I know I promised Slovenia on this weeks post. And it will be I promise, but before I go there, I realised there's something I forgot last week, when writing about Italy. It's not exactly Venice, it's more Trieste but still. I've never been to Trieste either would you believe? I mean that's pretty much in Slovenia (should be ours if you ask me – sorry not sorry) and I've never been. Idk why, guess it never had the appeal. It's a nice town, quite big, bigger than I expected but I suppose if you don't have a specific business to attend there, what's the point really?
I just stopped in Trieste this year because we were on the way to ''Castello di Miramare'', Spanish for ''Ocean view'' or better ''looking at the ocean''. Mira – look, mare – ocean. Miramare is a castle. And not just a castle but A CASTLE. It's beyond beautiful, the ocean view quite literally from every room, my god it's nothing if not absolutely gorgeous. And the castle itself, pure architectural beauty. I've seen a lot of castles, but I don't think any of them can compare. It was designed by Carl Junker and build between 1856 and 1860, it was supposed to have 3 stories but due to lack of money the last story wasn't built. Not like it's lacking anything, if you ask me the damn thing is perfect as is.
It's a waste though if you ask me, I don't think anyone lives in the castle today. Why can't someone like me have it I wonder. I mean I would give it all the love and attention. Yes to a building. Don't argue with me, if you'd seen it in person you'd understand. I would sell my soul for the view alone, nevermind the castle itself. It's a museum today, you can see private rooms of Maximillian and his wife on the ground floor. Ferdinand Maximillian (Franz Josephs younger brother) was a sea captain, a comander of the Austrian navy, so part of the rooms on that ground level are made by the looks of the Austrian ship ''SMS Novara''. It's crazy and kinda strange and kinda perfect, it's like a ship in a castle. Wild. You have more lavish, luxury rooms on the first floor meant for guests. I don't know about the second one though. Maybe there are people living in the castle after all. Someone had to inherit it. Imagine that, a will in which you get THAT. One can dream right?
The castle comes with a 22 hectares huge park. ''Parco Miramare'' it's ridiculous to be honest. Just like the castle is over the top so is this park. Full of all kinds of rare and tropical plants which of course will grow in Italy since lately Italy is completely tropically hot in the middle of September. These are actually the plants that Maximillian brought back from his travels and planted in the park. Which kinda makes the entire park even cooler. I mean, I collect Hard rock cafe charms, but that's not nearly as cool as pointing at a palm tree from your mansion going ''oh yeah, I brought that one from South Africa''.
Enjoy my favourite pictures from the site below, all shot with a Nikon D7200. Obsessed with that thing. Completely and utterly obsessed.
Now back to Slovenia. I told you last week it's even more beautiful than Italy. Well hardly true, Italy is amazing. But we are not far behind. Slovenia is absolutely beautiful. I always say though there's only two bearable spots in this country. One the view from the castle in my hometown and the second the sea side. We don't have much of a coast line but as much as we have is beyond perfect. Crystal clear water, beautiful views, and the nicest people you could find. Really, honest to god, people at the sea side, like they're not ours. So kind, so sweet, so helpfull, all seem happy to get up in the morning and do their jobs even if crappy ones. It's amazing. Though it's not like I don't understand, waking up with an ocean breeze, sunshine and sea side view every day would most likely make me about 60% happier than I am. Which tbh, is quite a lot. I don't know when this desire first happened. Years ago I believe, when we used to spend all summers and long weekends at the seaside, but I always wanted to live there. A tiny house in a Mediterranean style with lavender in the garden and a balcony looking at the sea. Heaven right there. Impossible heaven but as I said above, one can dream.
I haven't been in the Slovenian sea side in a long time, sure quick weekends, which were more like drive through than anything. This was the first time in a while staying for more than a week. I guess Corona, and our government giving us traveling vouchers (dumbest thing on the planet but given that taxpayer money will pay for them whether you go or not…) made us all vacation close to home. I was disappointed because well, I wanted Berlin for 12 years and this year was the year when everything alligned and we could go but then corona said ''e boga mi nečeš'' or if I translate ''fuck no''. But honestly, I wasn't that disappoined in the end of the day. As I said this part of my home is absolutely beautiful, I got to explore the amazing views, marine life in museums and in the ocean, went on a boat dolphin watching (not that we saw any), got to spend a tiny ammount of time in Trieste drinking the best Aperol (only Italians do it right), got to swim a lot, I know I don't look like it but actually I'm part mermaid, I love swimming and I love the ocean. And not to mention Venice. All in all, there is literally nothing to complain about, I feel blessed to even be able to go on vacation.
