It was our last day in Belgrade on Wednesday, we spent the morning sorting our bags out, buying a new iPhone charger (ours died) and eating brekky. The hotel breakfast is very good, typical European breakfast with sliced cheese, meats, yoghurt and of course hazelnut spread. We ate up big and then checked out at 11am.
Our overnight train to Sofia did not leave until 10:05pm, so we had a big day ahead of us, we also had phones with little to no battery! So we thought through out the course of the day we'd find somewhere to charge them.
We did a little bit of sight seeing and visited an Orthodox Church which is actually the largest in the world, although it did not feel that big! It was undergoing restoration inside, so we only took photos of the outside.
After visiting the church, we checked out the train station so we were prepared for the evening journey. Certainly not the type of place you want to be hangout, as there are a number of seedy looking characters hanging around!
It was starting to get quite hot and sticky by this time so we went for a beer and chilled out for a bit, we planned on having another beer, but suffered a bit from Belgrade snobbery and no one came to serve us for a second one. People are very well dressed in Belgrade and the two of us in our casual attire clearly was not the type of clientele they wanted in this restaurant!
So we headed off for a bit more of a walk and then found a more local establishment for another beer before grabbing a late lunch/early dinner in Skadanska. We were a little disappointed on this choice as although the food was local and traditional, typically in here tourist places you get a little ripped off. It's hard to try and experience what the traditional food would be in places like Belgrade, in the end, you are better off to stick with pizza, pasta etc from cafes as they at last don't charge like a wounded bull.
By this time it was nearing 6pm, so we had 4 more hours until the train. So, what else but to chill with a few more beverages. Now whilst this may all sound nice and pleasant, by this stage we were getting a little bit over the day and just could not wait to get on the train.
At 8:45 we headed to the train, taking a slow walk and buying some snacks and water on the way. We were able to board at 9:35, whilst this was good, no enabled us to see what like the cabin was like, it was bloody hot! I asked the conductor whether there was air conditioning, she showed me the windows! But also advised to be careful having the cabin windows open as robbers can climb up and steal your stuff!
Our cabin was shared with two other people, two men from Italy, one was a little scary looking, so I held onto my valuables for dear life! My other fear on an overnight train is the state of the toilet, thankfully it was really good! Overall, the journey was not too bad, we both managed to sleep, Pete more than me and I woke up about 6am.
Not the other dilemma by this stage was our phones were flat, so no GPS to navigate our arrival in Sofia. I checked my phone near the border and still had 5% battery, I tried to charge it using the train PowerPoint it alas it did not work. My iPad GPS was also not picking up a signal, the travel gods had it in for us today. So it was going to be time to revert back to the old days of the lonely planet!
We crossed the border around 7am, passports checked and the conductor told us we would arrive into Sofia at 10am, a little later than the scheduled 8:35am. We finally pulled into Sofia, as we were not staying in Sofia, we went for a short stroll, leaving our bags at left luggage. We saw a few sights and noticed Sofia is heavily under construction, it seems to be in need of a facelift, but some of the sights looked quite nice.
We had bought tickets on the 12pm bus to Plovdiv, our next stop on the journey. We both slept most of the way, not really taking in much scenery as we were tired from the overnight train.
Once into Plovdiv, still with no GPS, we relied on the lonely planet to find the hotel, a few heated words ensued as we tried to find our way, but we managed to do so, it was like the good old days of travel!
Our hotel is an apartment style, so tonight we just grabbed some food from the supermarket and have had a night in. Plovdiv seems like it will be enjoyable and we will take this time to chill a bit before embarking on the journey to Romania via another Bulgarian town, Veliko Tărnovo. We have 3 nights in Plovdiv, so it should be a good little bit of respite after Belgrades hustle and bustle and also after the long train journey, which I think I forgot to mention took over 11hours.
So for now, we will kick back with a beer and enjoy sitting in a couch! Until next time folks :-)
Sounds like a long journey and that you are finally at your destination. Drink and be merry!!!!!!
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