NationStates Jolt Archive

An old couple in thier 60's sat at the kitchen table with thier son. A man in his early 20's, he was 24 to be exact. The mood was tense they were expecting something bad to come knocking at the door of thier flat. They sat in the small dank and dim lit kitchen in a typical Terevesti Flat in Bulgislavia.

It was March 1984
Humar the son lived with his parents Nina and Boris Lorenscu in the small apartment. He had lived in Terevesti all his life and had never left Bulgislavia.
Back in 1984 Bulgislavia was surrounded by communist allies, Communist Romania and Bulgia across the danube to the North and Communist Bulgaria to the southern boarder. Although travel to these countries was legal it was extremely hard and visa aplications to holiday in any other country were usually denied.

There was a knock at the door. it was quite a soft knock, nothing loud or violent as they expected. Nina the 60 yearold mother jumped off her seat and went to open the door. There were 3 plain clothes men, all agents of Cigouriva, Bulgislavia's dreaded secret police.

"We would like to know if you could tell us anything about the dissapearance of Olga Lorenscu, your daughter. Collegues reported she acted stranger then usual yesterday and that she was last seen in a northern suburb of Terevesti"

"Well we are sorry but we are extremely worried for her safty and we have no information about this and why she would be heading north" said Nina in a hurried and terrified voice

"Its not possible she was planning to leave Bulgislavia, was she" said the plain clothed Cigouriva agent standing infront of the other two

"Well she would only be able to do that if she had an exit visa, she wouldnt do that" said the woman again

"Do you think its coincidental that three days before Olga's dissapearance one of her closest friends at the factory also dissapeared and was last spotted in a northern town close to the Romanian boarder?"

"I'm sorry sir but we had no idea what Olga was up to and we just want her back" Said the elderly woman again

"I see... it might be best if you all dont leave the capital for a while, i'm sure we will catch up with you at a later date" said the Cigouriva agent and with that they walked down the hallway. the mother closed the door

"The stupid girl! why would she flee to Romania its not like Ceausescu is any better then Provoçe!" said Nina sitting back down at the table, she continued speaking
"Did she have any idea the Cigouriva and police would be all over us! now everyone will know we have a traitor in the family!"

"Mother, Olga told me of her plan to flee Bulgislavia 2 days ago, i tried to talk her out of it but she wouldnt listen. Look mother I... want to leave too" said Humar

"Your crazy! no one can leave the country! the Cigouriva will be all over us again! if you leave they might even arrest us!" protested Nina

(Back in 1984 it was legal for citizens to travel to other warsaw pact nations though it was highly unlikly a visa would be approved, during the 80's and also the 90's it was common to hear stories of Bulgislavians either fleeing across the danube to Romania or south over the mountains to Bulgaria, dissapearing in the middle of the night was the most common mode of defection)

Boris spoke up "Nina I think we should support him, Humar i'll do what i can to help you leave Bulgislavia"

Nina then began sobbing and for the rest of the night Humar and Boris comforted her and convinced her it was right for thier children that they escape. Boris had always had a fascination with the "democratic west" and suggested to Humar that he apply for a holiday visa to Bulgaria as Bulgaria's laws were a lot more relaxed then Ceausescu's romania's and that way should find it easier to escape to either Greece or Yugoslavia

DAY 2 ......................................................................................

The next day Humar had work. He worked in the Palace of Provoçe which was a grand mueseum which housed hundreds of foriegn gifts dedicated to Yegar Provoçe. it held rugs given to the dictator as a birthday present, items signed by western pop stars despite the fact many Bulgislavians knew nothing of outside music all they knew is that if it was in that mueseum they must be important

Humar spoke to his supervisor first thing in the mourning
"Sir i was wondering If i could use my vacation time sometime this year, I have heard Varna is a nice beach city in Bulgaria i think i might go there for a holiday"

"Ofcourse, that vacation time is for you to use, its your time, BUt if you want an exit visa your going to have to go to the police station and claim a visa yourself" said the supervisor

Now here was the hard part. Visa's were hardly ever handed out. and as Humar sister was now classed as a traitor and defector it was highly unlikely his exit visa would be approved.

