I’m sure you’ve gotten those e-mails that attempt to wring money out of you with a sob story about appendicitis, stolen passports, lost luggage. And I bet that you took a moment to run through your memory to see if your child/nephew/niece/any relative had a scheduled trip to foreign shores and I bet you thought, “What if this is real?”
Well, this isn’t one of those. We aren’t in a Slovenian or Croatian prison. We haven’t been deported … yet. We have enough money and a place to sleep, but oof! My worst nightmare. We had a scheduled trip to Ljbjiana this weekend. At the border (after my usual nervousness about approaching border patrol) we hand in our passports and … we wait. Then we wait some more. Then we are asked to pull over to the side. Then I’m glad I didn’t eat too much at breakfast. And we wait some more.
After two hours or so it is determined that we are illegal. Our passports are confiscated and we are given orders to return to the police station in Buje tomorrow morning at 8:30 at which point we will be told our status. Lots of conversation ensued on the way back to Rovinj (without our passports, which I’ve got to say caused me some difficulty) about Plan A, Plan B and who could we call for help.
I’ve been packing for our move to the other apartment for the last two weeks of our stay anyway so we were 90% packed. I’ve ditched all I can, just in case they make me walk across the border and I have sewing thread and a needle if I have to keep my liquid assets safe while being questioned. I’ve already arranged for the rental car to be picked up in Buje in case we don’t come back. I can’t think what else I could do. Beyond that I’ll let you know.
Oh, and while you think about passport control – think also about what happens to the Rovinj cats in the summer. More to come.
