We woke up hopeful that the weather would have improved and were really disappointed when it was still grey and rainy outside. After a nice breakfast in the B&B, we got wrapped up once again for our day in Piran. As soon as we had left the sky started to clear, and when we reached the Cathedral we saw our first bit of sun which made us extremely excited!
Piran was so picturesque with cobbles everywhere, but this had its drawbacks as Sara stubbed her toe really badly 🙁 Even so, we were all smiles as the clouds disappeared and the weather got better and better. We wandered around the town to see all of its main sights, and then stopped for a delicious (and enormous) lunch in a busy pizzeria. Oli’s pizza was a dream come true, with chips on top!
By the time we left, all evidence of the storm had disappeared and the sky was a gorgeous blue.
We popped back to the B&B for a quick change of clothes and then spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sunshine by paddling in the amazingly clear sea and eating ice cream next to the marina.
We really couldn’t believe our luck, we thought the rain would never end. Piran was beautiful in the rain, but even more so in the sun – like a cross between Venice and Padstow. We seemed to get the best of both worlds – it was quiet as it was the end of the season, but the weather was like summer.
Later, we had another seafood dinner while spying on the couple next to us who managed to drink their way through their own three-course feast of beer, white and red wine. Wow!
We had another fairly short journey to Piran, a coastal town in Slovenia. First, we caught a train to Koper which took about 2 and a half hours. Once again, we had our own compartment which was nice. On the way we saw lots of flooding, which seemed to suggest that maybe the rain we’d experienced so far in Slovenia wasn’t entirely normal. We also saw some amazing views from up high as we made our way through the mountains, but a lot of what we should have seen was obscured by cloud – once again the weather was awful. We had hoped the weather in Piran would be better, but as we got closer and closer it still hadn’t changed. Once in Koper, we hopped on a local bus to take us to Piran. Sara fell over on the bus and got stuck on her back like a tortoise – not very dignified but very funny! Luckily, our bed and breakfast was about a minute’s walk from the bus stop.
There wasn’t a safe in our room, so we needed a new and innovative way to embarrass ourselves on arrival. Within minutes we found one! We searched the whole bathroom for the flush on the toilet but couldn’t find it anywhere, so Oli was nominated to go downstairs and ask. For future reference, it was well above head height on top of the cistern, so we’ll know to look there next time! We dried off and relaxed in the room for the afternoon as the weather was so bad outside. The rain eased a little bit in the evening, so we wrapped up and went out for dinner. Thankfully, we decided on a restaurant quite quickly and were inside when the storm hit once again. We had pretty dramatic rain, thunder and lightning. We were sitting in a marquee-style extension to a restaurant on the seafront, so we could really hear and see (and feel – it leaked on Oli) all that was going on outside. We had a lovely meal of soup, seafood and pancakes (not in the same course) with a really friendly waiter, who came out with a gem when Oli asked for the bill – “if you really insist!” We think his meaning was just lost in translation. Later on, Sara finished reading The Island, and Oli finished Marley and Me while tucked up in bed as the storm continued.
This morning, we had to check out and move to a pension that the receptionist had kindly booked us the night before. We weren’t quite sure what to expect as it was very cheap, but we were welcomed so warmly by the owner, who was a real character. He showed us around everywhere and let us have the keys even though it was only 10am! We were really pleased as it was not somewhere we would have found ourselves.
Dressed to kill
The rainy weather continued, but we wrapped up and left for the day, and were soaked within minutes in a torrential downpour. We took shelter in a cafe and had some more hot chocolate while we waited for it to pass.
About an hour later, it was still so heavy that we didn’t think it would ever stop! Our plans to walk up to the castle were quickly replaced by a trip on the funicular railway, which we were sure would have had a great view if the cabin wasn’t totally steamed up. At the castle, we climbed the viewing tower to get a closer look at the clouds. We could barely see the ground by this point, but we went as high as we could anyway to get our money’s worth…Ljubljana was nowhere to be seen! To avoid heading back out into the rain, we had lunch in the castle restaurant, which was a lot more posh than we’d initially realised. As we sat there in our hoodies smelling of wet dog, more and more businesspeople in suits turned up. Somehow, they didn’t seem nearly as wet as us! Oh well, it was a lovely meal and really warmed us up. We shared a venison goulash and some Slovenian sausages with roasted potatoes, yummy.
After exhausting all the castle had to offer, we went back down into the main town to have our first proper look around. We joked about how all we’d seen of Ljubljana so far was in the dark and/or pouring rain, but we liked it anyway. We ticked off as many sights as we could whilst cowering under any shelter we could find to read the guidebook, then finally gave up and went back to our comfortable pension to dry off.
We spent the afternoon booking hotels on the handy computer in our room, and then headed out later for dinner. After wandering around for a while looking for a restaurant, we finally settled on a Mexican which had been mentioned in LP. We popped our heads in and saw that there was a queue so nearly left, but then the heavens opened once again so we decided to stay. This turned out to be such a good choice! It was without doubt the best meal of our trip so far – each main included three sides which were all delicious and we were totally stuffed by the end of our meal. The decor was amazing too, with colourful rag rugs covering the walls and used as placemats. The restaurant was probably a reason to return to Ljubljana in itself!
We stumbled out with full tummies but needed to break some notes for change so we just had to have an ice cream (what a pity). Once again, Oli got in trouble for trying to pay with a large note. We must have looked quite a sight in our raincoats and flip flops holding an ice cream while sheltering from the rain! We heard some really loud live music on our way home which we guessed was coming from the Ljubljana Festival, but we were way too full and tired to investigate further. Despite the awful weather, we really liked Ljubljana – it was so pretty and chilled out.
We left early the next morning to catch our train to Piran, accidentally buying half the station bakery for breakfast on the way. We seemed to be the only ones eating anyway, as some men in station uniforms who were sitting on the neighbouring table had already started on the beers. This was a bit worrying as it was only 9am, but we convinced ourselves that it must have been the end, rather than the start, of their shifts!