So Humar went about his work for the rest of the day cleaning the halls and goods, shinning cabinets and giving two tours of the goods to groups of Bulgislavians. At the end of his working day at 6pm he went straight to the Police Station

"Hello i'm here to go about getting a Visa to holiday in Bulgaria" Said Humar

"Well first you are going to have to purchase a Permit to do so which will cost 50 Urmi and then you will have the right to claim an application form for a visa, THEN after you hand your visa in it will be reviewed and we will get back to you, your answer weather its been approved or not"

Humar knew all this would be a waste of time and that his 50 Urmi would be wasted on a denied visa anyway "Ok i'll come back later then" said Humar

All night Humar had to get around the visa problem, Escaping in the middle of the night had no appeal to him as a means of leaving the country and scaling the Southern Bulgislavian mountains while avoiding boarder guards involved to much risk, he knew he had to find holes in the system which would allow him to leave the country

Day 3 .......................................................................................


Humar went into the police station once again and immediatly purchased the permit with 50 Urmi. at least he could get this stage of the process over and done with. The permit stated that it would allow him to claim an application form which he would then hand in for review. The permit would expire within 6 months. Humar went to work he was still disheartened at the task ahead of him to leave the country. When he returned home he quickly hid the permit in the inside of his jacket, he heard voices in the flat. More Cigouriva were questioning Nina and Boris over the "defection" by Olga.

The Cigouriva were just beginning to leave when Humar entered, they didnt give him a second thought and carried on down the hall
"What was all that about, find out anything new about Olga?" siad Humar

"It appears Olga broke the law before she left the country" sid Boris in a disapointed tone

"Why? what did she do?"

"She... had... had a back street abortion" siad Nina in tears.

(Like Communist Romania, Bulgislavia also had harsh laws created which forced every woman to have at least 5 children by the time they were 40 otherwise they could face huge fines and even jail time. The law was followed through ruthlessly up until 1988 when laws were relaxed and woman only had to have 2 children)

The family went to bed earlier then usual at the shock of knowing Olga has resorted to a back street abortion and then fleed the country

Day 4 ........................................................................................


Humar was more desperate then ever to leave, with his family being labled as untrustworthy his chances of leaving were worse then ever. At work Humar pleaded with his supervisor

"Please you have to help me get to Bulgaria there is extremely important family business, my uncle you see is slowly dying, we have family in Bulgaria and I havnt seen them since they visited here in 1978"

"I thought you just wanted to see Varna" said the supervisor suspiciously

"I want to see a lot of things but my uncle if sick and i need you to help me get a visa, i'll only be gone a week its not a long time, you just need to give a recomendation to the people taht will issue my visa"

(Humars supervisor was a party member and a very trusted one, Humar had worked in the museum since 1982 and was a known trusted employee who his supervisor personally liked)

"Ok get the Application form after work tomorrow then tomorrow bring it in to me ok? I'm only going to help you becuase i know your a trusted worker and if your uncle's ill i'm sure he would like to see his Bulgislavian relative"
The tone of his voice indicated he didnt entirly buy the whole dying uncle story but Humar didnt care, this recomendation from the management of the Palace of Provoçe would extremely increase his chances of an approved visa
Work finished and Humar went to the police station and used his Permit to get a Visa application form. it had a number of Questions on it

Full Name:
date of Birth:
Address:
Parents Names:
Have you lived in Bulgislavia all your life?
Have you ever left Bulgislavia and for what: Pleasure, Business, family, Other
Why do you want to leave Bulgislavia: Pleasure, Business, Family, Other
What country are you intending to visit?
Are you planning to visit any other country if so state what one?
How long will your intended stay be (Three weeks max.)
Any other details:


Day 5 ........................................................................................

