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Comment by tomca32 | Hacker News Reader

Keep in mind that Yugoslavia was a completely different thing during the cold war. It was a communist country that was not part of the Comintern, or the Warsaw pact. It, in fact, had open borders with the west.

This caused it to be in a much better place economically than the rest of the communist world.

There's an old nostalgic american tourist piece about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RRnCnO1Y2c&has_verified=1

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I travelled from Italy into Yugoslavia in 1988 by train and I wouldn't exactly describe it as a pleasant experience - train stopped in the middle of nowhere and was surrounded by soldiers and everyone had to endure a very thorough check of our travel documents. Travelling from Yugoslavia into Hungary on the same trip I don't think the train even stopped.

Interesting. I have no way of knowing, but my guess would be that your experience is a consequence of Yugoslavia starting to break apart. All out war started just 2 years after your trip.

A big part of Yugoslavia's budget came from tourism, so I don't think your experience was common in the years before the breakup.

Thanks for sharing though. I love hearing stories from Yugo history.

It would have been impossible for the train not to have stopped between Hungary and Yugoslavia — the two countries were not at particularly friendly terms.

Other than the border check (which might have been a more stringent random check), was your visit otherwise unpleasant?

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