- Piran

Tartini Square in Piran, Slovenia -
using water color  software

For seven days we've been staying in Piran, Slovenia. Two of the stops on our full trip are 7 days long (relatively longer than most). Thankfully, Piran was one of those extended stays. We really enjoyed it here. It's a slow-paced town that offers everything we need including great swimming, excellent food and a lot of local things to do/enjoy, combined with an interesting history.
Last night a local band played for 6 hours until 2am. We enjoyed the "groove" from our deck as we sipped wine. Meanwhile, the girls were out on the town with some of their local friends.

Piran has a nice central square named after the violin virtuoso Giuseppe Tartini who was born here. The town square has a statue of Giuseppe and his home is amongst the oldest buildings in town. According to Wikipedia, Tartini was the first known owner of a violin made by Antonio Stradivari in 1715. Today, Tartini's most famous work is the "Devils Trill Sonata", a solo sonata that contains a number of technically challenging sections, even by modern standards. There is a myth that Tartini had six digits on his left hand allowing him to perform these difficult works.

Giuseppe Tartini statue

Tartini Square

Piran has an excellent farmers market and good restaurants. Today, our last day in town, we watched a waiter serve two sea bass to customers at a nearby table. It was quite a process since it was baked in a blanket of salt. Once cooked, extracting it from the salt and serving it took 30 minutes of the waiters time, as he meticulously removed the fish from the salt.

Our "digs" for seven days.

We really enjoyed our home here. It was a very nice place with incredible views and a large comfortable living space. The rooftop deck was an outstanding place to watch sunsets, listen to the local music and relax. The owners were extremely organized, helpful and responsive. The town was very safe for the girls to explore on their own.

View of peninsula from inside home

Evening from the deck

Sunset over the Adriatic from the deck

Fishing supplies in the harbor

Piran is still very much a heavily utilized fishing village. The locals are very nice and most of them speak some, if not fluent, English. Although this was not expected it made our visit easier. Most of them actually spoke multiple languages and generally asked us, "Deutsch? English?" before starting a conversation. Then without a hesitation, they would turn to someone nearby and fluently converse in Italian, only to finish in their native tongue with a neighbor or friend before moving on. Impressive when you come from the U.S. where we generally speak only one or two languages.

At the Mercatora (Grocery Store) they charge you for a bag so you quickly remember to bring your own. They also don't bag your groceries. They simply start ringing up the next customer as your groceries are still sitting on the counter top. It's entirely up to you to ensure your pasta doesn't get commingled with the next customers cigarettes. 

As we were paying for our purchases at the local farmers market we commented on our surprise that they were open because it was a national holiday. The owner of the stand replied with something we didn't fully understand, but could clearly tell it meant something like, "$&%, we never close." He followed this with, "...every second day is a holiday in this country." On a somewhat related note I was talking to a local resident about work hours and job expectations. He informed me that his father worked for the Ljubljana Police Department for 35 years. "In all those years", he explained, "he never got more than a single week off at a time, and those weeks were extremely rare." Back home we talk about the extended European Holiday as though the entire place shuts down for August. Clearly this is not the case - particularly in this region. Throughout our week in Piran we noticed the same waiters or waitresses working tirelessly serving maybe 30-35 tables, even in the pouring rain when 90% of those tables were outside. The waiters and waitresses would carry the food, sometimes 50 meters back and forth, while precariously holding an umbrella under their chin to keep the plates of food dry.  Hard to reconcile sometimes when we are here on holiday.

Since being in Slovenia we have had mostly good weather, but there were two days when we were surprised by sudden downpours. Both times I was impressed by the sudden change and the force of the downpour.

On Friday, we drove into Croatia wine country and did some tasting, including a nice Malvazija (dry white) from this regions signature grape. All of the tasting was good especially the Malvazija and Sauvignon Blanc blend.

Momjan, Croatia

The wine is reasonably priced here. We've been picking up nice bottles for $4. After our wine tasting we stopped at a restaurant (Stari Podrum) in the same area and enjoyed lunch. The truffle pasta, asparagus soup and fresh roasted veggies were outstanding. One of the best meals we have had in Europe. Later that same day we drove further South to the coastal town of Rovinj. We all agreed that Rovinj was not for us - too big, too crowded, too pushy. We were happy to get back to Piran.

Piran was also a great running town. I snuck in three morning runs. One of them included a trek through the narrow streets and up to the church.

