Sunday in Koper

We have been pretty Koper-based for a while, getting the children settled in school and kindergarten, but that just prompted me into actually chronicling what we do around here at the weekend (hint: it is no longer cleaning a 4 bedroom, 3-bathroom house, mowing an acre, weeding or shovelling chicken poop). Sorry I am a bad photographer - I need an internet course on how to take good photos on your android phone when you are short-sighted.

On Sunday morning, there is a flea market in the old town, and, as we are second hand bargain junkies, it is pretty much the highlight of the weekend. We take the longer, but more scenic and shaded route from our apartment in the hills down to town, along the canal.

We come out via the main underpass, which has recently been painted with a mural depicting the history, culture and mythology of Koper...

...and onto the promenade. This wasn´t here when we lived in Koper before. The city is working hard to revamp this section of the coast and make it pleasant for local families and holiday makers.

Here is the entrance to the market. Sorry there are not interesting close ups of the stalls. I still feel dumb taking photos of things like that. It´s like saying, "Hi, let me take a photo of all your old clothes and display it to the entire planet." It is mostly non professionals trading, so there is a bit of everything. As far as I know there aren´t any charity shops/ thrift stores here, so this is where everyone goes for second hand stuff. People even pop over from Italy to sell. So far, we have got bikes for three out of the four of us, plus a few items of clothing. This Sunday, I bought a new-with-tag tunic dress for five euros.  The lady on the stall spoke Italian, but because I am concentrating on Slovene right now, it´s hard to dredge up my poco Italiano. She was rattling off numbers, and I got lost somewhere after solo cinque. I was thinking, Can´t we do this in Slovene? I know my Slovene numbers to 100 if you say them really slowly!

We peruse the market until our toddler is about to launch a full blown rebellion, then head off to the beach down the road. I have mentioned before that actual beaches are thin on the ground (or coast) in this area of the world, the Koper beach is a small artificial stone beach, with a nice park area behind it, plus a sand pit so that the children can actually make sand castles. I get to sharpen my language skills listening to sand pit talk between small children and their parents because they have to say things like gremo domov (we are going home) about twenty times over before they can get the children to budge.

Depending on the time and hunger levels when we leave, we head off for pizza or gelato. The little bakery up the hill sells you a quarter of a pizza for a euro. Or, the ice cream place at the entrance to the beach offers kid-sized portions of gelato for a euro twenty. I am not a big ice cream fan, which is a shame since we are in gelato country, but this weekend the shop up the road had my favourite flavour: ferrero roche, complete with swirls of chocolate nut fondant. So two trips to two ice cream shops later, we were headed back along the promenade, home for lunch. Here is the little one, eating the end of my cone, along with his own.

Happiness is... an ice cream for each hand.

And I would say as a postscript, I know these sorts of posts can sound like showing off, but really, I am so grateful when I stop to think about our new lifestyle. We worked and saved hard in the US for our "working retirement" here in Koper. It´s weird to be a cliche, but really, you are never to old to follow your dreams!

Tourist info: We´re here. Come visit :)