Ecstatic Humar marched into work eary and got his supervisors recomendation on the visa in the "Other details section"

"To whom it may concern, From the Management of the Palace of Provoçe we give a recomendation that Humar Lorenscu is a trusted and dedicated worker. He has our Full support
signed
Mikail Dimsky head supervisor"
and for added authenticity the supervisor stamped in some black space the emblem of the Museum

Humar felt time flew by incredibly quickly and when work had finished he once again went to the police station. Police stations were usually places to avoid in Bulgislavia and no other ordinary citizen would visit one so often unless they were dragged in for questioning or they were Cigouriva agents and Humar noticed a changed attitude towards him from some of his friends that saw him enter the police station. His friends never told any jokes around him anymore that could reflect the state badly, they never revealed anything personel anymore and this was only in the last couple of days the change had come.

ANYWAY his application was put through now all he had to do was wait for the two months to see if it would be approved

2 Months Later May 1984 ...................................................................

Nothing eventful happened in the last two months time flew by and work was the same old stuff of shinning and washing and giving people tours although during the 1st and 8th of May on May Day and VE Day mass celebrations and public holidays caused work to be bussier then usual Humar even encountered a Canadian tourist that had come on holiday though talking to a western foriegner would of been extremely foolish as it was illegal to have contact with westerners and so he only recognised him becusae of his canadian hat he wore and his limited Bulgislavia. Family life was jsut the same but his parents were quickly preparing him for his journey as if they some how knew the application was granted

(OOC: by the way if u managed to stay and read this far, GOOD STUFF :)

Nina came into the apartment from getting the mail in the front loby of the apartment block. she handed Humar the letter and then called Boris into the living room. Humar was extremely excited but also frightened at the thought it might of been denied. Humar slowly tore open the top of the envelope and unfolded the application form, another paper fell out as he unfolded the form.
A giant red stamp had stomped a large...... APPROVED on the application
the other page stated that the application had been approved and that he had the next 6 months to collect his exit Visa. Boris told him to collect it right away and Humar aggreed

(Usually within days of approving a visa it was common to recieve a second letter days later saying that upon further inspection the application has been denied and Humar didnt want to miss this opourtunity)

Humar went down to the police station with his father where they spoke to some short lady
"I have an approved application for an exit visa and i'm hear to collect it" said Humar with a large grin he couldnt hide

"Right let me just check that" said the woman. she took the form, gave it a stomp of some stamp which said it now expired and could not be used again and then she took Humar into a room where his photo was taken they then asked him some questions related to his proposed visit to Bulgaria and then asked to see his ID

(Every Bulgislavian was issued with an ID card which acted sort of like an internal passport in which it was stamped whenever u went to another city ect)

Humar now had his Passport which would expire in 6 months time and that stated it ONLY allowed him to travel to Bulgaria ONLY and for a period of ONE week. It also stated he could only carry 300 Urmi with him on his travel.

Humar planned what he would take with him to Bulgaria. He wouldnt take much as not to arrouse suspicion. He arranged with work that should his application be approved he would take his one weeks vacation time immediatly and they aggreed to let him
He would take many gifts like hand crafts, a cigarette packet which secretly held an extra 500 Urmi in it and some spare cloths. If he was going to leave the country he had to completeky cut all his ties with his family

The next day the mourning before he would leave Bulgislavia the family said thier real farewells in the apartment.
"Now Nina if you want to come to the train station we cant have any tears we dont wont to raise suspicious remember Humar is leaving only for one week so no drama Cigouriva will surely be there" said Boris

They took a bus to the Terevesti main train station where they said thier final farewells and hugged. Humar went to the ticket lady
"Hello i have a Passport for Bulgaria and i want a train ticket to Varna"

"Thats fine, would you like a one way ticket or two way ticket?" asked the lady
(Now if you were stupid enough to fall for this trick you probably deserved to suffer the consequinces anyone who said one way would most probably find thier ticket get ripped up and the lady would call the police)
"a two way ticket!" said Humar shocked at the type of trick the lady was playing.

"ok that will be 85 Urmi, you will be sharing Cabin 6 there and sharing Cabin 10 on return"

"thanks" said Humar. he took his ticket and boarded the Terevesti to Varna train

DEPART FROM TEREVESTI!.............................................................

