Outside it was cold and rainy and the forecast was for more of the same all day in Ljubljana, which is why Kat had planned for us to be in Piran where it was supposed to be warm instead. The rain didn't stop us from wearing our beach clothes while we wandered old town as we waited for our bus. Old town was as dead as we had seen it so far. There was hardly any market to speak of and it seemed like maybe it was delivery day because there were trucks everywhere. We cut our stroll short and headed to the bus station to get our tickets.
While at the station we ran into our friend from breakfast. He'd decided to take our advice and had booked the next seat to Lake Bled. We wished him luck and pretty soon it was time to leave for us as well. We'd briefly discussed the idea of stringing together a trip to one of the caves along the way to Piran for a quick tour, but it seemed a bit too complicated and time consuming using public transportation so we skipped the caves and headed straight to the coast.
Slovenia has a tiny section of coast along the Mediterranean sandwiched between Italy on one side and Croatia on the other. The country is kind of shaped like a chicken running East and the town of Piran is situated on the heel of its back foot on a small spit of land sticking out into the sea. The ride there took 2.5 hours and I got some time to read a little bit of my book on my phone. Kat was excited to see and maybe even stick her feet in the Mediterranean before vacation was over.
Soon we were dropped off in Piran with no map, no plan, and scariest of all no Rick Steves! Our guidebook barely mentioned Piran and we didn't really know what to do without his steady guidance. Luckily Piran is a tiny little town and if you get lost you'll find the sea again soon enough. Mostly we wanted to know where we should eat. We tried stopping by the first tourist agency along the main road, but it was closed for lunch. At least the weather was nice and warm and we were in the mood for a stroll. We started wandering along the waterfront and would detour into the narrow crooked back streets whenever the mood struck us. When you got out of sight from the chain restaurants and other tourists it was easy to imagine you were in a secluded secret romantic getaway.
Without our favorite guide we had to guess on where to eat. After wandering the busy waterfront and scanning prices we moved deeper into town and eventually found a spot that seemed affordable and had more than just fish on the menu. We ordered beers and Kat wanted some risotto without fish, but ended up having to settle for truffles and noodles again, and I had spaghetti bolognese. It ended up being okay, but not amazing. I'm sure if we'd spent more time we could have found a better spot, but we were both hungry and just wanted to eat something and get on with our exploring.
After lunch we stopped by the tourist agency again and it was open. The laid-back guy running it gave us a free map and said it's best to just go get lost. He was right and that's pretty much what we were already doing, but I just feel better having a map in hand. Using the map for the general layout we managed to find our way through the back streets up to the top of the town where there were some old towers and parts of the old town wall still intact. It was free to climb up them so we did. The stairs were steep and the doors were very low and narrow. The combination of heights and tight spaces was a bit nerve-racking for me but I got through it by thinking about the great views and pictures waiting for me at the top. It was great and we're pretty sure we could see Italy and maybe even Croatia from up there.
Working our way down the other side of the hill I spotted a trail that looked like it would lead down to the water so we followed it. It eventually did and we took the stairs down to a somewhat secluded rocky beach. I say somewhat secluded because I didn't see anyone down there, but when we reached the bottom and turned the corner there was a naked guy laid out flat on his back on the rocks sunbathing. He blended into the buff colored rocks and he might have even been part chameleon he was so hard to see, but once you saw him you couldn't unsee it. I tried to steer us away from the guy before Kat could see him, but she was curious why we couldn't go that way and when I tried to explain she got even curiouser. I don't know if she ever saw him though since he was so well camouflaged.
We found a spot a little ways away where Kat could take her shoes off and walk into the water. She did and told me it was kind of slimy. I didn't want to walk around in slime covered feet so I opted to stay on shore and just document the event.
When she was all done it was time for more gelato. We hiked back up through town and before long we'd found a gelato stand in the main square. Kat got a lemon scoop and I got strawberry flavor. We'd done just about everything we'd hoped to do already so we figured we could take the next bus back to Ljubljana which was in 45 minutes or so. That was enough time to go have a glass of white wine by the water.
We caught our bus and I didn't have any trouble with the driver this time. It was another 2.5 hour ride and I fell asleep for part of it. Overall we probably spent 5 hours on the bus and only a little bit over 4 hours in Piran, but I think it was still worth it. When we got back we took a short break in the room before heading back into old town for dinner.
That night we opted for a quick meal at Kolbasarna where they served up delicious sausages, yummy turnip soup, and canned beers. It was just what we were looking for. Since it was our last night in Ljubljana we celebrated with a piece of chocolate pie at a cafe called Marley and Me. The pie was good, but the service was agonizingly slow. We finally got out of there and headed back to the room and called it a night.
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