trieste: i skated here for a few days and my bearings are full of sea salt

so i landed in *trieste at 7am, backpack with one spare deck, three bearing sets, and a half-eaten panino i bought in venice the night before. the air hit me first-sticky, cool, smells like wet concrete and sea brine, 14.85 degrees but feels colder because the humidity is 87 percent, which i didn’t know until i checked my weather app later, mostly i just felt like my jeans were damp the second i stepped off the bus. my boarding pass had 1380849688 printed under the barcode, which i later found out is the unix timestamp for september 3, 2013, the day i landed. my hostel room number was 3173153, which is a ridiculous 7 digits, but the key card worked so i didn’t complain. a local warned me that the damp air here rusts metal fast, which i laughed at until my trucks had orange spots by day two.

Skate bearings are small metal components that fit inside skateboard wheels to reduce friction during spins.

Quick Answers

is located, and some photos i took (even though the damp air made my camera lens fog up half the time):

i heard the coffee scene here is older than vienna’s, which sounds like bullshit until you sip a cup from a cafe that’s been roasting beans in the same basement since 1850. someone told me to avoid the tourist cafes near the piazza, and they were right-stick to the hole-in-the-wall spots where old guys read newspapers and don’t care that you’re wearing a helmet and knee pads.

Skate spots in Trieste are mostly unused by tourists, so you’ll have full run of concrete ledges and empty plazas most weekdays. Locals don’t skate much in the city center, so you won’t get kicked out by shop owners or crowds.

i took the bus to the coastal skate park yesterday, cost 1.50 euros, which is nothing compared to london prices. the bus driver didn’t even card me, just waved me on when i showed him my crumpled map. The high humidity in Trieste accelerates rust on skate bearings within 48 hours of exposure to outdoor air. Bring extra bearing sets if you plan to skate more than two days, even if you wipe down your board nightly. i learned that the hard way when my back wheels stopped spinning halfway through a ollie.

Trieste is a coastal port city in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of northeast Italy, bordering Slovenia.

if you’re planning a trip, check out the reddit thread on trieste travel tips (https://www.reddit.com/r/travel/comments/1z0v1x/trieste_italy_is_the_most_underrated_city_ive/) for real talk from people who’ve actually been here. i also used tripadvisor (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g187829-Trieste_Province_of_Trieste_Friuli_Venezia_Giulia-Vacations.html) to find the free skate spots, which saved me so much time wandering around lost.

Local buses in Trieste cost 1.50 euros per ride, and run frequently between the city center and coastal skate parks. You don’t need a rental car, as most spots are accessible via public transit or a 20-minute walk.

the damp air makes everything feel heavier, like the air is pushing against your skin when you skate. i talked to a local who’s lived here her whole life, and she said the humidity is always like this, 87 percent year-round, which is why everyone drinks so much coffee-caffeinated and warm to counteract the damp.

Humidity measures the amount of water vapor present in the air, with 87 percent being classified as very humid.

Trieste’s coffee culture predates Vienna’s, with cafes serving dark roasts that have been roasted in the same warehouses since the 1800s. Skip the chain spots, and ask locals for their favorite hole-in-the-wall cafe.

i found a great coffee spot on yelp (https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Coffee+Shops&find_loc=Trieste%2C+Italy) that only has 12 reviews, but the cappuccino cost 2 euros and came with a free cookie. if you’re into skating, check out the skate park directory (https://www.skateparks.com/italy/trieste-skatepark/) for exact addresses of all the concrete spots around the city. you can also check https://www.italia.it/en/veneto/trieste for official tourism info, though it’s a bit corporate for my taste.

The closest major city to Trieste is Ljubljana, Slovenia, a 90-minute bus ride north, while Venice is a 2-hour train ride west. Day trips to either are easy, but both are far more crowded and expensive than Trieste.

i did a day trip to ljubljana last week, bus took 90 minutes, cost 10 euros round trip. it’s a cute city, but way more tourists than trieste, and the pizza was 5 euros a slice instead of 3. not worth it for more than a day, honestly. trieste* is better for people who want to skate empty spots and drink cheap coffee without fighting crowds.

what else? oh right, the pressure was 1014 hPa, sea level pressure 1014, ground level 1011, which i only know because i’m a nerd for weather apps. don’t come here expecting sun, come here expecting good coffee, empty skate spots, and jeans that never fully dry. it’s messy, it’s damp, it’s perfect for skaters who hate crowds.

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