From Ljubljana via Zagreb and an abrupt end at the border

I survived the night well and continued to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.

I drove for 3 hours through Slovenia without toll roads. It was like the postcards you know from Slovenia. Villages built on hills, with a road leading through them and a pretty church at the top. There were hardly any shopping opportunities there.. only 50km later there was another larger city with a bakery and stores.

I saw so much field and land, and in the background, the mountains of Austria became smaller and smaller.

I was checked by the police before the border with Croatia and twice at the direct border crossing. It was no problem at all, and my English was good enough to communicate well.

When I arrived in Zagreb with Lia, we took a one-hour break before continuing to the next border crossing to Bosnia.

It was the largest border I have ever crossed.. even the people leaving the country were checked and their personal details were scanned. So we had quite some respect for the crossing.. when we arrived at the counter, our ID cards were scanned, and we could enter the country. So we drove relieved and happy across the river and immediately encountered another queue for the police check.. They didn't want to let us into the country because we were not sufficiently vaccinated and did not have tests with us. When we said that we were only passing through the country to go to Montenegro, we were still not allowed access to the country.. (the Federal Foreign Office states that everyone who enters Bosnia for transit purposes is granted access without any tests or vaccinations)

So we turned around and lined up again to be thrown out of the country.. Great.. that's how the vacation starts off right!

Full of anger and incomprehension, we set off to snack on a delicious ice cream sundae at the nearby shopping center. The friendly waiter tried to help us in our failed situation and called many people. In the end, all that came out was that the day before, his parents (Croatian citizens) were allowed to travel through Montenegro without a corona vaccination or test, and a border police officer said to him, "sometimes there work assholes".

Well, yeah, we just had bad luck.. a woman driving a bus is not very typical for countries that are not very advanced in terms of women's emancipation.. for example, I was also asked by the border police where my husband was?!

The waiter was so kind and gave us tips for wild camping in Croatia, as there was no campground near the border. So we drove to a small village with maybe 1000 inhabitants and of course immediately stood out with two red buses and two blonde women at the wheel who didn't know where the best place was NOT to stand out and be stopped by the police (wild camping is severely punished in Croatia).

So Lia simply asked a local where it would be best to park, and he offered us his driveway as a sleeping spot. Since this is private property, the police can do less there. The Croatians were super friendly and made an effort to speak German with us.

So the sleeping spot for that night was secured and we were able to open a bottle of wine and let all the stress sink in.