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Raj: Scammed/not scammed ... fined ... trip to hospital... this summarised today.
It was supposed to be a relaxing start to the day - a sleep in with plenty of time to pack and make some calls home, then take a relatively short (3 hour) drive across the border into Slovenia and arrive in Lake Bled with free time to spend doing fun stuff in the afternoon. Not to be.
Episode #1: Having had our cards scammed 3 times so far, I check our financial transaction details daily. This morning another rogue transaction came through - one that I should have been notified through the banking alert system but somehow slipped through. I was reluctant to call it in for fear my card would be immediately cancelled and we'd be stuffed again for money. Vikki persuaded me to make the call, which I did. The good news was the transaction was related to the earlier (3rd) fraud issue, so we haven't been scammed a 4th time. It's a mystery why the electronic trail was missed on this occasion. So, more stress, with additional paperwork and investigations to follow to claim the chargeback. That was the morning gone.
Episode #2: We had a longish wait to pass through border control between Croatia and Slovenia. Being the driver, I was getting grumpy and impatient (while Vikki sat next to me happily reading her Kindle). In Slovenia they don't have toll roads, instead you pay road tax by buying a sticker. You might recall I wasn't impressed paying 15 Euros for our 15 minute drive through Slovenia on our way to Croatia 10 days ago. We had intended to buy the road tax sticker but missed the opportunity after border control, and thought we'd get it at the next petrol station on our side of the road. Unfortunately we got pulled up at a check point 15 mins into Solvenia and coped a $300 on the spot fine (pay now or pay $600 later), plus the road tax sticker. Only me and a German tourist were on the road at that particular time so we were easy picking (everyone else must have stopped at the border to buy their road tax stickers). Pleading ignorance didn't help, and 20 mins later after being "processed" we were on our way again. Just to rub it in, 1km down the road we passed the petrol station we had intended to stop at to buy the road tax sticker! As you can imagine I was even grumpier for the rest of the trip.
Episode #3: Vikki's ankle hadn't improved since her slippery slide 3 weeks ago so we decided to get it checked out as our host in Bled was English and gave us good advice for medical options. First we made a trip to the small local hospital in Bled. They recommended an x-ray and being the weekend, we had to go to the main hospital in Jesenice, a neighbouring town. By this time both Vikki and I were very grumpy, but at least the kids were happy enough. The good news is nothing seems fractured however Vikki's ankle has a very bad and painful hematoma which will take much longer than usual to fix itself. Her whooper thigh hematoma (see earlier blog picture) has thankfully improved. So more rest and less walking for a while (and more paperwork and expense claims for me to deal with!).
That was most of the day, but things did improve. Vikki bought a bottle of wine, I bought 4 different types of Slovenian beer and we had ice creams all round. We managed a stroll along a small section of Lake Bled in cooler conditions (pleasant late 20's). It's very picturesque and has a lovely feel, with lots of people but a different (nice) kind of busy. I'm sure our remaining 2 full days will be enjoyable, and we just have to suck up what has been a financially draining and moody day (putting it down to more overseas "experience"). Onwards and upwards.
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