I spoke to Anastasia Dorosh, massage therapist, about her love for Montenegro, and the stress-busting benefits of massage. It's funny, but before moving to Montenegro I didn't know anything about the country. A move from Ukraine to live in Montenegro wasn't part of my plan at all. I first came to Montenegro, as I say, 6 years ago, for seasonal work in a hotel, and my employer offered to extend my stay to a full year. For the first two years I was still considering a move to another country, but I started to get used to the Montenegrin lifestyle and local mentality.
And now I can't imagine myself anywhere else. First of all, I am in love with the natural beauty of Montenegro, really the Montenegrin landscapes are amazing. I love travelling and discovering the country. The rhythm of my life has changed a lot here.
I was born and lived 23 years in a capital city, and I became really tired of big city life. I always dreamed of living in a small cozy town with a sea view. And I found this perfect place in Montenegro - Tivat. As is the case for many other people, I wanted to be self-employed, and here I successfully achieved my goal. And here I also met my husband, he also moved to Montenegro from another country. How did your massage therapy business come about? Where did you train and where have you worked previously?
I loved doing massage from my childhood, I often gave massages to my family and I really liked it. I took my first steps into massage training in at the Medical Centre Β«Alternative medicineΒ» in Kiev, where I completed a programme Β«Health massage with bases of anatomyΒ». The same year I began to practice in a spa that was owned by the biggest hotel chain in Greece. Then I began working as a massage therapist in a Spa at a Greek 5 star resort hotel, and was there for three seasons.
My first two years in Montenegro I worked in the hotel industry. I dreamed of returning to the massage sphere, but I was sure that there would be plenty of massage therapists in such a small town as Tivat. I was very surprised, and of course very pleased, when I was offered a massage partnership with a major resort here.
