A Bit of Trouble At The Border

Rainer has convinced me to go to Austria. I was a bit hesitant, but since it is clear that we are now platonic, I figured, OK. Why not? When leaving Croatia to enter Slovenia and the E.U., Croatian border guys gave us a bit of trouble. Rainer has long dreads. I am American. They had us pull over and searched everything for twenty minutes. The one guy in a suit was really intrigued by the jumbo-size chapstick with the silhouhette of a sexy girl on it. The other guy was pretty much a giant, and scary. They eventually let us go, and at the E.U. Slovenia crossing they let us in, no problem. After dealing with authorities, which is nerve-wracking even when you have nothing to hide, we WOOHOO'd as we made out way across the border. Our glee was a bit too soon... Rainer got pulled over for speeding a minute or two later. Everything was fine though, after he paid the 40 euros for the ticket. Apparently, you can just pay cash for tickets in the E.U.

Rainer and I have had some interesting experiences at borders. Going from Guatemala to Mexico, the shuttle we were in (wasted out of our minds, having not slept the night before) stopped before the border and had everyone get out and walk almost a mile across into Mexico. Mexico is very tight with their border control with Guatemala, and so another shuttle run by the Mexican counterpart of whatever company we used picked us up once we were in Mexico.

Another time, we were in Argentina and for just a little but more than the bus, we took a cab with our wine in the trunk across the border into Brasil. Not any crazy amount or anything- just for us personally, but we did not want to run the risk of giving it up. I had, after all, just been dealing with some bullshit hassle for a few days with the consulate and visa blahblah because Brasil likes to reciprocate the pain in the ass the US causes foreign travelers. And I just remembered- there was the one time I went to Canada, and declared that I had pepper spray, which they took away from me (fine- it just means I need to buy more when I return to ghetto Philly). But then they separated me from everyone else on the bus to Montreal and searched my stuff unfruitfully for a half hour, trying to be all tough Canadians. As I now say in German.... LONG VIE LICK.....BORING!