Day 214: Daytrip to Poreĉ, Croatia

UNESCO world heritage sites wait for no one, least of all us, so off we went again today! Piled into the car under heavy skies and started driving south towards Croatia. The Slovenian coastline is very short, and within 20 minutes we had crossed over into Croatia. Still inside the EU, but since they aren't part of Schengen and don't use the Euro, it felt like our first time almost outside the EU on this trip.

Our destination for the day was the coastal town of Poreĉ, home to an early Christian basilica dating from around the 4th and 5th centuries. We parked up nearby and wandered over to the waterfront location. Quite a few tourists around as this is ultimately a seaside town for people to have beach holidays (particularly Austrians, it seemed), but not too bad. Wandered along the old city walls and through the old town, then into the old basilica.

Lots of great old stuff on display here, including an enormous wall mosaic fresco from the 7th century in great condition. It even featured Euphrases (builder of the basilica) in a very prominent position, only a few people over from Jesus and Mary - very cheeky of him!

Did a bit more wandering after finishing up with the basilica, then headed to a burger restaurant on the waterfront for lunch. Very tasty burgers, though there was a brief downpour at one point and we got a little wet while they rolled out the awning! Back to the car and heading home, though we stopped briefly at the picturesque town of Piran (or Pirano) on the way.

It's quite odd around here, so many places have Slovenian or Croatian names and also an Italian name. And Slovenian, despite being a semi-Slavic language, seems to have quite a lot of loan words from Italian which I guess isn't surprising due to their proximity, but still just feels a little incongruous.

Didn't actually make it into the centre of Piran, as you needed to park quite a distance away and it was expensive, so we just had a look from a nearby rooftop and moved on. Back home where we settled in again for the evening, this time with some gnocchi with mushroom & tomato sauce. Another big thunderstorm tonight, which seems to be quite a regular event! Probably just the time of year I guess.Read more