When you travel, you wake up in foreign countries to the sounds of nature or city streets below, each telling its own story. During my last travel in December, lying in my bed listening to “new” stories, reminded me of a story way back in 2016, which is still one of the few I remember very well.

 

Waking up in Piran

 

I woke up this morning with the sun peeping through the small louvre windows in the apartment on the third floor. The white-painted window frames are part of the general architecture of this small town of Piran, hidden on a cape, the most western tip of the very short 45km Slovenian coastline.

The Clock of the old church on the square tirelessly announces the time... Six times a large clock counted… followed by a smaller clock that rang once...This is how they pronounce 'quarter past six’ in Piran, as they still manage to live life without a watch.

You can hear the unpacking in the marketplace downstairs. People talking. I don't understand one word. Crates of fresh fruit and vegetables are packed out with patience every morning to greet some of the 3500 inhabitants of Piran, with its 13,000 tourist beds on offer for holidaymakers.

Listening to the foreign dialect, I lie in my bed with a smile, for laughter is universal in the world. They are happy, although selling fruit and vegetables is one of the most challenging careers in the world… it is also perhaps one of the most honest ones.

Walking out onto the small marketplace, each vendor tries to make eye contact to sell their fresh produce, which is not very different from the others, but all are eager to make a sale to a tourist who speaks a language some of them do not understand, but enough to make a sale.

The market remained a buzz for the day until the night drew a blanket over the roofs of the buildings that form a maze of small walkways.

A lonely streetlamp will keep watch over the empty tables until the old clock strikes six again, giving the vendors the signal to start unpacking… just like yesterday… so will be tomorrow… and the day after tomorrow.