Piran, Slovenia

(17 on the map)

I was scheduled to return my rental car in Portoroz (just south of Piran) the following morning to Sixt, but having a car in Piran is a burden in a sense (you have to park it outside of town in a lot). So I decided to drop it the night before scheduled. I arrived in Portoroz before their scheduled closing time but for the life of me I could not find their sign or location! The addresses on the main street of Portoroz are not clearly noted in many cases, so I drove back and forth looking. I asked a few people, “Where’s Sixt?” and no one seemed to know exactly. They pointed me in the direction I had already been looking. Finally, I found their tiny storefront, still before closing time, only to find them gone! I called them from my cell phone, and they told me to drop it across the street at the hotel.

How to get to Piran? It’s about a half hour walk but with all my bags I wasn’t about to do that. I figured I’d take a taxi. I didn’t even know where my B&B (B&B Miracolo di Mare) was in Piran – I’d booked it just about a week ago while I was traveling. By chance, the bell hop (really nice kid) working at the hotel knew where the restaurant near the B&B was. He even told me how to take the bus from Portoroz directly there. For a change I got lucky: as soon as I walked down the steps from the hotel to the bus stop, the next bus to Piran pulled up and I got right on. The B&B was only a short walk from the bus stop, very easy to find! It was comfortable enough, a great value.

I got off the bus in Piran to find the sun almost setting, so I quickly got out my camera gear and started taking sunset pictures with boats in the harbor. This as it turned out was probably my first real “sunset” of this trip and it was gorgeous over the Adriatic!

Piran, Slovenia - Boat at Sunset

Next I headed over to Tartini Square, the town’s main square, which was magically it up at night.

Tartini Square, Piran, Slovenia, Dusk

with kids skateboarding and rollerblading around:

The next day, I headed up to the town walls to find the best vantage point possible down on the town. I knew the light would be optimal in the morning, but I went back to the same location at sunset, too.

Piran, Slovenia view from Town Walls

I had few plans for my single day in Piran. The next morning (Sunday), I was heading early to Trieste en route to Venice and on to Pisa. I figured I’d take it easy (because my feet by now were REALLY trashed from so much walking), take a dip in the Adriatic, explore beautiful Piran. The only possible thing on my agenda was a side tip over to Koper (30 minutes away by bus), where a dessert festival of sorts was going on – sounded tasty, but Saturday buses weren’t very convenient. So I just chilled in Piran and took pictures on and off all afternoon just in the town itself.