15 July, 2012. Today I turn 53, a milestone for me. My dad died when he was 52. All year I have thought of that, and today I am happy to report I have outlived him. A relief. Well, it will be after 9:00 when it officially turns into the 15th in California. Better stay safe till then.
To top it off, yesterday I found the holy grail of truffle pasta. There it is, one of the major accomplishments of my life.
For some reason I am not very hungry this morning, so a cappuccino alone does the trick. I dump the remaining kuna paying for the apartment, so we are heading out broke.
It is surprisingly easy to get to the Slovenia border. It seemed like our little mountain town was way inland, but we were by the Adriatic in about ten minutes, at the border ten minutes after that. Leaving Croatia they barely glanced at our passports, waving us to keep rolling on even as I was attempting to stop. But, half a kilometer later, Slovenia was very strict in comparison; I actually had to stop at the stop sign and wait all of five seconds while he stamped it. As far as checking them as ID he did glance at the cover. "Mr. United States, welcome!”
I wanted to point out that perhaps they should inquire if I stole the car? Or perhaps look to see if we had a kilo of drugs in the trunk. Weapons? But no, we were waved on in.
At this point I am wondering how it will go when we re-enter the US. "So, I see you departed Croatia but never actually entered, is that correct?" I can only hope they don’t turn to the page with the Albanian stamp on it… I’ll have some ‘splainin to do.
Piran is just over the border, an old town on a narrow point sticking out in the ocean. You can actually see the buildings in Triest, Italy from here. It is all so close. We drop our stuff at the hotel (A real hotel today, big, all the fancy amenities and stiff price, curiously no WiFi, but a great shower to make up for it, and none of the quaint, personal service we love. It reminds us why we love the little pensions and guesthouses we stay at.). As we walk, it is windy, cool, dark and cloudy. Rain? But it is just a tease, by noon it is sunny and hot. Green noodles with salmon and gorgonzola for lunch.
We start to plan for the beach when storm clouds blow in and everyone empties off the beach, so we go hike up to the church and castle (great view) where... the sun comes out and wind dies. We head down to the beach, but as we round the last corner we are almost blown off our feet, the clouds gather, huge waves crash in... and so it goes. We never end up at the beach, but we do discover a lot of little nooks and crannies in town. Up onto the old fortress walls for a great view over the city, then winding our way down through covered walkways in town. Out to the point of the town, where a church with an octagonal bell tower guards against the waves, whimsical figures carved into the stones of the breakwall. We pass a pleasant hour at Danoi Bar, drinking wine and using the free WiFi.
Later we find a hidden square, small corner cafe, just the sort of local hide-away place we love to eat… and have the worst meal of our entire trip. Ugh. Just plain awful. We have had such good luck with these back alley places too. The sad part is, I can still smell the truffles from yesterday, like the oil has permeated my nose, or skin. Gail says I smell like truffles too.
So we sat on our little patio, watching the sun set, and I had a beer and pistachios as we watched a movie on my iPod, and the people walking by.