Yesterday I was returning home from Albania. For those of you that have never traveled in Europe by car, when you cross a border you must wait in a long line for a border guard to check your documents and car. I was waiting in that long line but there was a semi (lorry) in front of me and I couldn't see much. It seemed like the cars were passing through the border without checking their documents, so I assumed the border was closed and they'd check both for Albania and Kosovo at the next check point a few yards further...So, I just drove right on through!
That got all the guards up in arms (literally) and they started yelling and shouting at me. Oh man, I've never seen such angry policemen! I stopped and a border policeman approached speaking Albanian. At this point I felt really dumb, so I decided to play the stupid American and greeted him in English. He asked in Albanian if I spoke his language to which I said no (looking back that was a lie, but at the time it didn't even cross my mind to say yes). He then asked me in very broken English if I knew what this was; with a smirk on his face. He took my documents and then came back to make small talk- stupid American and South Korean girls, sounds like fun, eh? He asked where I worked, what I was doing, etc. And then I responded in Albanian...and blew my cover. If you're going to lie about something, you need to follow through!
Well, there was no lasting damage- just on my pride. But I will never, ever drive through a border again! Whew...
No comments:
Post a Comment