Humar entered his cabin. He quickly realized that it was extremely rare for Bulgislavian's to travel anywhere outside their own country and that he was quite possibly the ONLY BULGISLAVIAN on the train.
Using Russian as a common means of communication he spoke to the other 3 in the cabin
"You all Bulgarian?" he said
They all replied the affirmative, he was the only Bulgislavian in the cabin

"Whats your name?" One of them said

"Humar Lurenscu, yours?"

"Dimitry Petkov... you know what they say in Bulgaria about your country?" said the Bulgarian

"Wha is that" said Humar taking a seat.

"Well at night when Bulgislavians want some light they all look south to Bulgaria" and with that the Bulgarians all gave a small laugh

Humar didnt know how to react at this and so he just gave a fake smile and sat quietly in the cabin. The train began to move and he managed to glips out the window at his parents leaving the platform. Humar hoped the Cigouriva wouldnt give them too much of a hard time

"So do any of you know where i would be able to stay when i reach Varna?" said Humar

"Your welcome to stay at my house, no one has seen a Bulgislavian before they would be quite interested to meet you" said Dimitry Petkov

Humar thanked Dimitry and accepted his kind offer

LEAVING BULGISLAVIA ........................................................................


It was getting dark. the surrounding countryside was empty and very dark. The next city they would be passing through was Plethece and then from there south east straight to the Boarder where they would cross into Varna
Hours passed and now they were entering Plethece. the city was dark, Like all cities in Bulgislavia the energy crisis was so bad every city was blacked out like with no power at all, there were no lights. However the Trainstation had its own small energy sauce with a couple of dim lights on the platform where more Bulgarian tourists entered the train. then with that the train continued. Humar found it hard to get comfortable but he managed to get to sleep

It was now 3 am and the Bulgarians woke Humar up
"Look my friend, we werent kidding!" Humar looked out of the window directly ahead he saw a train station that was fully lit. it really didnt suprise Humar he knew other Warsaw Pact nations did better then his country. A Bulgarian boarder official entered the cabin
"Passports please" The Bulgarians and Humar furnished thier passports to the boarder guard and they were all stamped and given back to thier owners

BULGARIA................BULGARIA..............BULGARIA.............BULGARIA......



Humar stepped off the train with his belongings and followed Dimitry as he lead Humar to the car park. Dimitry's family had thier OWN CAR!!!!!
"Is that yours!" said Humar in shock
"yeah its our car, a russian made peice of junk which breaks down all the time" said Dimitry laughing

"Still....Its a car! you know those are banned at the moment in Bulgislavia, are you a party member or something!?" said Humar thinking that to have a car means wealth which would suggest he was a high ranking party member, at least thats what it would mean in Bulgislavia

"No, not me i'm just an average worker that saves hard" said Dimitry

They drove home after Dimitry introduced his family to Humar. Humar upon reaching thier flat immediatly presented them with the Bulgislavian handy crafts which they were very grateful for. and then they talked about thier countries problems, the USA, Provoçe, Ceausescu, Zikov and then ate a nice dinner probably one of Humars biggest meals he had ever had and then they retired to bed

DAY 1 IN BULGARIA .........................................................

The next day Humar knew he didnt want to escape just yet and so he spent this day absorbing the local atmosphere, seeing cars drive around, spending time at Varna's bustling beach and then he walked around town and back to Dimitry's home where he decided to ask Dimitry some questions about TRAVEL

"So have you traveled to Bulgislavia before?"

"When i was in my 20's and i had just gotten married me and my wife visited in 1965. Back then Bulgislavia was a much happier place and things were doing better. I liked it then"

"Have you been anywhere else?"

"Nope, just Bulgislavia then and just before"

"Would you know the best way to travel to Yugoslavia or maybe Greece?"

