A special kind of race took place yesterday in Croatia's only dog beach bar
If you're travelling with a pet... First of all, kudos to you. We know it's not easy to organise a trip to accommodate your four-legged friend, and even though it's completely fine to leave your pet with someone who will take care of it while you're on holiday, you get bonus points for making sure your dog (or cat, or a talking parrot if you're really cool) sees what the world has to offer beyond the local park.
So, you're here on the coast and it's only fair the pooch gets to take a dip in the Adriatic as well. A list of dog-friendly beaches is a short Google search away, and you'll find a lot of places where dogs can swim and run around all they like without anyone rolling their eyes at you.
You went for a swim, lounged around a bit and now you're thinking about a cold beer, so you hop to the beach bar. Your dog looks at your beer, than back at you, longingly. What do you do?
You get him one.
See, at Monty's Dog Beach Bar in Crikvenica, your pooch can get a pint even without any ID. Of course, we're not talking about regular beer – refreshment for dogs is made out of a vegetable base and chicken. They also offer ice cream for dogs, made from bananas, peanut butter, yogurt, and soy milk. The bar is a lovely, laid-back place where both the owners and their best friends can kick back and relax, and judging from these photos, there's a serious leisurely vibe going on:
Monty's likes to shake things up every now and then, so they organised an entertaining championship on Sunday, August 20. It was a swimming competition that had dogs and their people participating in pairs: they had to run along the waterfront, dive in from the pier, and swim the 100-metre distance to the shore in order to complete the race. We can only imagine the chaos!
According to Reuters, the winner was a mixed breed samoyed named Nimbus, who finished the course in a few minutes and won a 7-kg bag of dog food. The mighty duo was also awarded a weekend at a local dog-friendly hotel, while the runners-up got a dinner at a local bistro. Laurels aside, all the participants had a pretty good time, sticking around at Monty's afterwards at a special party organised for the athletes.
Places like these are rare gems. One glance at Monty's, and it's clear the crew behind the endearing bar cares about animals and wants to provide them with best possible service. It's only up to you to take care your pooch doesn't have one too many.
All photos courtesy of Monty's Dog Beach Bar