Strolling the Venetian streets of Piran

The church itself is a small one by European standards, but interesting none-the-less. For 1.5 Euros you could take a self-guided tour.  Shannon and I were the only ones there at the time. We also toured the castle for an additional Euro. We saw excellent views of the town, as well as beautiful artwork, and a very rare cross (1 of 4 in the world) that had been excavated on the church site.

The Church

View of church and peninsula from castle

Looking Southeast from church

Looking Northeast from the Church

Inside the church

The cross found on site

The climb up the church bell tower was fun. The stairs were certainly safe, but they were nothing like you would see back home. The wooden construction seemed like boards, nails and brackets had been added without thought of location or specific need. The whole thing shook and wavered as you climbed. One young boy came up while we were in the tower and was peering over the edge in a way that was unnerving. As we were just finishing up in the bell tower the bells chimed and left us both with ringing ears.

Hiking up the bell tower

One view from the bell tower

The girls made some friends in Piran and seemed to shift even more to a night time schedule going out on the town with their friends and staying out late. They hung out at the beach, in the square, and around the castle. They miss their friends at home though. Last night their Piran friends taught them how to say, "I missed you" in preparation for getting home. It's, "pogrešala sem te".

Overall, the girls seem to be making the most of their time, and soaking in the local fun.

Ali enjoying her gelato but not wanting her picture taken

Ready to hit the town

All and all, Piran is a great town to spend a week in, and we truly enjoyed Slovenia - at least what we saw of it. We know there is a lot more to see of this great country and would not hesitate to return, especially to see more of Ljubljana, the Julian Alps, and the Slovenian Hinterlands.

Tomorrow we leave Piran and head for the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy where we will stay for 5 days. Prior to leaving Slovenia we plan on hitting the Skocjan ("shkoatsyan") caves for a guided tour. Assuming we make that sidetrip, I will add a one last Slovenia post to this blog.

- The torture never stops

This post is an augment to our Ljubljana trip mentioned in an earlier posting. It starts out innocent enough....Ljubjana, like many European cities, has a hilltop castle. Here it is:

and like so many tourists - we climbed the hill to see it....

- Ljubljana, or "thou shalt NOT pass...without a vignette!"

Dober dan (doh-burr-dhan) and Dobrosodli (doh-broh-doh-shlee). That is to say, "Good day and Welcome".  Yesterday, we spent the day in Ljubljana.

It's about a 2-hour drive Northeast of Piran.  During the drive we discovered our biggest error to date.
Since leaving Italy the toll crossings in Slovenia have all been "unmanned-booths-drive-straight-thru-no-stop" affairs. Although, we wandered about this for the first few passings, we never investigated much because there was noone present in the booths to ask. Besides, we noticed the trucks would always be separated from the cars so we just figured, "okay, the trucks are either getting weighed or being charged and the cars sail right through - easy". Ahhhh.... if we had just been able to read the street signs! It would have been so much more clear,"Vignette required before entering highway".  These vignettes are sold at petrol stations: generally, not at the booths. Having driven straight into the country with full ignorance three days prior, we had nothing posted on our car.
Not until we exited the Autostrade on our way to Ljubljana did we encounter a person actually present in the booth. He asked, "do you have a vignette?" As soon as he asked the realization that we had passed through multiple "toll" booths over the past several days, each one equipped with a camera that, as we sat at this booth discussing our situation with this person, now seemed blatantly obvious pointed directly at our windshield right where you would place the required vignette allowing access to the autostrade.  Whoops!

After purchasing our vignette from him he informed us, "dis is not good" quickly signaling us to move on. What we now realize he was saying was, "I am sorry, but this is going to cost you when you get home". In looking up the fine we learned it is applied in hefty 300 - 800 Euro doses. Ouch.

Here is a good website that we should have checked before entering Slovenia. This will be our lesson learned for the future.

http://www.rearviewmirror.tv/toll-booth-vs-vignette/

During our drive to Ljubljana we left the limestone based Karst Region with its extraordinary maze of caverns (hopefully covered in a future blog), and entered the long Ljubljana basin containing the Slovenian capital. It's a beautiful city in a very fine valley surrounded by a combination of low lying hills and the Julian Alps. With the prior days rain the air was clear and you could see most of the surrounding area.

