Piran 🚍 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Due Espresso
Wah, they ran out of cold brew!
Cafe Čokl, Krekov Trg 8
Today was our last day in Piran before we headed to Slovenia’s capital city, Ljubljana. The bus to Ljubljana departs infrequently, so we ended up waiting until early afternoon to get out of the city.
Before we left, we had a leisurely breakfast at a cafe that served Julius Meinl coffee and was located in Termini Square. Nearby was a salt store, Piranske Soline, which harvests salt from the nearby marine preserves in the area. Who knew salt was a thing, here? Because it was made locally, the prices for fleur de sel were dirt cheap, so we couldn’t pass up getting a few grams to bring back home. Fortunately, the Slovenian Post was reliably cheap, as well. So, we packed it all away with some of the other knick knacks we’ve collected and sent the to Kaoline in London!
Before we got on the bus we had a smoothie at Caffe Neptune, which we had visited the day before. It had an impressive espresso program, with beans from Cafe Čokl, based in Ljubljana. We already knew where our next best cup of coffee would be!
Once we arrived in Ljubljana, we took a taxi to our hotel, which was a pleasant upgrade with all the right amenities (i.e. a door lock that worked, air conditioning). It was already evening, but we had a few hours to kill before dinner time. We took the opportunity to nab a snack at a sausage shop called Klobasarna. They have a very simple menu - sausages, sauerkraut, soups, and drinks. But who’s complaining when the food it this good? Apparently an American astronaut was such a fan of their foods, she brought some of these sausages in space with her. We then went to Restavracija Valentin, which had just opened up a “street food” shop outside their restaurant. In practice that meant everything was a nibble. We had grilled sardines with chips and a delicious garnish of garlic and parsley. 🙌
From this spot, we were very close to the Llubljana Castle. It’s impossible to miss, as it’s situated on top of the biggest hill in town and is illuminated in a eerie green color at night. The most direct way to get to the top was to take a funicular - basically, a gloried ski lift for pedestrians. Europeans love these things (we’ve seen then in Lisbon and Istanbul), and we theorized why as we climbed the hill. The castle grounds has space for a number of exhibitions. There was also a movie night happening in the main square. The main exhibition was about the history of Slovenia & Lljubljana. There were some interested pre-history items, including the oldest wheel on record as well as an ancient bone flute. More contemporary history exhibits enlightened us as to how Slovenia came to exist as a nation and the Slovenian roles in WWI and WWII. Slovenia became a country only in 1990 after the fall of Yugoslavia.
Cafe Čokl was located at the base of the funicular, so we decided to get an espresso before dinner. This definitely seems to be the OG hipster coffee place in the city. We had two espressos. The blond, lanky, opinionated barista let up when we said we had their beans in Piran already. #coolkids Before we left, we asked about where we could get some nice local beer and he pointed us in the direction of Magda bar, just a hundred meters from the cafe. There we befriended the owner and got our first taste of unfiltered Bamberger beer, which another waiter described as “healthy” beer because it’s unfiltered, like bread - LOL.
Then, it was finally time for real dinner. We decided to head over to the Union Brewery Pub, about a kilometer away. This brewery makes possibly the most popular Slovenian beer (but owned by the Heineken Company). The pub served traditional Slovenian food, which basically means lots of gravy on everything. We had a giant meat platter, with various sausages, goulash, and salad. They were also playing the Seattle Sounders v. LA Galaxy game, which was predictably boring, but nicely reminded us of home. With our bellies once again full, we decided to call it a night and prepare for our hike into the Slovenian wilderness!
Kellerbier
“Unfiltered, so it’s healthy.”
Magda, Pogačarjev Trg 1
