The Fateful Bus Trip from Bologna to Ljubljana

The ride itself was okay. We were quickly out of the industrial area of Bologna on an autostrada going towards Padova on Line 537. We passed by agricultural fields. Our first stop was Mestre-Venice and that was in 1:45 hours. The second stop was Venice also, at Tronchetto. By this time we could see the snow-covered, prealpini. All day there was rain so it was a good day to travel. In about 4 hours we were in Udine. We didn’t get off the bus at the stops, which turned out to be a mistake. After the border with Slovenia, there was a rest stop. In Slovenia there were rolling hills and grazing land. At one point we were at the top of a big hill and the winds were fierce; it looked normal—there was a windmill.

When we got to Ljubljana and went to take our suitcases from the luggage compartment, Dimitri’s suitcase was there. Audre’s was not. We noticed that the driver did not watch, monitor or regulate the people or the luggage. We insisted that the driver wait until the police arrived. A fellow passenger asked what our suitcase looked like and when we told him, he said he saw a man take a suitcase that matched the description from the luggage compartment and leave in Udine. He said there was something odd about it. The police took all of the information and our details, as well as the witness’s. We asked the police for a copy of their report and they said “no” in a forceful (Soviet kind of way); they said that they could not give it to us because the incident did not occur in Slovenia. They said it couldn’t have occurred in Slovenia because Ljubljana was the first stop in  Slovenia and the luggage compartment had not been opened since Italy. When we protested that all we wanted was the report of their interview with us, they said “it was the rule;” whatever they wrote about the interview with us was only for their internal purposes. As far as they were concerned, the incident occurred outside of Slovenia and that was that. In Ljubljana, we went to the police station twice and appealed to a “higher” official. The answer was the same. We got no incident report. We considered going to Udine. We need an incident report from some police for whatever insurance we might have.

When we traveled for 20 years, we generally had everything with us, including all of my jewelry. We should consider ourselves lucky that it was the only time we've been robbed and that we, ourselves, were not in danger. Unfortunately, it has seriously and adversely affected Audre's mood. She let the asshole robber ruin our summer. She was morose and it was affecting everything we do.