Our hotel was based in Koper or as we call it in Italian Capodistria. It's a cool name because this region is called ''Istra'' or Slovenian Istra. And Koper is at the very top, so the name Capodistria came from ''Capo d'Istria'' – ''Top of Istra''. Brilliant aint it? It's a pretty town, more industrial than the rest, we got the huge port ''Luka Koper'' which I believe is part of the reason we're in Europe in the first place, it's the perfect window to the sea side from Europe and a point of dispute all the time, seems like everyone wants the port. But like, thank god, it remains the one thing that's not (yet) for sale since we already sold out pretty much the entire country. Despite it being slightly more industrial and the port and huge cranes really ruin the esthetics of the city, don't get me wrong it's a beautiful city. The marina with all the pretty sailboats, the ocean side walking paths, the very city center with the ''Tito square'', the beautiful and huge national park with all the wild life. Amazing. One could do with a few less shopping malls but okay, I suppose modern tourism needs that too and I should probably be quiet since I spent quite some money in it. Mostly T shirts. Shut up okay, I know I have a problem, me and my thousand plus shirts that I have no where left to put.
Our sea side being as small as it is meaning you can jump from city to city easily. It's like a 5 to 10 minute drive from Koper to Portorose to Piran and Lucia and Isola. Which brings us to Piran / Pirano. There is nothing and I do mean nothing more beautiful on this planet then this city is. It's a city that was ''build on salt'' as they love to say. There's a huge salt marsh nearby, producing only the best ( and world famous in so many kitchens ) salt, called the ''salt flower''. They say that the salt is the ocean that couldn't go back into the sky and I find that so awfully poetic and romantic for some reason, maybe my deeply rooted love for the ocean and all things related. The salt of course is amazing on it's own. Nothing like your regular table salt at all. I mean one would think salt is salt but believe me it really isn't. Piran is located at the very end of the coast line, it's a cape town which is what makes it so cool, if you climb up to the remains of the city wall ruins the view is just mindblowing. We didn't go, the heat was impossible and the hike up in that heat…yeah no thank you, settled with the view from the church ground, which doesn't disappoint either.
Now listen to this crazy piece of info. Before the Romans meaning in the pre Roman era, the area of Piran, I suppose the cities weren't established by then since Piran is a fairly young city, was inhabited by Illyrian Histri tribes, they were farmers and fishermen and occassional hunters meaning pretty much Vikings. Let my have my fun will you. They were Slavic Vikings and that's that lol. BUT! The crazy part? There were pirates in the area who disrupted Roman trade once Romans started to settle in the northern Adriatic. Like, I'm sorry but my mind was completely blown with that info, all I saw in my head was Johnny Depp in that Jack Sparrow costume, tripping down the main pier drinking rum, talking to seagulls. Lol. Wild imagination I know.
The city has a rich history, from Romans to the Venetian Republic between 1283 to 1797, you can still see some remains of their architectural influence on so called ''Venetian house''. Pirate assaults and actually enemy attacks from Republic of Genoa (makes sense we're neighbors) were succesfully repelled during the middle ages. In 1558 some sort of disease hit Piran, refered to as simple as pestilence, my first idea is a Dutch band when you say that word lol. But really I believe Pestilence is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Anyone having some weird Deja Vu flashbacks or is that just me? It was a nasty pandemic it killed over two thirds of the entire population. The rich history goes on and on though, it was part of the Austrian Empire, and later the Napoleonic Empire but what might be most fascinating is that on February 22nd 1812 the ''Battle of Pirano'' was fought beween two ships. A British one and a French one. God damn Brits won, capturing the French Rivoli on it's maiden voyage and forced her to surrended. Assholes just saying. This sea battle is obviously not the biggest and not the most significant but fascinating to me because it's the only one ever faught in our waters.
After the first world war, together with Trieste and really all of Istra, Piran was written to Italy. Can we return to that asshole thing? Because this was a shitty thing to do. And the reason why Trieste today though rightfully ours (look at the map) is not in fact ours. In 1954 Piran was returned to us, annexed to Yugoslavia by the London Memorandum which Yugoslavia and Italy signed together. Though I believe a lot of people in Piran actually emigrated to Italy then rather toan staying in ''socialist'' Yugoslavia. Like, life in YU was that bad. Would trade it for my current life in a heartbeat no joke.
