Piran, Slovenia
Due Espresso
“Medium roast or medium-dark?” Impressive.
Caffe Neptune, Dantejeva ulica 4, Piran
Today was our first and only full day in Piran, the little sleepy seaside resort in coastal Slovenia. We started the day by visiting a local café, Angelco, listening to mid-90’s Eurotrance and sipping on espressos. Free WiFi is turning out to be a big draw. We’re so craved for Internet!
Before we headed out for the day, we ran a few errands to assemble lunch - just a meal of a few sandwiches from the bakery and a handful of plums, peaches, and figs. Yennie also picked up a jar of olives - HOLLA. The farmers’ market is a thing of imagination, like the opening scene to “Beauty and the Beast.” You have the baker, the fishmonger, the butcher - it’s all so freaking quaint. Piran is a wonderful little spot.
Our plan was to swim in “Moon Bay,” a beautiful spot we sleuthed on @feelslovenia. We went to the Touristic Office right in Termini Square to ask how to get there and we felt pretty confident about finding it. But, traveling to nearby towns - much less nature preserves, isn’t the easiest to accomplish. Once we figured out the bus system we had to walk to the beach and then estimate by Google Maps where it was. We walked past some salt flats, through a stretch of public “beach” (i.e. a concrete shore) and then through a rocky area where we were greeted by hundreds of nudists.
We’ve talked about nudists before and we thought by now, “We’re cool. Nudists have rights, too.” But, not when there are hundreds of them in such density. We saw nudists building tall rock piles, nudists making sandwiches, nudists setting up hammocks between trees. Our endeavor was to find this “Moon Bay” and dagnabit, we couldn’t find it. By then, we were sweaty, carrying about 3L of water, so we called it just turned around. Maybe “Moon Bay” is “moon” bay? We will never know.
So, we settled into a nice, smooth dock and made quick friends with the little dog and its Italian octogenarian owners. Though neither of us had a language in common, we smiled and gestured and oohed and ahhed when the little dog did anything cute. At one point, the Italians discovered a dead jellyfish in the water and convinced a heroic teenage boy to fish it out. Many a passerby looked and gawked and poked at that dead jellyfish. It made for great people watching. We swam and sunned and read for the afternoon.
Then, it was time to head back to Piran. Seeing as we had to take a bus, which has a reliable but limited schedule, we left a little earlier than we would’ve liked. We stopped at a bar along the way back, drawn by the impromptu concert of Slovenian folk music, played by three teenage boys on accordions. The music was amazing! And, the boys were super into it. Their drunk dads and uncles were really into it. This really drunk French girl was really, really into and began to dance around them. It was a perfect ending to our beach day.
On our way back, we ran into a Ukrainian family at the bus stop. They were in the area to participate in the Mediterranean International Folk Festival. They were just in Budapest before Piran and explained that they went there to find the hospital where their grandfather was taken in during WWII. Their grandfather was badly injured and faced getting an amputation, but a particularly caring doctor decided it was unnecessary. Because of this doctor, their grandfather was able to keep his arm and started a vocational school for orphans in Hungary. The family knew very little English, but clearly, we all figured it out. Man, gesturing “amputation” is pretty fun. At one point, we were all doing it.
When we got back to Piran, it was time for dinner! We passed by Sarajevo ‘84, a Bosnian restaurant and named for the year the city hosted the Olympics. We were drawn to the restaurant because they advertised their food with pictures. WE LOVE PICTURE MENUS. They take the calculus of guessing out of eating. We got the assorted meats, a shepherds salad, beans, and some chicken soup. Soup! Yennie loves soup, even if it’s 80 degrees outside. We watched the European Athletics Heptathlon - what. It’s not everyday you get to eat grilled meat rolls and watch someone sling a discus. 🙌
Termini Square was set-up for the Mediterranean International Folk Festival. We sat down to enjoy the sherbert sunset and listen to some Hungarian, Polish, and Czech tunes. Men and women were dressed in traditional costume and singing songs about what we figured out was music about love. The women would rebuff the advances of the men and then there would be some singing and then they would all pair up and dance in big circles. Every country had some version of this exchange, but it was no Destiny Child music video.
Veliko Pivo
Meat + Beer = Hell Yes
Sarajevo ‘84, Tomšičeva ulica 43, 6330 Piran
