I should have known better than to think I would be catching up on sleep on a cross border overnight train!. The journey began with a 2 hour bus ride to a station in the middle of nowhere where the train was waiting. The town we came into was more a kin to some id been through in India a decade ago, and the train itself certainly smelt as bad as some id taken on the sub continent. The coach I was in seemed to be filled only with backpackers, was sharing a cabin with a Swedish guy. Got the bunk down pretty quickly and crashed out around 1am . At 3.30ish there was a knock on the cabin door “ passport control 5mins”, we had reached the Bulgarian border. At the boarder stop the cabin emptied and about 2 dozen dishevelled looking travellers shuffled down the platform to the passport check point. Once we got to the office, however, we were told the passport police wouldn’t be there for 40mins and we should go back to the train to wait. Upon returning to the train to find it locked we were told we all had to go back in together for security reasons…… so the next 40mins was basically spent standing on the platform shivering in the unexpectedly cool evening air…..”why do I do this to myself” I wondered….
Once we had finally got our passports stamped and got back on the now moving train was looking forward to more sleep> However before long there was another knock on the door “ passport control”, a uniformed woman came onto the train to check our documents. 15mins later a knock “ passport control” this time a uniformed man ( presumably Bulgarian rather than Turkish this time ). After another 20mins “ baggage check “ the fact that this guy was wearing rubber gloves didn’t fill me with confidence. However he seemed content to do the slackest bag check I’ve ever seen on the Swedish guys duffle bag and didn’t even look at mine, he just pointed to my guitar and said.. “guitar “ ..”yes” “ nice …goodbye”.
The next morning around 11 after a broken nights sleep dreaming about passport control demands the conductor knocked on the door “ train delate you go Sofia 6 hours “
Turned out the delay by the passport police at the border had meant that we missed out connecting train to Belgrade at Sofia and would have to wait until 9pm that evening to be attached to the next one.
Oh well, as I had no hotel booked in Belgrade would save a nights accommodation costs and give me a chance to check out Bulgaria’s capital. Ended up getting the tram into town with some other passengers ; an English guy from the channel islands and a couple from Slovenia all of whom had been in Istanbul at the same time as me. On first impression Sofia seemed nice, a lot of green areas and some interesting buildings mixed in with the eastern block architecture. I about an hour and a half we had seen all the sites the city centre had to offer and settled in a pub for the next 3 hours drinking half litre glasses of beer that cost the equivalent of 78p. ….“Hmmm maybe I should stay in Sofia a bit longer “
At the end of the afternoon we stocked up on booze and food for the next overnight leg of the train journey and jumped on the tram back to the station. As there was no ticket office in sight of our stop we decided to risk riding without a ticket. Sods law 3 inspectors got on after a few stops. Tried sweet talking them and claiming western stupidity when they asked why we had no tickets but they were having none of it and demanded 10lira penalty fines from all of us. Problem was we had all just spent the last of our Bulgarian currency. Luckily the English guy had some US dollars, which they happily accepted instead of course.
The train pulled out on time that evening and we ended up drinking the night away along with some Germans and the Swede. After drinking a four pint bottle of the local brew and being offered vodka and wine by my fellow passengers had a “thunderbolt of realisation moment” and incredibly decided to got to bed early based on our Belgrade arrival time of 5am. Fair play during the day/evening I had consumed about 7 pints of beer for the grand sum of 3.80 pounds. Maybe I should have saved all my drinking for Eastern Europe…….
The next morning I was the last to leave the train in Belgrade after using the facilities for free.( The trend in Turkey and Eastern Europe tends to be to charge for public WC’s and using them for 3 days in Istanbul had taken a chunk out of my budget). I waited a couple of hours at the station before finding a hostel nearby. During this time I realised that strange things were afoot in my bowls. Anyone familiar with the term “Delhi Belly “ will understand when I say I began to expect I was suffering from “Sofia Stomach”. First use of the hostel WC confirmed this and to say I was in need of a shower after 2 days on the train also was an understatement.
After spending about 30mins washing and putting on a full set of clean clothes from my pack I felt like a new man. The feeling of smug cleanliness didn’t last long though, as another bought of “Sofia stomach” would soon rob me of my last clean pair of clean underwear…..literally Gutted!!!
After recovering a bit I went out exploring the city. Belgrade is an interesting place. Very green in the centre much like Sofia, with many palatial buildings lining the streets. The people are friendly enough and there are lots of very good looking fashionable woman around. Its hard to believe the UN bombed the city for 78 days just over a decade ago. The damage of these raids was still visible in places ( see photo)
After spending some time in the parks and visiting the town fortress on the banks of the river Sava realised I was absolutely exhausted and struggled back to the hostel around 2pm to get a nap in. That evening I went out for some cheap food and was shouted out by a middle aged woman selling pasties for trying to by a 85dinar snack with a 100dinar note and not having 5dinars to give her so she wouldn’t have to make change…eventually after my protestations and treats to return the pasty she got the guy stood next to her the whole time to change a ten dinar coin into two fives….man people in Europe really hate making change……
That evening I toyed with the idea of going out to sample the nightlife…apparently Belgrade is the party capital of the Balkans…however in the end on account of my stomach, and the only other traveller I had met in the hostel being a Japanese guy in my room who didn’t speak much English, I opted on an early night and slept for about 11 hours through the heat.
Next morning felt refreshed, checked out of the hotel at 11 and left my stuff in reception. Spent the day exploring the city, sitting in the various parks and checking out a few of the smaller sized museums. I have to say Belgrade has definitely got something about it I really like. The mishmash of styles in the city centre and rundown areas meeting modern shopping precincts gives it an interesting character and a certain charm. Felt a bit remorseful I hadn’t taken the opportunity to see the city by night the evening before, although my stomach was definitely thanking me for the early booze free night.
Spent the evening chilling in various parks and eating Mcdonalds cheeseburgers ( the onlybudget food I was trusting at the moment...convinced cheap 1 lira pizza slices in Sofia had lead to my downfall)
The night bus to Dubrovnik on the Croatian coast left the station at 10:45 with an arrival time of 12pm the next day. I was going a bit out of my way to see Dubrovnik for 2days however seeing photos of friends that had been there earlier in the year ( cheers Ben + Jen ) convinced me it would be worth it……
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