"Greece, well thats impossible, boarder is closed and Yugosloavia is also a country very hard to get in"

"Tomorrow can you take me to the trainstation to Sofia, i want to visit Yugoslavia, Belgrade is a nice city that i would like to see" said Humar calmly

Dimitry gave a small laugh to himself, he could tell what Humar planned to do
"You know its funny you say this... a Russian man i knew said the exact same thing and you know what, he never returned"

"Thats terrible why would someone do that!" said Humar

The next day Dimitry took him to the train station where he exchanged his currency into Bulgarian and he got a ticket to Sofia. He said goodbye to his hosts for the 2 days he was there and gave them one last gift of a Table Cloth witch the wife accepted with much enthusiasm

Once again the train ride went fast with Humar sleeping thorugh most of it when he reached Sofia he immediatly brought a ticket to Yugoslavia which left him with hardly any money left but his train would arrive shortly which would take him to the border. All his risked was that they wouldnt accept his Passport which stated BULGARIA ONLY and that he would be returned back to sofia which didnt waste much time anyway.

..................................TO YUGOSLAVIA...............................................

Humar's train arrived where he boarded the train he he sat in a cabin with a Bulgarian, Macedonian, Sebian and himself. Once again they used Russian as the common mode of transport

"Where are you all heading?" Humar said

The Bulgarian spoke first
"I have reletives that i am meeting up with on the boarder of Bulgarian in Mecedonia"

"Well i came to Varna on holiday tehn stayed in Sofia for a bit and now returning back to Belgrade" said the Serbian

"You went on holiday too?" said Humar to the Macedonia

"Yeah i wanted to visit Sofia, Where are you from, are you Romanian?"

"No i'm from Bulgislavia, I'm on my holiday in Bulgaria and now i'm going to Yugoslavia" said Humar

"Your coming to Yugoslavia!? how is that possible howd you manage that?" said the Serbian, he probably knew about the hard task of travel out of the country in Bulgislavia

"Well yes i managed to get permission to travel to Yugoslavia and it is just for a holiday" said Humar he was now a bit panicked he didnt want any of them to blow his chance by handing him into the authorities

a couple of hours passed. The 4 men chatted for a long time, joking about politics and talking about thier homes and what its like in the west. The serbian man was well travelled and has spent time in Italy and Austria which Both the Bulgarian man and Humar both questioned him increasingly of what it was like

"So all the shops are well stocked!? were the people happy!? colour tellivision!?"

The train reached the boarder and then Humar's heart sunk. he was now terrified and he regretted his actions, he even considered running off the train and jumping the boarder although that would of been even more stupid

Yugoslavian border guards reached the cabin
"Passports please"
all of then handed them their pass ports where they all got a stamp EXCEPT HUMARS. the boarder guard walked right up to Humar and turned each page and looked into Humar eyes, he tried to stay calm

"thank you thats all" the boarder guard then left but still Humar's passport was not stamped. then another border guard entered the cabin and sked to see Humars passport and once again flicked slowly through the pages and then after a couple of minutes left and handed the passport back to Humar. He breathed a great sigh of relief but still his passport was not stamped

The train moved once again and continued on. the next stop was Skopje the capital of Macedonia in Yugoslavia. the Bulgarian man got off at the boarder where his family lived

YUGOSLAVIA.........YUGOSLAVIA........YUGOSLAVIA..........YUGOSLAVIA........

Now Humar wasnt completely free. he wouldnt settle for just Yugoslavia he wanted to go right over to the west. Austria or Italy at the least must the UK or West Germany he prefered despite the fact he knew neither langauge he only knew Bulgislavian, Russian and a bit os skattered Romanian and a couple of words in Bulgarian

When the train arrives at Skopje i'll either jump the border to Greece or find a way to Italy or Austria Humar thought to himself



THE NEXT PLAN...................................................................................

it was now morning and the cabin was lit with the sunlight. The train was close to Skopje.
"How much will it cost to get to Belgrade, possible Zagreb in the north" said Humar to the Serbian
"If you want to traverse the length of the country i'm gonna guess its not going to be cheap, have you got anywhere to stay?"

"Um well, not really" said Humar

"You planned a holiday in which you didnt think where you would stay? where do you plan to end up?"

