10-2 (Sun) Sophia

Oh my gosh, you won't believe what we have been through . . .

Friday night we left for the train station at 10 p.m. for our 11:30 departure to Sophia, due to arrive at 9 p.m. Sat night. It was to be an 18 hour train ride. We pulled our luggage over to platform 11 to wait for the arrival of the train. Some guy came along and asked where we were going, when we said Sophia he told us the sleeper car was already there on the track and that we could get on. He was right, just the sleeper was sitting on the tracks waiting for the rest of the train to arrive. Before boarding I remarked to Barbara how old and dumpy the car looked. Well . . . that was only a preview of what was to come. The conductor helped us get our bags onto that filthy, dark car. We couldn't believe how miserable the compartment was that we would be sharing for the next 18 hours. With our suitcases pushed up against the wall there wasn't enough room for us each to stand at the same time. There were three beds hanging from the right side of the compartment. We pushed the middle one up to give us more room. We opened the window because it smelled so bad in there. Fortunatly I slept on the top bunk on the first two trains so it was Babara's turn to climb the shaky ladder to the top. First she checked out the bathroom down the hall only to come back and announce she wasn't going to "go"for the next 18 hours. She said she had booked us into a "rat hole"in Budapest and now we were traveling in a skunk hole. It wasn't long before the main part of the train backed into ours and "docked,"after that we were off. We decided we may as well go to bed. We had a top and a bottom sheet, I had two wool bankets and Barbara had her stolen airline blanket. My blankets smelled like urine! Somehow we managed to fall asleep when the conductor came by banging on all the doors. Then he came back and threw them all open. We were at the Hungarian border (2 a.m.) and had to get ready for the guards to check our passports. After that was over I got up my nerve and went to the bathroom. We had gotten the room freshner out of my suitcase so I sprayed before I went in. Awful doesn't begin to describe it, there was a toilet with NO seat, a nasty sink and a toilet cleaning brush in the middle of the floor.

When I got back in bed we laughed and laughed our heads off. We could not stop laughing at our miserable situation. Barbara was about to die to go to the bathroom but wouldn't give in.


About 30-45 minutes later there was more knocking at the doors. That whole night business sounded like the Nazis or KBG were coming for us. The second group of guards were from the Serbian border.


We were awake about 8:00 the next morning to find the train stopped. Barbara finally gave in and went to the bathroom. armed with the spray. On her way back to our compartment I heard her screaming, "No, No, No!" She had just heard the news that the Serbs had stopped our train in Belgrade and we couldn't leave until 9 p.m.!!!!! When I heard that I was screaming, "No, No, No!" A German guy decided to get off the train and go check on a bus to Sophia. He came back and reported we could get a bus out at 12:30 p.m. arriving in Sophia at 9:00 p.m. There were only 5 of us in the sleeper so we all decided to take the bus. We never figured out where the other people (if any) were on the train. By this time they had pushed our sleeper car far away from the station and left us just sitting on the track

We got off with our bags in the middle of no where. Thankfully the two conductors helped Barbara and me with our luggage or we never would have made it. We bought bus tickets for $36. This was turning into an expensive trip, two train tickets and one bus ticket.

We had to wait three thous for the bus so Barbara and I had "breakfast"with two Germans. They watched our stuff while we walked around and "shopped!" This is a very poor country and we could find very little for sale. This county may not be communist anymore but you sure couldn't tell. Everything smells of communism. We walked away from the station and down some streets - nothing to buy but we did find a decent hotel and went in and helped ourselves to the bathroom. To me it looked as good as the bathroom at the Four Seasons compared to the toilet on the train.

Fortunatly we had food with us (crackers and peanut butter) because there was nothing to eat. We boarded the bus at 12:30. We drove for about three hours then changed to a mini van in Nise. Once again we were off for the border. When we crossed out of Serbia a guard came on board and checked our passports, when we crossed into Buglaria we all had to get off the mini van and be checked inside a passport control building. All 7 of us passed! We drove on.

We arrived in Sofia at 8:00 p.m. local time (an hours sooner than the train would have.)

We had met a girl on the bus out of Belgrade who spoke perfect English, she was on her way to visit her boyfriend. She sent her boyfriend a message and asked him if he knew where our hotel was. When we arrived he pointed down the street and we could see our hotel. The two of them drove us there in his car. We could have walked but Barbara was getting sick and really needed the ride. Getting our bags into his tiny car was a real challenge.

We have a wonderful clean room here in Sophia.