Day 111 - Next

Time to move on to the next country – Croatia.  We had another great breakfast then went down to the promenade for a swim and lie in the sun for an hour and a half before back to the hotel for a shower and to check out.  It is a brilliant sunny day so disappointing we have to spend it on public transport. 

A few final photos of beautiful Piran architecture

We had one bus trip along the Slovenia coast to get to the main train station (took about 45 min), then a 2.5 hour train ride into Croatia.  It is time to put our Euros away, and when we get to Croatia we need to access some kuna (local currency).  It is great we have our accommodation booked for the next 2 weeks.  We can now focus on sorting out the site seeing we want to do in each town. 

Once our train arrived in Rijeka, Croatia we found an atm, bought tickets for the local bus and a taxi driver told us where to stand, then we travelled to our destination for the next 2 days – Opatija.  We tried to check in but the hotel initially told us that they did not have any record of our booking.  Not what we wanted to hear but it was all sorted out after about 20 min. 

Opatija is quite a contrast to Piran – for those who know, I liken Piran to Apollo Bay and Opatija to Lorne.  Piran was more like a small village with winding cobbled streets and a really quaint atmostphere.  Opatija is a lot more built up with restaurants and hotels, including a casino.  It is very touristy, but once again the water is crystal blue.  This town is geared towards tourists who want to lie on the banana lounge and soak up the sun, then dress up and go out for dinner and drinks.

We dropped out bags off in our room, quickly changed then headed off to a restaurant as by this stage it was 8.30pm.  Hotel staff directed us to a place close by – menu wasn’t thrilling us with local dishes so we had beer and pizza.  The service was really disappointing.

Sleeping was possibly going to be an issue.  Instead of church bells tolling every quarter of an hour, we had musicians at the bars in the area badly singing European songs.  We had to leave our balcony door open though as the room was stuffy.