Have Smart Forfour will Travel! Yeah!

Peik Lean Y.

Next, getting out of Trieste to Slovenia was a nightmare! The road signs in Italy can give Malaysia a run for her money. Talk about idiotic placement of road signs … Trieste had it all. At one point, we thought we’d never leave Trieste and would probably have to spend the rest of the vacation looking for a tunnel. Bleh! Su and Cecile actually bought a map of Italy for motorists for all the good it did us. After going round and round in circles, trying to locate the road that would lead us to the tunnel crossing, we finally made it by the grace of some divine intervention!

Slovenia here we come! Our initial plan was to drive to Piran first, climb the town walls and enjoy the fabulous views of the Adriatic Coast and then head on to Koper to stay the night. But first things first ~ food! It was way past lunch time after all the missed turns in Trieste. We drove towards Piran, found a decent looking-restaurant on the way and stopped for food. Oops! None of us had Slovenian Tolars! We ended up paying in Euros at a more expensive exchange rate. What the heck! We needed sustenance and that was that.

The journey continued and we finally reached our destination ~ Piran ~ and promptly fell in love with it. Words can’t describe how quaint and beautiful Piran is. I’ll leave the pictures for you to judge. Piran is simply a small fishing village that has been turned into a weekend getaway for the locals! It is located at the tip of a small peninsula and it embodies what I would expect of an off-beat Mediterranean town … and more! Interestingly enough, no cars or buses were allowed into the town of Piran except for the small town buses (which was about the size of our previous pink mini buses) and cars that have been approved by the authorities. There was a huge parking lot just outside the town and we parked our spiffy Smart Forfour there. The cost of parking was not cheap although for the life of me now, I can’t remember how much we paid. There was only a single road in and out of the town.

We walked into town to check out the place but were so awed by it that we immediately looked for the YHA to stay a night. Hunting for the YHA was like looking for a needle in a haystack. The buildings were built haphazardly and crowded around the tip of the peninsula. Rows of buildings were separated by narrow streets; some of which led to nowhere. Finally, found the YHA, we did. Lucky for us, there were ample rooms available and we chose one with two double-decker beds.

Next on the agenda was to change more Tolars. We went into town and managed to find a bank that was still open. After counting our Tolars, we headed straight to the church and town walls as planned! It was a long climb up but the spectacular sights at the end of the climb made it all worth while.