07-VIII-2001.
Sunday morning, after breakfast, went for a walk. Right in front of a hotel some guy played stand up tourist guide. He had a little stand, smaller than one for popcorn, from which he handed out brochures and free information. Said he was paid by the city to be at hand for the tourists. Interesting guy, comes across as smart and somewhat well read, and he seemed to like us, so we talked for quite a while, also in the following days.
It's not so interesting in the mornings, nothing much to see but the colorful tourists, packed up for the beach. I didn't even make many shots. Didn't have much storage anyway, one 32M card, and the stock one of 8M. In vain is the unlimited production capacity (didn't forget to bring the battery charger!) as storage is limited. There wasn't any laptop to shove them into and start afresh, so I shot sparingly.
On monday we decided that we've seen what was there to see, so went straight to the beach. Around the time we started thinking about lunch, Nina complained of being unwell. Sunstroke. She took her to the room, it's not far, had to help her up the stairs. The card won't unlock the door. Phew! She put her to sit in what shade there was, luckily there was a chair on the landing, the sun shining almost parallel to the wall, and ran to the reception. Turned out they canceled all the keys that were issued to those who stayed for just the weekend, and we got mislaid. What do they have them computers for? They quickly issued her a new card, and I ran back. Put her on the bed to sleep. She recovered by evening.
On tuesday we had a different accident. When we came back from the beach, Lena slipped in the bathroom. She slammed her upper back on the tiles quite well, took her some time to catch her breath. Called the reception, they called 911, and within 15-20 minutes the firem... firepers... firefighters (!) appeared. No ambulance. These guys are trained in first aid, and as for them being volunteers... well they weren't drafted, they volunteered for the job and salary. They put her on a stiff stretcher, which is a plastic plank with a headrest and belts, immobilized her head, and took her to a hospital. I drove behind them, got there, they took her off the plank, and then we sat for more than an hour in the hall. Noisy, echoing, half dark. Every now and then some of the staff would pass by, but we quickly gave up on trying to talk with them, they are all so busy and know nothing about our case. Twice some nurses came, pushing a PC in an upright cart - not a laptop, but a full PC with probably a battery below - to take data, twice the same set. Eventually, after 90 minutes, a doctor came, palpitated her back a little, listened for a few seconds with a stetoscope - in all that noise and through her shirt - and decided that she's okay, it's nothing. Well, we knew that already, she was okay five minutes after arriving here. Another doctor came, she also stayed a minute or two, and a male nurse, even shorter.
Later we got the bill. Just 105$ for the ride, 165$ for the doctor (or was it 165 and 205?). Just for reference, a taxi ride to that distance would be about 10$, and the visit to a specialist in A-burg cost 85$ last year. This guy was just a GP.
And then I discovered we had no coverage, as Zero not only paid us only three quarters of july salary, they also paid none of the health insurance for the whole month. So we had to pay this, or else. And then they sent us the same bill two more times, just in case we felt like paying again. We may be crazy, but not silly.
Mentions: Annenburg (A-burg), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Zero Distance (Zero), in serbian