Partial view of Ljubljana from Castle

Ljubljana itself was very impressive. It was the first large city that we visited that had a truly "car free" central downtown. People were out walking and visiting and listening to the various local musicians who abound in the city central.  

Musicians downtown

Bikes and walking downtown

Interesting artwork along one of many footbridges

Another shot of downtown

I wish I knew

Again, I wish I knew

Taking a break from the flute

Here are some interesting notes we found on Ljubljana. 

• Slovenia only recently gained independence in 1991. Therefore, this capital has a strong residual Yugoslavian culture. As the struggle for independence lasted more than 1000 years, Ljubljana passed from one ruling nationality to another.  Resulting in a diverse population and culture. Many Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians stayed here after the break-up of the old country. The music, food, and general culture is considered to be very diverse. We certainly found this to be true. Our waiter spoke 5 languages.
• There are around 250,000 people in Ljubljana. Ljubljana is a city of students, with one-tenth of the city's population studying in one of the faculties here.  We noted young people throughout the city.
• Some suggest that the name Ljubljana comes from the latin word "Aluviana", as a result of a massive flood the city once experienced. A more sentimental suggestion comes from the Slavic word for beloved “Luba”.  We found a lot of information on this question when searching the web. Certainly there is more to this than posted here.
• The food was fantastic. For lunch we enjoyed excellent salad (a staple everywhere we have been), celery root soup, a Slovenian version of ravioli, and last, but certainly not least, prekmurska gibanica (folded cake). The gibanisha was really something. Our waiter explained  that this traditional dessert is something his grandmother has always served. Basically, it was a layered cake topped with ricotta cheese, apple, honey, poppy seeds and walnuts.  Here is a photo.

Gibanisha

We thoroughly enjoyed this city, especially walking amongst the historic buildings, listening to the musicians and enjoying the fine weather along the Ljubljana River that winds through city central.

Along the river

Clock and Bell Tower

This is a city we could easily spend an extended period of time exploring. Above all else, we noticed the friendly and open people we met. For example, as we were leaving we had a moment of confusion trying to understand how to pay for our parking. Along came a guy who not only took the time to walk me over to the pay booth, explain how it worked, but he then instructed us to wait for him in our car.  He proceeded to guide us out of the city to ensure we did not get lost. 

We had an excellent time in this wonderful city. It was well worth the drive and one of the highlights of our trip to date.
   

If you are interested, please look for a future blog on Ljubljana focused entirely on our hike up to the castle including a visit to the "museum of torture". It was too much to include here.  

Lastly, I apologize for the length of my blogs when I encounter a place I enjoy. But, after all, reading this is completely voluntary on your part. You can always just run through the pictures or skip to the end. Having properly apologized I hope you enjoyed this recount of our visit to Ljubljana.  For now, I'll just say "Nasvidenje" (nas-vee-deh-nye).  That is, "goodbye"...

- Slo-ing down in Slovenia

View of the Piran Peninsula from our deck

We left Liguria by car and drove 6.5 hours across northern Italy to Slovenia. We traversed a SW portion of the Piedmont district and skirted by Milan, Lake Garda and Venice. We didn't stop at these since all of them are anticipated stops later in our trip and will be in this blog later on.  We left the steep coastal hills of Liguria and ended on the sloping plains of Slovenia without so much as a single border stop.  They all seem

- Ahhh...Italy at last

I am delayed in starting this blog.  It's already June 21 and we flew into Torino Italy on June 16.  Better late than never.

Torino, our first stop, was fascinating. An industrial city sitting at the base of the Alps in the Piedmont district, with all kinds of history. It's also the kind of city where someone says, "Oh, you're from the USA, but what brought you to Torino?". As though there are so many other better places in Italy not considering Torino to be a destination.  But Torino is full of history and interesting

DISCLAIMER - Read This

This blog should not be taken too seriously. It should not be considered as a reference point for any undertaking more significant than cleaning a hamsters cage or closing a curtain. These are simply ramblings about things seen, heard, smelled, felt, tasted and experienced. Please do not expect to be educated or enlightened. You may not even be entertained. I strive to be cognizant of what I write, who I include; and how I portray people, places and situations. In the end these are simply one persons perspective.

I enjoy blogging and will continue to do so as long as that remains true. Unlike food I enjoy putting these posts out more than taking them in. Alternatively, you may enjoy consuming one or two of these posts. If not, no one is forcing you. Just stop looking.

Thanks.