"what do you mean end up?"

"C'mon you dont need to play dumb. the next time you ever see those boarder guards again you'd better kiss thier feet, they let you go obviously. I know what your planning"

Humar was shocked and didnt know how to react

"With a leader like Provoçe i dont blame you. maybe you should stay with me i'll help you reach Austria or Italy"

"um have you helped people before?"

"No you would be my first person that I would help defect. We can catch another train up to Belgrade" The macedonian was oblivous to the conversation as he was still asleep

"I dont know how much i can thank you, thank you so much, you saved my life!" said Humar in appreciation

(ooc: ok going to bed now, i'll find some time tomorrow morning to continue on with Humar's escape to the west :P. hope u guys dont find it too boring)

The three of them got off at the train station in Skopje. they said thier farewells to the Macedonian man and then the Serbian and Humar made thier way to the ticket booth. The Serbian man (his name was Joseph Vucic)
he brought 2 one way tickets to Belgrade while Humar just stood back.

"Right our train gets here in one hour, until then we should get a little better aquanted" said Joseph

"Well I think i've told you I worked at the Palace of Provoçe and have done since 1982. I'm only 24 years old, I lived with my parents and sister"

"Ok and you lived in Terevesti all your life?"

"Yeah, I've visited Plethece a couple of times though but this is my first experience in other countries... Hey may i ask a question?" said Humar

"Sure"

"Well i want to know why its so easy for Yugoslavians to travel arboad, we all know you able to travel to West Germany, anywhere" said Humar

"Well I guess our government trusts us, i mean I dunno they just allow it, We drive up to the boarder, tell the guards we want to work in West Germany for a couple of years and then they open the gates and we leave"

For the rest of the hour the two just sat around the train station, Joseph showed Humar photo's of his family back in Belgrade, He had a wife and child.
When the hour passed the train rolled into the station and the two boarded

There was even a greater mix of nationalities in the cabin this time
the Serbian and Bulgilavian, then there was a
French man and an Australian back packing around eastern europe
Neither Joseph or Humar spoke english but the french man knew Russian and English which once again helped break the communication difficulties. The Australian was extremely interested in Eastern Block countries He would get the French man to translate his questions for them

"Could you tell them if the Bulgislavian supports his leader and what he thinks about him, then could you get him to explain what life was like in Bulgislavia?"

Humars answers were short and simple
"I dont like Provoçe, I think he's an asshole, Life in Bulgislavia is to hard"

For the duration of the time the Australian wouldnt stop asking questions Humar was sick of answering and the French man was definatly sick of translating
"Tell him i want to go to sleep, ok?" said Humar and then he rested in the cabin seat

More hours passed, Humar was getting extremely sick of train rides, they were long and boring, there was nothing to do except talk which in his opinion he had already had enough of or sleep which he was getting plenty of.
The train was now riding through some Belgrade Suburbs and eventually reached the station

Joseph led Humar off the train where they caught a Bus to his flat in the city, Humar was introduced to Josephs family, Mila his wife and Ivan his young son. Humar had one more gift to give and he gave his last present of a bottle of Consumpo. It was an alcoholic drink made in Bulgislavia much like vodka although it had some kind of tangy sweetness in the taste.
None of them had ever seen the drink before but they enthusiastically recieved the gift anyway.

Joseph and Mila made a big dinner and opened up the bottle of Consumpo and poured it in 3 small glasses.
"No! No!" said Humar panicked "Smaller glassess, we wouldnt survive these!"

Joseph gave out a laugh and got three small shot glasses and poured the drink into all three of them

They gave a toast to thier guest and raised the glass of Consumpo. Humar took it all down with ease.
Mila was more hesitant then took a sip and put the glass back on the table hardly any was gone.
Joseph took it all back and then contorted his face
"UGH! is that like Vodka made with sugar, lemons and piss!?" said Joseph
Humar laughed loudly

They ate down the dinner and then after staying up all night talking they finally went to bed. All of them were a bit drunk from the Consumpo which they managed to finish the whole bottle that night.

