It starts with the night train from Budapest. I was in a cabin with 4 people who barely spoke English and a German girl who was a bit better. It took 10 minutes of the foreigners discussing between themselves before anything got done about getting the beds ready. The cabins are small, the beds aren't great and it is always too damn hot. I didn't get much sleep and also kept getting border guards coming in for passports (and had to fill in a questionnaire about swine flu). I wouldn't recommend it but it is a good way to get between places without wasting daylight.
As for Bucharest, shit, don't even bother with Romania. The people (the ones I met) are terrible, the country is rubbish, it really doesn't have much going for it. Sure it had a revolution in 1989, but so did heaps of other eastern European countries and they came out alright. Hell, Serbia and Croatia had wars in the 90s and they are still better. two main things screwed it up for me though. First, I managed to get sucked in to an over priced taxi, even showing me a lonely planet with a fake exchange rate. Then he got really hostile when I refused to pay what they said. Then I caught a bus to a backwater border town of Romania and Bulgaria. I got off at the train station and there was no one there. I got in a taxi (I know, slow learner) but this one was legit. Only the driver was a fucking moron. When asked if you know English and you know 5 words, you say no! I ended up pulling the handbrake and taking his keys out when we got to the border crossing, fuck knows where he was taking me. I approached a Latvian family for help getting to Ruse, the Bulgarian border town, and they were much nicer than any Romanians I had met. Unfortunately they had no room, but a nice Belgian who was going to the black sea for a poker tournament took me across.
Upon enter Bulgaria, a different world. No one there was trying to screw me over, they were really friendly (even if they couldn't speak English), a woman at a cafe gave me a bottle of water, some policemen gave me directions, and a nice couple at a bar gave me money for a bus and showed me where to go. I got to the bus station and found I had to wait about 6 hours for the train. A persistent and friendly local there gave me advice, directions and changed money (I checked the rate first), even though I didn't go in his taxi. I walked to the main square and sat people-watching for a while, helped some Turkish tourists, had dinner at a nice bar, and thought to myself how much difference a simple border makes. I finally caught the train around midnight and had some drinks with an American guy on an archaeological dig and two English girls. I also got a bit of sleep, probably more here stretched between two seats than in the sleeper cabin.
I arrived in Sofia around 6 in the morning, and was stuck here for 6 hours. So I thought I would go and see a movie. Only problem, it was Sunday and nothing was open. So instead I saw some sights and had McDonald's for whatever meal it was. Sofia was a nice place but didn't get to see the full potential as I only here for a day. Caught the train around lunch for Belgrade. The entire journey took 9 hours, 6 of that was getting to bloody Serbia. The train was going slowly and kept stopping. I was in a cabin with foreigners who kept smoking outside the door and being checked over by border guards (they didn't care about me for some reason). luckily most of them got out before Serbia so I got a decent sleep on the fold down seats for a few hours. The train was only an hour late getting to Belgrade so I suppose that isn't too bad. Belgrade is an interesting city, Unfortunately didn't see any of it. I also discovered they don't change Bulgarian money in Serbia.
I decided on a sleeper cabin for the Belgrade to Zagreb leg. Once again, foreigners who didn't speak English, smoked and were too bloody noisy. I also woke up thinking I had missed my stop. No, the train was an hour late again. Zagreb is another interesting city I didn't get to see enough of. Also discovered they don't change Bulgarian or Serbian money in Croatia. Then on the Rijeka leg I had to get off and catch a bus for part of it, not really sure why. I Finally arrived in Rijeka around 10am. I did notice the further North and West we came, the better the trains got.
No comments:
Post a Comment