road. A little farther along, we see a smaller herd of cattle on the road. Nikola tried barking again, but when this didn't work, he resorted to honking. An interesting car ride to say the least (It was actually kind of weird driving in a car for a trip because I have either walked or taken a bus everywhere lately. I think I have been in a car only a few times and most were quick trips from the apartment to the practice gym.).

The restaurant sat directly on a river that led into the ocean and was near one of the longest sandy beaches in all of Montenegro. It was sunset as we were eating, so it was really pretty but unfortunately Layne and I both forgot our cameras. This restaurant is known for their seafood, and I was able to try some unusual things. We started off with fish soup. There were two kinds, but the one that I ate was a tomato-based soup with chunks of white fish. It was pretty good. Next, the men brought out 3 huge platters filled with different foods. There was a white rice with shrimp, red rice with shrimp and calamari, black rice (made black from the squid ink) with calamari, little squids, and then octopus tentacles. I decided to try a little bit of everything, and actually liked it all. I think the black rice one was my least favorite, but everything else was delicious. I thought that was the end of the meal, but I was wrong! They asked who did not want fish (there were several girls including Layne who do not like fish) and this is when I learned that the meal was not over. They preceded to bring out even bigger serving platters with whole fish on them for those that wanted fish and steaks for those that did not. The waiters cut some of each fish off the bone for each person and added some spinach and potatoes to complete the plate. After I got mine, Nikola asked if he could show me how they prepare their plates and I of course said, "Yes." He poured this oil mixture with parsley and garlic over the fish, squeezed some lemon, and sprinkled it with salt. The fish was really good! I haven't had fish in such a long time, so it was a nice treat. However, by the end of the meal, I was stuffed! I was offered more, but couldn't eat any more! It was a fun dinner getting to experience some different foods and some of the same foods but prepared in a different way!