After scaling a mountain on a humid summer day, my cousins and I reached the top of St John Fortress in Kotor. We took a moment to enjoy the view from the summit, nearly 300 metres above the Montenegrin coastal town.
After catching our breath, we reached into our bag and pulled out a Ukrainian flag. A customary tradition, we always take a photo with it during our annual trips.We took a second to pose with our flag at the fortress and requested a neighbouring tourist to take our picture.
But this encounter was different. As we stood for a photo, another group of tourists gave us unpleasant looks.“Ukrainians,” one of them snarled in Russian, eyes cold with contempt.We quickly finished taking our photo, packed our flag, and descended down the fortress.
As our group continued on our walk, the discomfort among us became palpable as we came across additional Russian tourists who gave us similar stares.Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident.