We had a few interesting moments on the road during our vacation that I wanted to remember.
I photographed a few of the street signs and "welcome to" signs because the local languages and alphabets in eastern Europe are so foreign to me. I took photos of the two signs below while looking behind our car as we were leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina and entering Montenegro.
Exiting Bosnia and Herzegovina was the only time we were held up at a border. The border guard was not familiar with the US Army in Europe (USAREUR) car registration. That is, if we buy a car in Germany, the German government de-registers the vehicle and we enter the car into the USAREUR system. When we handed him our car registration, he just kept saying, "Problem. Problem." He didn't seem to know any other words in English. We parked at the border while the guards made phone calls and figured out what was going on.
Luckily there was a Romanian police officer at the border as part of a multinational relations-building rotation who spoke English. He was able to explain our registration to the other guards. He verified our VIN number on the car. After that, they let us go. It was an exciting adventure.
The stretch of the road just before and just after the border seemed to be a popular place for grazing cattle. We had to slow WAY down for these fearless beasts.
Lastly, I will always appreciate the calm way that Europeans deal with traffic jams (Stau in German). We hit some major traffic on our way home. People turn off their cars, get outside, and socialize. Many hop the freeway barrier to use the bathroom in the grass or bushes nearby. A good Stau can last several hours.