Now the most important and probably my favourite part of Pirano is that in October 2010 Slovenia was the first former ''communist'' EU country to elect a black mayor. Peter Bossman who is from Ghana I believe. I'm sorry but that is so cool, rather than some parts of this country who are racist beyond belief, they elect a black mayor. Amazing.
Of course the not so pretty parts of the place are the fact that Slovenia and Croatia can't settle on the waters and water border in the Gulf of Pirano. There's been border disputes going on for years and it doesn't look like this will ever settle. Started in 1991 when Slovenia became independent and we're still going on today. Rather boring if you ask me and completely stupid given how much coast line Croatia has. But no has to be greedy has to want the little tiny piece we got.
Another fun fact is that Pirano is the birthplace of the famous violinist (no not David Garrett sadly) and composer Giuseppe Tartini. He clearly left a huge mark on shaping the entire city since today his role is more than obvious in the main square, named after him the ''Tartini Square''. It's the most prominent sight. And a really gorgeous one too. A huge statue of him was build on the 200th anniversary of his birth, which is what 130 or so years ago. The bronze statue that is in the middle od the square was created by a Venetian artist Antonio Dal Zotto. Less known but I know some of y'all heard of him is Cesare Dell'Acqua, a painter, who was also born here.
When I said these towns are near by and so close, I meant it, you can literally walk the distance if you want to. Say in Piran there's a nearby town called Fiesa which is connected to Pirano with a beach side promenade and it's actually really nice to walk along. Koper though is a bit further away but there are endless buses and real cheap too. What remains in this post of coastal cities is Portorose or in our language Portorož. I joke all the time calling it Slovenian Monaco, it's full of prestigious hotels like Adlon Kempinski and other spa's and resorts. Rich people destination believe me. It's today one of the best and most fancy seaside resorts in the Adriatic along with Grado, Lido and Abbazia. Believe me though out of those, I much rather stay home. Much nicer. Kempinski though, the hotel, bought our old run down Hotel Palace, it was always fancy but not doing so well before it was bought, today it's the finest hotel between Venice and Dubrovnik. How about that?
The name Portorose literally means ''Port of roses'' another romantic thing I like. Though if you ask cynical Slovenians you'll see they call it ''Portobeton'' which means port of concrete. Lol. Funny. Not that far off either. I mean yeah there's massive hotels, casinos and all kinds of restaurants and very little ''unruined'' coast line. They do have a beach that's my favourite to swim though and I mean, I do love coffee at the Kempinski…or the pizza place right across the street. One of the most important events though in Portorose is Internautica, an international boat show (went once, nearly lost my god damn eyes, those boats jesus christ) which usually has well over 400 exhibitors and 40 000 plus visitors. The problem is just that their market is usually, very luxury yachts. Hah. I mean that's kinda obvious from a quick walk around the Marina Portorose, nothing not fancy ''parked'' there.
What Portorose for me at least lacks is the ''soul'' the soul that other coastal cities here have, the run down houses, the typical architecture, narrow streets where you can reach out and touch houses on each side with your hands. It's too new, too flashy, too bright if you know what I mean. You can of course take a little hike up the hills and enjoy the green parts the rocky parts and the nice views, but if you're like me then head over to Bernardin beach (part of the hotel complex Bernardin) and enjoy. Water in Slovenia is as I said very clean but also very warm. Early September and it's still 25 C. Beaches also are mostly public, you only pay for say umbrellas or a deckchair (god knows where my mind is right now, almost wrote dickchair, hah) which is something I never really do because, the hell do you need one for, I spend 90% of the time at the beach swimming anyways.
There's that. I mean all the gorgeous lunch views, amazing food, nice people, beautiful nature, amazing sea, rich history, so much to do you literally can not be bored, beautiful weather even after main tourist season…it makes me feel stupid for my need to always ''explore the world'' there's so much of the world and so much beauty right here at home. And it's ridiculous because I do honestly love my home (don't ask again after about a week or so when gloomy gray weather and rude people make me wanna go on a murder spree) it's just the politics that's rotten. What else is new. I am enough of a patriot though to honestly say I would miss this place terribly should I ever leave. I love my ''Tailgate towns'' too much.
''it's a tailgate town, just a needle on a map dot route, hundred miles from the highway sound, in the middle of nowhere. Where time came and went, flying by like a new Corvette, oh but we ain't left it yet…''
P.S. How cool is the beach full of nothing but sea shells. There aint one just like it anywhere on this planet. Pretty awesome.
