Today I said goodbye to Heinz & Italy. Most of the riding was between regular Italian towns with regular Italian folk going about their day-to-day business. Fairly standard/easy riding. Until… Trieste. What a beautiful city! When descending from above it just looks nestled in a bay in the Adriatic. But when up close, those docked ships were vast up close compared to their toy-like profile from afar.
The architecture was amazing – classical in appearance and, I suspect, in authenticity. I guess it didn’t get bombed during the war.
Leaving Trieste I could feel butterflies in my stomach as I had by then ridden further east than I’d ever ridden before, and Slovenia was shown to be only 6Km away by signage.
Slovenia. Wow. Very pretty. And the roads… as good as those in Austria & Switzerland. You could have some serious fun here on a sports bike!
Petrol is finally cheaper too.
I found a little place in Obrov that had a “Bikers Welcome – Free WiFi” sign outside, so I’m staying here tonight and having a proper shower (I need it).
I also need to plan the next leg of my route, as I’m almost at the boundary of my paper maps.
Some of my basic Slovak has come in handy here:
Prossim (spelling) = Please
Pivo = Beer
All sorted!
[pause for a beer]
I’m still sat in the bar in Obrov, locals all around and nattering away to each other. One of them has bought me a beer. Yeah!
Slovenian is really poetic to listen to. They are talking about how much sugar there is in Coca-Cola (I think), but the blend of the Slavik tongue and Italian inflection is hypnotic.