Desperate Serbwife

Stories from the road (part 1): Slovenia is CLOSED!!!

Our trip from Venice to Budapest would be our longest, so we started out at 6:30am (ugh, I hate early starts!). We left Venice with only a slight navigation error (hey, it was still dark it was so early). The sun was just beginning to illuminate the sky when we arrived at the final toll booth before we reached Slovenia. As we finished paying entirely too many Euros to the toll lady and were about to speed along through Slovenia to Hungary, we were waved down by a frantic, young, Italian police officer. He was frantically stopping everyone that came through the border and running up to their windows to tell them something. He came running up to our window and asked us, in Italian, where we were heading. Slovenia, we said. He shook his head violently and started asking a slew of questions, all in Italian. We tried to explain that we didn't speak Italian, but that didn't seem to change the language of his questioning. So Mike and I did our best in interpreting what this guy was saying. We were pretty sure that he mentioned something about lots of snow in Slovenia (there was about an inch on the sides of the road where we were). He then asked if we had chains for our tires. Chains for our tires - do people still rely on those - we had snow tires, couldn't he see that? We told him no, we did not have chains for our tires. He motioned that we must get off the highway and buy some (or that's what we think he was saying). We asked repeatedly if that was really required because we have snow tires and were driving a 4-wheel drive jeep cherokee. He then waved his hands back and forth and said, "Slovenia, no, Slovenia, no." Was is possible that Slovenia was closed? Up until this point there was only a bit of snow on the ground and we were only a few miles from the border. How could they have closed the whole country? This guy just kept motioning for us to get off the highway.

At this point we were confused and we still had a long way to go to get to Budapest. My navigation skills awoke and it was clear that there was no way around Slovenia without taking us hours out of our way. And then, in an instant, the three Coloradoans in the car and the driver that used to live in Wisconsin all decided the same thing - we had the right car, the right tires and the determination - we were going to Slovenia! *cue tough, determined music here*

We drove a few more miles to the border. The snow never got any worse. The border was completely open and the snow plows had obviously worked through the night, because the roads were clean and clear. The sun even came out for awhile as a reward for our bravery (haha). And we realized something - Italians must be like Texans - at the slightest snow flake they panic and forget how to drive. Slovenians, on the other hand, are like Coloradoans - it takes at least 4 feet to slow them down. (Have I mentioned how much I like Slovenia?)

posted by Brooke @ 1:59 PM