The next mourning Joseph woke Humar
"Wake up we have to figure out a way to get you to the west"

Joseph and Humar thought about it
"You could try the same thing before, what happened in Bulgaria and if that fails then you could try to bribe them"

"With what would i bribe them with? Is there some way we can forge a Yugoslavian passport?" said Humar

"Unless you take mine? you will need a hair cut, we both have black hair so we can get that looking similar, But your facial features are a bit different other then that we look quite similar"

"Well if it fails i would be charged with identity theft and deported back to Bulgislavia then i will have to answer for what i did, is there any other option?"

"Jump the boarder in the dead of the night?" suggested Joseph

"no, no all of them involve too much risk, If i have to choose one i'd choose to use your passport, its not like the boarder guards look at the photo's very much anyway"

"OK well i'll give you some money. Take a bus or train to Slovenia through to Austria and if they ask for a passport you just have to show them mine. I will have to report it stolen within 24 hours so I wont raise suspicion but you would of left the country by then anyway and then upon arriving in Austria apply for aslym"

"Ok sounds good"

Mila that night set up the kitchen with hair cutting tools on the table and Humar got his hair cut exactly like Josephs. She usually did his hair as it was free and easy and so it wasnt hard to mimic the look

The next day Humar was waved off and yet ANOTHER train station heading to Austria it would wind up in Graz.

The cabin was filled with 3 Yugoslavians leaving Yugoslavia on a holiday in western europe. Humar only briefly talked to them but other then that he just stared outside the window.

It was now getting dark and he had been on the train for hours when it started to slow down
A flag of austria could be seen up ahead.
Some Yugoslavian boarder guards asked to see the passport when Humar handed him his they flicked through the first page briefly gave it a look and then turned over a couplke of pages and stamped it, they didnt even give a look at his face it was all over within a minute

AUSTRIA...........AUSTRIA..........AUSTRIA............AUSTRIA..........AUSTRIA...


The train began to move again, Humar couldnt believe his luck and excitement
He was so happy he could jump up and down screaming, he was free! he was about to enter a western, capitalist, democracy for the first time ever in his life. Already suprised at Yugoslavia's better standard of living he knew he expected much more of the western countries where he imagined colour TV, Shops that were filled with many goods and where everyone had food

Humar couldnt sleep for the rest of the ride and when the train entered the Graz station he rushed out in excitement to absorb the atmosphere of a western city!

He looked at his options. He could go to the nearest important building like a police station and apply for amnesty. He spoke to some austrian people walking the street
First he would try to speak to them in Russian
"You know Russian?"
and if that didnt work he would say in Bulgislavian
"You know Bulgislavian?"
Still he got black responses so he would try to geusture with his hands but that was hopeless too. so he got out his Bulgislavian passport and showed them the picture in the inside cover of the Bulgislavian flag next to a picture of his face.
The people then unserstood and looked astonished speaking in german which he didnt understand.
They led him to a taxi sitting idle on the street. It was still dark probably some rediculous hour in the morning. The Austrian couple spoke to the cab driver pointing to Humar and then they gave the cab driver some money and with that the cab driver drove off

Humar had no way of communication but the cab driver looked in the rear vision mirror

"Noroc Çe Mai Façi" said the cab driver

Humar understood this, It wasnt Bulgislavian, it was Romanian for something like... Goodluck, how are you" or something

Humar didnt respond but gave a simple smile. then the cab driver spoke again

"Ceta nuya petonuçe Terevesti?" said the Cab driver

Humar was shocked to hear some familiar Bulgislavian words
Translated its "You live inside Terevesti?"
Humar responded "Çes" (Yes)
"Ceta Lovaçe Bulsegrian?" said Humar (You know Bulgislavian?)
"Ka, Jesa lom çyata" (No, only some words)

With that the cab driver got back to concentrating on driving where Humar just sat back and relaxed

The cab then pulled back and stopped infront of some high and important building with 2 meter high walls surrounding its grounds. A flag of the UK was above the gate. It must of been the United Kingdom consolute

"Humar was overome with joy he had made it this far, he knew relations with the UK were horrid and they would surely accept Humar for aslym. Humar pushed open the gate, There were 2 guards standing either side which saw this and gripped Humars "what are you trying to do?" said one of the guards speaking German Humar then began shouting in Bulgislavian
"Help! I'm a Bulgislavian refugee! save me!"

