09 - Our very fast departure to Belgrade

We knew it was going to happen soon, we have been on standby for weeks. But then, this morning while I was still watching my CSI for the day the sms from Adan came. “Start packing my dear I’m sitting in the Embassy and they have approved our visa”. We were booked to fly out this evening.

But how did we get to this point?

It all started one Tuesday in January. Adan was approached by his boss to go to Croatia on a project. That evening we discussed it and decided it will be a spectacular opportunity for us! The next Morning, while I was having lunch with my mother in law, Adan sms-ed me that we were due to leave for Croatia in Febraury! I was stunned at how quickly this was happening as it was only two weeks to February. There was so much to organise before we left. But, as these things go, our departure was postponed to the beginning of March. That at least gave us a little more time to sort everything out before we left. We could also attend Corné (Adan’s sister) and Michael’s wedding.

In applying for the Croatian visa, we encountered a few hiccups to the extend that we had to go to Serbia till the Croatian visa could be sorted out. Now we had to get the Serbian visa which was also a bit of a challenge as Serbia and Monte Negro just departed ways and therefore it was a “new” embassy. So there we were scheduled to fly to Serbia this evening but still not sure whether we will be able to as we were still waiting for visa.

That brings us back to Adan’s sms of this morning.

With a few seconds of intense panic, I started to get everything ready to pack. By twelve o’clock I was packed and was sorting out the perishables in the fridge and getting the house ready to be left for 7 months. Now I was just waiting for Adan to come home and fill me inn. By 14:15 Adan was still not home. Our flight was 20:25 in the evening, but with the very bad traffic to the airport at five in the afternoon we wanted to leave at 16:15. Adan then phoned me and we arranged that I pick him up at work a 15:00. By 16:00 we were still waiting for the for-ex driver to arrive with the all important travel money. My poor husband still has not packed and we wanted to leave for the airport in 15 minutes. Needless no say we didn’t! We arrived home at 16:15 and left for the airport 16:45. Adan managed to pack in 30 minutes! Quite impressive I should say!

So there we were all packed and on our way to the airport at 20km/h! Peak hour traffic has struck again! What could we do but just breath!

By 6 o’clock were booked in on our flight to Zürich and then on to Belgrade the next day. What a day! I think that was the first time we breathed all day...