Fwd: Illyria

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Begin forwarded message:

From: Deryn Verner <derynjv@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: May 27, 2011 15:25:41 GMT+01:00
To: "ava.verris@babyhogb10g.com" <ava.verris@babyhogb10g.com>
Subject: Illyria

Illyria
So having woken Villach stupidly early (8) we headed to Slovenia where  
it is illegal to carry petrol on a motorway and illegal to run out of  
petrol on a motorway. Hokay. Turns out the mapbook lied and the  
klagenfurt services on the Austrian side of the tunnel don't do  
petrol, only food and other human comforts. I flicked my fuel tap onto  
reserve and held my thumbs for the next 30km, until just inside  
Slovenia there is a filling station. Which is significantly cheaper  
than Austria, Germany or France. Or the uk, come to that.
I breathed out and filled up.
Actually, you'd have to be criminally stupid to run out of fuel on a  
Slovenian motorway because their petrol stations are as frequent as  
their casinos (often in the same services. I refrain from analysing  
this).
Slovenia's very pretty. I'd heard horrible things about the smaller  
roads, but the uk is just as bad and with less excuse. We got to the  
border fairly easily and crossed into Croatia.
This involved having our passports checked twice and stamped once, a  
first in my eu travels with a red book. Maybe they have residual  
issues with some of their neighbours. Anyway, they let us through.
We stopped for coffee in Rijeka and then took the scenic route along  
the coast down the 200km to zadar.
Yes. For scenic route read corkscrew in a tornado along a cliff edge  
between landslide prone mountains and the deep blue (busy Adriatic)  
sea. It took ages.
And just as we were getting close, the traffic stopped. We pulled up  
behind a couple of German bikes that turned out to be hired by  
Americans.
The road had, a local car told us, been closed while they exploded  
some post war mines. The wait was probably an hour. Hokay.
The american's son asked the universe why anyone would have their  
country where leftover mines were. Welcome to Europe and the balkans,  
kiddo. We have wars on this land. =leftover mines.
I suppose you can't blame him. His parents were apparently certain  
people were still getting shot here on a daily basis.


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