The shocked guards didnt know what to do, they didnt recognise the language. ONe of the guards did recognise one word in Humar plea and that was "Bulsegrian" translated means Bulgislavian

they took him inside. a another british man walked up to Humar who was sitting in the seat and he spoke in Russian

"You know Russian?"
Humar said the affirmative
"Can you explain how you ended up here?"
"Please i fleed Bulgislavia, please i had no choice you have to save me, you have to help me!"

The birtish solider stood up and talked to the others telling him of Humars plea

They made Humar sign these paper which the british guard explained in Russian that he was being granted a status of refugee and he would be looked after. Humar was extremely grateful.

Days past he wasnt permitted to leave the consolute until he was to be transported back to britain.
He was given english lessons and a new life was being planned for him in the UK

3 WEEKS PASSED...............................................................................


Humar only knew a bit of english here and there but he knew he would pick it up
he Landed at the Main airport in London with an escort which took him to his new life in the UK. Already he was amazed at what he was seeing
everything was so advanced. Humar expected Bulgislavia to be 30 years behind the rest of Europe but had descoved it was 50 years behind at least.

Humar's new flat was so much nicer then his one in Terevesti. It was must spacious. though the part of town it was in wasnt any good HUmar was still grateful. His english lessons resumed and he got a job as a simple labouror in another factory.

AFTERWARDS......................... AFTERWARDS..................AFTERWARDS......

Years Passed and he got UK citizenship in 1992. He still had not heard from his sister and his family was still trapped in one of the last surviving communist governments in Europe
He decided to feel more closer to his family by Moving to either Varna or Bucharest.
HE always read about the situation in Bulgislavia and one of the most interesting peices he read was a large community of Bulgislavian's that had fled thorugh various times and was quite a large group in an area of Bucharest
In 2002 Humar moved from the UK and move to Bucharest in a neighborhood that was mostly Bulgislavian nationals.

In 2005 He eventually heard from his sister in a miraculous chance. He was chatting with some Bulgislavians that lived in the block and while talking about his escape and his family before one of the Bulgislavian's looked in total shock
"Olga Lorenscu! OLGA!" The Bulgislavian man immediatly took Humar to an apartment block and knocked on the door
"Olga i have a guest for you!"
Olga answered the door. She was not the young 21 yearold Humar rememberd back in 1984. She was now a 42 yearold mother of 3 married to a Romanian man. She was completely stunned
"Humar! I dont believe it!" they gave eachother a warm embrace, Olga began sobbing, even Humar couldnt hold back the tears. They were both so different in that Humar was not 24 but a 45 yearold man now.

Olga and Humar continued to live in the Bulgislavian neighborhood in Bucharest and in 2008 Humar finally married a 43 yearold Bulgislavian woman who had fled in 1992.

Presently Humar has a good life in Bucharest with contact with his sister and is now happily married.

THE END..............THE END..............THE END..............THE END..............

Humar had been watching the events closely in his native Bulgislavia. He had not seen inside his natve land in over 24 years. He celebrated in a grand party all over the dominant Bulgislavian neighborhood at the news of Provoçe's death with other Bulgislavians that had fled or been exiled in the past but now with the Arrival of Alia and his reforms it is now legal for him to return to Bulgislavia without fear of prosecution!

He was extremely excited. He Fled Bulgislavia when he was 24 back in 1984 but now he was now 48 and married to another defector from Bulgislavia. Immediatly at the news that Bulgislavians that left would be free to visit or return permanently he applied to travel to Bulgislavia. both him and his sister along with his wife had family left in Bulgislavia. If Humar's parents were still alive they would be in thier 80's. Humar was desperate to find out what happened to them or to see them should they be alive!

.................................................................................................