This past Friday the 27th of April Ginny and I jumped in a Toyota Tundra and headed out on our next adventure, a road trip to deliver a new pair of speaker cabinets to our Audio Engineer in Slovenia. In the back of the truck we had a large particle board box covered in stretchy plastic wrap that contained the speakers, we quickly learned that at freeway speeds stretchy wrap starts to relinquish its hold within an hour or so and starts flapping and unraveling creating a fairly unpleasantly loud sound, all we could do was crank up the stereo and attempt to ignore the cacophonous sound as we drove through the beautiful European countryside. Our journey of 12 hours across Central Europe took us from Poland through Czech Republic, Austria and finally into Slovenia. We arrived in Maribor Slovenia as the sun was setting and enjoyed a wonderful evening with our friends Miro and Jasna.
We are staying in Maribor Slovenia and I think we are both falling in love with this part of the country, so much nature everywhere, green rolling hills and fields of flowers, gardens and farms, streams and rivers, amazing churches and castles. We enjoyed lunch on top of a mountain at a place called a mountain cabin, a delicious feast of pork roasted outdoors in a fire pit, mushroom soup made from fresh local mountain mushrooms, roasted potatoes and veggies, a fresh salad and a couple bottles of local white wine, we started and finished our meal with a local blueberry liqueur called Borovničke. We had a full day of food, hiking, exploring and hanging out with friends and ended our day sitting on a balcony drinking wine and listening to the birds sing in the middle of a thunderstorm!
Our intention when we arrived in Poland 180 days ago was to stay for a few months take care of business and return to the US, unfortunately complications with my health changed these plans, as soon as we arrived I noticed signs of the possible return of my Lymphoma. Within the first 90 day period I had many visits to the hospital where I had multiple scans and tests and it was determined that the cancer has indeed returned. I still have to undergo a bone marrow biopsy but it looks like I will require a full 6 round treatment of chemotherapy in order to beat the cancer back into remission. We had intended on returning after 3 months but after receiving such great care at the Warsaw szpital and speaking with the doctor we decided to stay in Warsaw and continue seeing the doctor. After our 1st 90 day stay in Warsaw we were told that we need to leave the country for a few days to get another 90 day entry stamp in our passports so we went to London and returned, everything went as planned and we got our passports stamped.
It has now been 180 days and time to get another passport stamp. Our plan this week was to spend a couple of days in Slovenia then drive a couple of hours to a small airport in Ljubljana Slovenia where we had arranged a flight to London and from there we would take a train to the coast and spend a couple of days in Brighton Beach in the U.K.
Yesterday morning we jumped in the Tundra without the flapping box in the back and enjoyed a lovely drive through the countryside of Slovenia to the airport, we were off to a great start and really looking forward to a few days at the English Seaside, unbeknownst to us at the time, it was not meant to be.
We arrived at the airport a few hours early, our plan was to enjoy a nice meal at the airport, we quickly realized that our options were limited, we couldn’t check in for over an hour and the only food was a cafeteria, compared to all of the other amazing food we have had in Central Europe our lunch wasn’t very tasty. After checking in our bags and paying an additional 50 EU because we were over the weight limit we headed to the customs entry point.
Ginny was ahead of me at customs the dour faced customs official glanced at her passport and immediately showed a look of concern on his face. The customs officer asked if she had a residency visa and when Ginny replied no he said, this is not good you have broken the law. At this point I stepped up to the counter and we were both told that we were illegally in the Schengen zone and were in trouble. He spent another 10 minutes looking at our passports and consulting some paperwork. Behind us was a long line of fellow passengers waiting to be checked by a single customs officer, we were starting to hear complaints from behind us, a couple of people were even chuckling at us. At this point the officer said we need to step out of line and sit in a waiting area and that we would not get our passport back unless we paid a fine of 250 euro each, I told him that we did not have this much money and offered a credit card, only cash was acceptable.
