Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Today is a travel day. It’s also hopefully a beard trim day. We got up at 6 am, packed up our little apartment, and went out for breakfast. We decided not to go back to Hotel Alp for the 15 Euro breakfast buffett, so we walked the main tourist street in Bovec looking or breakfast. We settled on one place that opened at 8 am, and looked at the menu. Before coffee, the dishes ran 13 Euro! So we got up and reluctantly went back to Hotel Alp. More so for the unlimited coffee than any other reason.
After breakfast, we started hunting for a beard trim in earnest. There’s a Paul Mitchell salon off the main drag, but when we stopped in, she said she has no time today for a beard trim. A few other salons were closed, and we walked 10 minutes down the way from our apartment, and she also said she had no time today. Honestly, in all our years of traveling, this is becoming the hardest beard trim to find.
We walked back to our place, and by now its 9:20 or so. Miha with Discover Soca Tours is coming at 10 am to take us to Piran. It’s the same company that’s been handling our bags since Podbrdo.
Miha arrives at 10 am on the dot, introduces himself, since we’ve never actually met him, and get in the car with him and his girlfriend Sonja from Bosnia. She’s accompanying us, since her trip to Morocco was scrapped due to a delay in getting their visas.
The next 2 and a half hours flew by and we talked travel and our trip highlights with Miha and Sonja.
The route from Bovec to Piran Slovenia goes through Italy, and we get stopped briefly by the Italian police. They very seriously check the back of the vehicle and our passports before letting us go on. Human smuggling or terrorism offenses is what they were looking for.
By 12:30, Miha drops us off in front of Tartini Square, and our hotel, Art Hotel Tartini is right there.
We walk into our hotel and drop off our big bags, but check in is not until 3 pm. We walk around the town, eat our stolen sandwiches, and visit the TI. We also come across a hair salon, who reluctantly agreed to trim Nathan’s beard with a clippers if we came back in an hour.
By this point, Nathan is quite motivated, so we’re back at 1:50 on the dot. The gal gets him in, an 4 Euro later, he’s feeling quite dapper indeed.
We checked into our hotel promptly at 3, finished off our wine from yesterday, and relaxed and enjoyed this new town and scenery. My feet are happy the hike is over, but I’ll miss the cuckoos and their incessant chatter, and the peaceful nature filled hikes we’ve been enjoying. From here on out its people and cities and European life to take in.