We were ushered to a waiting area so the officer could attend to the rest of the line, after waiting for 20 minutes we were approached by a second officer, he informed us that we had broken the law by staying in the Schengen zone for over 90 days. The second guy was a lot more friendly, I explained that I have been receiving care for cancer in Warsaw and that I now understood that we had broken a law but I was scheduled to have treatment in the coming months. He explained that if we didn’t pay the 500 euro fine that they would hold onto our passports until they received payment and after 8 days the fine would double. I explained that there was no way we could get the cash from an ATM because of daily limits. We were told that if we leave the country we would not be able to return to Poland, this was not an option, we had a friends truck in the parking lot that lived 1000 km away, I only had enough of my medications for the week, the rest of my meds and all of our clothing and personal items were in Warsaw. After hearing our story the officer suggested that because of my medical problems that I should be able to visit the US consulate in Warsaw and arrange for a residency visa, he was very helpful but there was nothing he could do about the fine. Apparently we were in a bit of a sticky wicket, our passports were being held, we couldn’t leave the country as planned, we couldn’t get the cash to pay the fine and we were now illegally in the Schengen Zone.
As we were finishing up our conversation with the officer a gentleman came over and asked him how much the fine was, he explained that he had an hour before his flight was scheduled to leave and asked if there was an ATM machine that he could access since he had already passed security. The officer offered to escort him back through security to an ATM. They both left at this point, Ginny and I glanced at each other, we couldn’t believe what we were seeing, is this guy really going to loan a couple strangers 500 Euro to help get our passports back, it was such an unexpected thing to do that I was having difficulty computing that this was actually happening. They returned in a few minutes and the stranger handed me 500 Euro, at this point once I realized that this guy was truly offering to help us out, my emotions got the better of me, as tears gathered in my eyes with a wavering voice I offered the gentleman a business card and asked for his contact info so I could repay his kindness, he gave me his email but said that I didn’t need to repay him, he suggested that if I wanted to send an email of thanks he would welcome that but the money was a gift. I shook his hand and Ginny asked for a hug, a hand shake wasn’t enough for me to show how much this strangers kindness touched me so I, probably fairly awkwardly gave the guy a hug. He wandered off to his gate, we then handed the cash to the customs guy and were given our passports back. We arrived at the airport ready for an adventure to the English seaside, instead of an adventure at the beach we experienced an adventure of human kindness. It was truly a touching and moving thing to experience that we will never forgot.
After our passports were returned we were told that we could continue on to England, we chose not to do this, because we would not be allowed to return if we left. At this point we suddenly realized that our bags were still on the plane, I left Ginny as I ran through the airport in the hopes that we could get our bags back, I approached the luggage counter and in a breathless voice I explained our situation only to be told that its going to be difficult to get the bags off the plane at this point, we were pointed to a waiting area, just under a half hour later a guy showed up with our bags, it turned out we got lucky and they were easy to fine.
With a 2 hour drive back to the our friends village I decided to book us a room at a small local hotel a few km from where they live. We took a different route on the way back, this route took us through a green beautiful canyon lush with vegetation, we stopped off next to a mountain stream and enjoyed a moment of quite contemplation and reflection, after the day that we had being able to sit next to a small stream and chill for a moment really opens our eyes and reminded us how lucky we were to be in this beautiful country.
We arrived at our hotel after a wonderful drive, when we went to check in we were told that there is a problem and that they had overbooked, it turned out that the only available room was the honeymoon suite and they were offering it to us for the duration of our stay at no extra cost, after a day like we had an upgrade to the best room in the hotel was a welcome surprise. That evening we enjoyed an amazing dinner on the patio of our hotel, we had a wonderful bottle of local Red Wine while listening to the birds sing and watching the sun set. So there we were enjoying our dinner when a little black cat wandered over and introduced himself, after exchanging petting for purrs he wandered to the next table only to return for some more scritchin’s and love, we had been accepted by the local kitty and quickly became friends. After dinner we walked down to the river and sat quietly watching the reflection of a full moon on the water as we held each others hand and considered the kindness of strangers.
We still don’t know what our plan is, we are hoping to stay in Warsaw so I can receive care but as of yet we don’t know if that is possible, we intend on going through the proper legal channels and hope for the best. During these past few years I have learned to just sit back and enjoy the ride, the ups and downs of our life have been truly spectacular and I have absolutely no regrets.
All I know is that right now we are exactly where we belong, sitting on our honeymoon suite balcony, listening to the birds sing songs of spring as we gaze at the beautiful countryside that is Slovenia!
Musings by OZ 